The Vermont Progressive Party Calls for Act 73 to be Repealed

Montpelier, Vermont — Today, Governor Phil Scott, during his State of the State address, demanded that Vermont legislators stay the course with Act 73 – an act that would end local control of public education, force school redistricting and closures, and use the foundation formula to fund school districts, while providing no property tax relief.

Act 73 is fundamentally flawed and working Vermonters need property tax relief. But, our state needs to fix the funding mechanism to alleviate the property tax crisis – that is what Vermonters have called for – and not take an ax to our education system. We can’t stand by and watch the exponential increases in health insurance premiums be the driver of ballooning educational expenses while cutting key components of the educational delivery. This methodology will only further erode a system that has been cutting programs, and asking our educators to do more with less resources. We need to bolster our public support of our system to have a thriving public education system in Vermont. Slashing programs and services is not the answer, nor are proposals to close rural schools – which preserve the rural communities that are the essence of Vermont life.

The Vermont Progressive Party demands that state legislators take up the evidence-based recommendations of the School Redistricting Task Force, including consolidated regional services, strategic voluntary mergers, regional public high schools, the voluntary closure of small schools, as well as moving towards an income-based system of education funding that can provide real tax relief for working Vermonters. 

Governor Phil Scott: we demand that Vermont fix education funding and leave our schools alone.