Dear Editor,
About H.454…
As a college student, I’ve pulled many all-nighters. And I find that, oftentimes, I will look at my midnight scribbles a few days later and question my very sanity.
Now, I’m worried that the Vermont Legislature is pulling all-nighter after all-nighter, and in a year when they look back, they will regret the very urgency compelling them forward.
Because I’ve realized that meaningful work can’t be done overnight, or even in a few days. It takes time and consideration.
Last night, at 12 a.m., I was sitting in my room reading hundreds of pages of information on H.454, the education transformation bill. After a while, I realized something.
I don’t know what in the world this bill is doing.
I mean, I agree with and understand some aspects, but some of it is spinning my head in circles. Furthermore, this bill is a Band-Aid that doesn’t address the real cost drivers, such as health care. It’s trying to fix something in a few weeks that is decades deep into Vermont’s soil.
So after consideration, I’m asking the Legislature one thing: take your time. If you’re at all — as policymakers — confused and angry about H.454, imagine the students, teachers, parents, and community members on the ground who feel this way.
We don’t all have time to read through the 100 pages or listen to testimony, or even give testimony. But maybe it’s because we haven’t been given the tools to understand the root causes of this system’s issues.
Instead of rushing to pass a full bill without the time and care it requires, let’s spend the summer and fall working in coalition with communities to understand education reform and search for the collective answers we seek.
A bill must pass, that much is true, but perhaps some of it can wait for a larger conversation. That is up to the Legislature. All I am asking is for you to consider the detrimental effects of urgency.
Only together, only with time, and only with compassion can we push education reform in Vermont. Maybe, just maybe, we should take some time to rest and reconsider before drastically changing our state.
Because for as much as I love and dedicate my life to education, I have no idea what H.454 is about anymore.
Addie Lentzner, a Middlebury College student, originally from Bennington, is engaged in education reform work in Vermont
