These articles are merely six recent examples of the increased focus on our state’s education system, and the situation in which our state, our schools and our communities now find themselves. There are countless others throughout the state – stories of the slow dismantling of our schools, program by program, in order to address the skyrocketing property taxes that Vermonters are paying.

The Vermont General Assembly convened two weeks ago for the 2010 legislative session. With this convening came the extraordinary challenges of dealing with a $150 million deficit in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget and the seemingly unending increases in property taxes.

The Committee on the Financing and Effectiveness of the Vermont Education System, the most recent in a long line of committees established over the years to address the significant failures of our education funding system, has now met three times.

Last week’s Stowe Reporter editorial made a plea to all of us in Stowe, and throughout the region, to be heard in the latest development on education funding and property taxes.

Education; governance; education funding; taxation

These newspaper articles are merely six recent examples of the increased focus on our state’s education system, and the situation in which our state, our schools and our communities now find themselves. There are countless others throughout the state – stories of the slow dismantling of our schools, program by program, in order to address the skyrocketing property taxes that Vermonters are paying.