Discover More from This Category: Editorials

H.492 will help get landmark Act 250 law back on track

May 4, 2022
By Jon Groveman Editor's note: Jon Groveman is a policy and water program director for the Vermont Natural Resources Council. Vermont’s Act 250, our one-of-a-kind statewide land use program, is often synonymous with the state’s environmental ethic. Act 250 has served Vermont well for more than 50 years, mitigating the impacts of large-scale development on…

Black bears are an asset to Vermont landscapes and public health

April 27, 2022
By Isabella A. Johnson Editor's note: Isabella A. Johnson is working toward her master’s degree in public health at the University of Vermont. As a graduate student in public health, it becomes increasingly clear how fortunate I am to live in Vermont and share the landscape with abundant wildlife that contributes greatly to biodiversity. Many…

Rutland County: A second home

April 20, 2022
By Jacob McCarthy Editor's note: Jacob McCarthy is a senior studying media and communications at Castleton University. He is interning with Rutland Young Professionals for this spring. If you told me the day I showed up at Castleton University on a hot, humid August morning back in 2018 that my life would change forever, I…

If it’s good for kids in public schools, it’s good for kids in private schools

April 20, 2022
By Bruce Baker and Rebecca Holcombe Editor's note: Bruce Baker is a professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Education and a senior fellow at the Learning Policy Institute and Rebecca Holcombe is a Norwich resident, a parent, and former Vermont secretary of education. Based on a University of Vermont study, the Legislature is updating the…

Overdose prevention sites will save lives. What is Vt waiting for?

April 20, 2022
By Jay Diaz and Ed Baker Vermont is experiencing a full-blown overdose crisis. A record 210 Vermonters died of preventable opioid-related overdoses in 2021, marking 33.7 overdose deaths per 100,000 people. That’s a 500% increase since 2010. For context, Portugal, which has committed to handling addiction with a public health approach since the early 2000s,…

Jackson hearings show GOP wants to turn back the clock 

April 13, 2022
By Kevin Ellis It is so very difficult to celebrate the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the next Supreme Court justice. Nominated by President Biden, and confirmed by the Senate, Judge Jackson has a deep resume. She will be the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She will be the…

Conserving wildlife requires respecting differences

April 13, 2022
By Christopher Herrick When Vermonters balance our passion for wildlife with a commitment to mutual respect, our state sees results. The first half of this legislative session exemplifies what this approach can accomplish.  After years of regulatory and legislative stalemate the House and Senate Natural Resources Committees have worked with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife…

A rewrite for more consolidation

April 6, 2022
By Angelo Lynn In the political tussle pitting small schools against districts that want to close them, a newly devised bill, H.727, intentionally works against the effort to preserve Vermont’s smaller schools — even when those communities overwhelmingly vote to support them. But the bill is not wholly misguided.  Its intent is to assure towns…

We should protect, not abandon, the most vulnerable Vermonters

April 6, 2022
By Anne Sosin Editor's note: This commentary is by Anne N. Sosin, a public health researcher and Policy Fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College and the co-lead on research on Covid-19 and rural health equity in northern New England. This opinion piece was written with the encouragement of Deborah Lisi-Baker and is dedicated to…

On notice

April 6, 2022
By Steve Pappas Editor's note: Steven Pappas is the executive editor of The Times Argus and Rutland Herald. This opinion piece was printed with permissions.  Around Vermont, as municipal boards reorganize, set goals and undertake housekeeping for the term ahead, one of the things every town and city has to do is decide its “Newspaper…

Prevent Child Abuse Vermont applauds Donovan’s investigation into TikTok’s impact on youth

March 30, 2022
Editor's note: The following commentary was submitted by Prevent Child Abuse Vermont (PCAVT), the Vermont Chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America and the National Circle of Parents, whose mission is to promote and support healthy relationships within families, schools and communities to eliminate child abuse. Visit pcavt.org The child advocates from Prevent Child Abuse Vermont…

Health care costs soar

March 30, 2022
By Angelo Lynn With the world’s problems at everyone’s doorstep each morning, or at their fingertips any time of the day, it’s little wonder that news about the cost of healthcare has dropped out of sight. Pre-pandemic it was one of the nation’s top concerns, but since then it’s now somewhere below several world-grabbing stories,…

Unintended consequences: Vermont Senate Bill 219 on course to hand a weapon to the religious right

March 23, 2022
By Rebecca Holcombe Vermont has a proud history of providing high quality, equitable public education for children in our communities. It’s why our equity gaps are narrower than in many states. It’s why many communities fight hard to keep their public schools. Recently, conservative national litigation groups have targeted Vermont. One of these groups is…

Irony of the ages

March 23, 2022
By Angelo Lynn The challenge Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented to President Biden and the U.S. Congress in his televised Wednesday, March 16 address was as direct as it was brilliant: If you aspire to be the leader of the free world, he told President Biden (and all Western allies), then you must be willing…

Ukraine: Lines in the sand

March 16, 2022
By Angelo Lynn Editor’s disclaimer: I have no particular insight to make these comments. I’m certainly no military analyst. There are many good reasons not to pursue any action that might prompt the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons. But I’m frustrated by these events, and find it unfathomable that the world would stand idle and…