Editor’s note: This commentary is by Lili Platt and Evelyn Seidner, Vermont Youth Lobby organizers and students at Harwood Union High School, Montpelier High School and Burr & Burton Academy respectively. Despite our state’s green reputation, Vermont has not made the necessary action to achieve its climate goals. Since 1990, Vermont’s carbon emissions have risen…

By Dan Smith Nationwide, approximately 50% of all students pursuing higher education attend community colleges. But only about 1.5% of total private donations for higher education directly support the mission of community colleges. This occurs despite many compelling factors at play which philanthropy usually relies on to inform its decision-making. For instance, operational costs for…

By Jay Diaz “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them,” said Patrick Henry. The Vermont Supreme Court recently affirmed that government officials cannot require Vermonters to pay fees to inspect public records, a common practice that has hindered government…

National standardized test scores drop By William J. Mathis The latest round of flagellation of dead horse flesh has been provoked by the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. After 20 years of overall progress, many of the scores went down. While all groups improved over the long haul, the gaps…

By Angelo Lynn The story of two hikers and their small dog being attacked by a pack of hunting hound dogs while hiking in the Green Mountain National Forest near the Goshen-Ripton border is as shocking as it is frightening. Frightening because the dogs surrounded and attacked the couple for much of the half hour…

By Rebecca Holcombe Vermont now spends tens of millions more dollars on child care and prekindergarten markets than it did only three or four years ago. Yet, a Joint Fiscal Office study recently found Vermont now has about 1,693 fewer regulated child care spots than we did in 2015 — a 25 percent decline. Before…

By Angelo Lynn Sen. Bernie Sanders launched his second run for president this past Tuesday with an appeal to continue the revolution he started in 2016 when he had the audacity to challenge the presumed Democratic designee Hillary Clinton. He was the rebel then, the long-shot candidate with the white-tasseled hair, still heavy Brooklyn accent,…

By Emerson Lynn What passes for economic development in Vermont is largely ineffective and not suited for the 21st century, according to Peter Stromgren and Bill Schubart who co-wrote a recent op-ed that was widely circulated. They are correct in the sense that what we have – the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development…

By Lawrence Zupan “A, my name is Alice, and I come from Arlington, Vermont, and we sell... abortions.” The above variation on the children’s innocent alphabetical song game might well become reality if a bill currently under consideration by the State House Human Services Committee is actually passed into law. This ghoulish, grisly, and garish…

By Vermont Humane Federation On Christmas Day a Pittsford family dog was shot and killed by a man when he mistook the dog for a coyote. The man claims that he thought the coyote was chasing a deer. Neither party has yet to be cited for a legal violation by the state police. Eastern Coyotes…

By Angelo Lynn What happens when Democrats and Americans begin to confront Trump? When they call his bluff and simply say, “This will hurt you more than it will hurt us.” Democrats were at that point with the government shutdown but they had three important reasons not to give in: First, they’re in the right;…

By Ross Sneyd As with most adages, there’s truth to the one we hear a lot. Vermont can be an expensive place to live. After we pay the rent or mortgage,  taxes, health care, transportation and heating, there’s often not much left over. It’s a fact of our rural economy. But that’s no reason to…

By Pamela Frasher As a record number of female members of Congress are sworn in this month in Washington, D.C., things are different in Vermont. Here, top state officials are removing elected officials from local office, and the removals disproportionately affect women. In interpreting Act 46, Vermont’s 2015 school consolidation law, the state is attempting…

By Angelo Lynn As political partisanship reaches an all-time high in the country (recent studies show the nation’s two major political parties have never been further apart in terms of their priorities and ideology), Vermont’s political leaders offered a different scenario on the opening days of this biennium. In Gov. Phil Scott’s inaugural address on…

By Anson Tebbetts As we enter a new year, many Vermont dairy farmers, as well as farmers nationwide, continue fighting through their economic fog. Trapped in an antiquated federal dairy pricing system, Vermont’s hard-working stewards of the land are at the whim of a highly competitive global structure. Compensation for their milk is out of…