This commentary is Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver of Moretown. She is an English, history and reading teacher at Winooski High School and 2025 Vermont Teacher of the Year.
I proudly say to anyone who will listen that I have the best job in the world. As a public school teacher, I get the honor of working with our brilliant youth and passionate teachers every day. It thus pains me when I read Gov. Phill Scott and Sec. Zoe Saunders’ education reform plan that hurts the very institution it claims to want to strengthen: public education. Though we clearly have funding issues that need attention, this plan does not address them and it weakens our commitment to each and every student in our state.
First, as a proud public school educator, we must be loud when Monteplier labels our state and our children as victims of a “persistent achievement gap.” The sweeping changes proposed won’t provide our students with the resources they need to succeed. These broad changes operate on an assumption that is false and perpetuates a deficit mindset about our students.
If we want to ensure that our students have the resources they need to succeed, we must invest in our schools, students, and educators, not force cuts and consolidation on them. The Vermont NEA and Public Assets Institute have laid out a three-part plan to provide immediate property tax relief for thousands of Vermonters starting this year by basing school taxes on ability to pay.
The proposal corrects the unfairness in our education property tax system so that low and middle-income Vermonters don’t pay more than the richest Vermonters. Most importantly, it keeps public schools at the heart of our communities and public dollars in our public schools.
As a parent in Moretown, I know firsthand that Moretown Elementary is the heartbeat of our community. Numbers in a spreadsheet won’t tell you about the amazing outdoor classrooms at the school; they will not tell you the story of the amazing educators who get to work early and leave late daily; and they certainly will not tell you about our brilliant children who feel a sense of belonging and purpose each and every day they walk into school.
In addition to this faulty premise of this “achievement gap,” the proposed plan by Saunders has many additional worrying elements. We know our multilingual students are indeed more expensive to educate. The proposed plan drastically cuts per-pupil funding for our most needy kids, from the current Act 127 weight of 2.49 to between 0.44 and 0.58.
The harm that this will do for our New American families is unmatched: this will mean the loss of many multilingual liaisons who are the bedrock of our school, cuts to multilingual teachers who ensure our students get the specific academic language they need to be successful in school and beyond, and the loss of key positions that help to ensure students’ and families well-being.
Saunders’ plan states that “Today, students in different districts receive different funding, even though they have the same need.” Our multilingual learners do not have the same needs; they have greater needs and our education funding system must reflect the goal of equity that we aspire to as a state.
Further, the current proposal to allow increased school choice must be adamantly rejected. Voters did not ask for this. Thankfully, it has been met with bipartisan opposition. Public funds deserve to be in public schools —schools that commit to educating all students. Public funds should not go to schools that can deny students access to an education. We should not be surprised that a pro-charter interim secretary is trying to reshape Vermont to reflect what she knows, but we should be loud in our opposition to this plan that decimates Vermont’s public schools.
Finally, I urge all our legislators to listen to teachers and reject the proposal for the Agency of Education to have broad decision-making power over curriculum. As a teacher, developing and implementing culturally rich and relevant curriculum that responds to the very students in front of me is essential to my work. It is what earned me the recognition of 2025 Vermont Teacher of the Year and it is what our students deserve, nothing less. Putting these decisions into the hands of bureaucrats in Montpelier should give us all pause.
There is no doubt that we need a new funding mechanism for our schools to ensure that all Vermont kids have the resources they need to succeed, no matter where they live now or where they’ve come from. The proposed education reform plans do not solve the problem with our funding system and will weaken and hurt our public school students, teachers and classrooms.
Instead of weakening our public schools, we can listen to what Vermonters really need and provide immediate property tax relief by basing school taxes on ability to pay. Further, we can correct the unfairness so that low- and middle-income Vermonters don’t pay more than the richest Vermonters by moving to an income-based school funding system.
I urge our legislators to talk with teachers. We will never stop doing what we know is best for our kids. Please, have our backs as we defend our kids and our schools.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Don’t weaken our public schools.