Discover More from This Category: Commentaries
As much as roads and bridges, Vermont’s civic infrastructure needs help
March 24, 2021
By Richard Watts and Meg Little Reilly Editor’s note: Richard Watts is the director of the Center for Research on Vermont, and Meg Little Reilly is a Vermont writer and editor with the Community News Service (a program which pairs college students work with professional editors to write news stories for local papers around Vermont.) With needed…
Voting access strengthens democracy
March 17, 2021
By Secretary of State Jim Condos 2020 was no ordinary year. Now three months into 2021 we have endured the health, societal, and economic challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic that have rocked our communities for over year. Many people have lost their lives, or their loved ones, along the way. Our country is experiencing…
Equity can’t wait
March 17, 2021
Editor's note: this commentary was signed by Alison Notte from Rutland City Public Schools along with 30 other school board members from around the state. Our Vermont legislators recently commissioned a state-of-the-art study to investigate how best to apportion funds to schools equitably. Unfortunately for the students of Vermont, it detailed serious inequities in school…
It’s time to help Vermont students get financially literate
March 10, 2021
By John Pelletier All Vermont public school students are supposed to be taught personal finance, but I would bet that many parents would have a hard time finding a young person who has learned about credit scores, investing or compound interest. And there probably are even fewer students learning about personal finance during the pandemic,…
Vermont women are in economic crisis; the FAMILY Act is a solution
March 10, 2021
By Lt. Gov. Molly Gray Each March we have the opportunity to celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month and to recognize the achievements of women in our communities and across the globe. Let us honor women this month by acting to address their economic wellbeing. The president and vice president paid tribute to…
Protecting our school employees and taxpayers
March 3, 2021
By Pattie McCoy How often does an education reform bill pass on a voice vote in the Vermont Legislature? From experience, I can tell you it is about as rare as the same type of legislation passing unanimously. That is, very rare indeed. Yet, when the Vermont Legislature contemplated a statewide commission to determine the…
Why ‘opt in’ for pot?
March 3, 2021
By Angelo Lynn This year on Town Meeting Day, 23 towns voted on whether to allow the retail sale of cannabis. They were: Barton, Bennington, Berlin, Brandon, Brattleboro, Brownington, Burlington, Danby, Danville, Duxbury, Lyndon, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport City, Pawlet, Pownal, Randolph, Richmond, Salisbury, Strafford, Waitsfield, Waterbury and Winooski. (Voting finished after publication deadline, visit mountaintimes.info…
Honoring the promises: health care and retirement
February 24, 2021
By William J. Mathis It is particularly noteworthy (and problematic) that Vermont, with a low gross state product, allocates a high proportion of its wealth to education. Yet, regardless of how and who is doing the measuring, we can take pride in consistently scoring in the top 10 in educational quality. Realizing the need for…
‘Johnny, I hardly knew ye’
February 17, 2021
By Julia Purdy If anyone doubts the existence of domestic terrorism, stoked by murderous, insane hatred and abetted by weekend wargames and pseudomilitary fantasies, it was on full display at the nation’s Capitol Jan. 6. The irony is that these insurrectionists claimed to be defending democracy while they in fact were bent on demolishing it,…
Super Bowl ads, climate failure, and Vermont regulators
February 17, 2021
By Bill Bender, president of Solaflect Energy It is time for the Scott administration and Vermont electric utility regulators — the Public Service Department (PSD), the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR)) to watch the Super Bowl, or more specifically, the ads. The world is changing, but Vermont’s regulators and…
How to jumpstart Vermont’s small business recovery
February 10, 2021
By Shawn Shouldice Small business challenges have persisted for years due to wage mandates, health insurance premium increases, paid family leave requirements, climate change policies that raise energy costs, and higher taxes or trouble hiring due to the state’s aging demographics. But when Governor Scott declared a state of emergency on March 13, 2020, a…
CU should remain separate from VSC merger
February 10, 2021
By John Casella, president, and Lyle P. Jepson, executive director of CEDRR The following is a letter to the Vermont State Colleges (VSC) board of trustees dated Feb. 2, from the Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region (CEDRR) representing its membership of approximately 400 Rutland County businesses, as well as many municipalities. This…
A session focused on stewardship
February 3, 2021
By Cathy Davis Vermont understands sustainability in a way few other places do. Whether it be our agrarian roots, living closer to natural resources, or something else, it is hard to find a Vermonter who does not intrinsically understand that the environment or natural systems have a carrying capacity, that resources are finite, and that…
Governor Scott’s dream budget
February 3, 2021
By Angelo Lynn Last Tuesday, Jan. 26, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott proposed a dream $6.83 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2022: It proposed no increase in proposed taxes or fees, it avoided cutting any essential services, and it added $210 million in new investments to bolster the state’s economy. In recent times, that’s unheard of…
The press plays essential role in perception
January 27, 2021
Editor's note: this commentary, signed by more than 50 Vermonters, was sent Monday, Jan. 25, to news organizations throughout the state. Vermont is the only state in the nation which has never elected a woman to Congress. Only one woman has served as governor. We have never elected a woman of color to any legislative…