Letters
Got an opinion write a letter! Please keep your submission to under 400 words whenever possible and include your full name and town of residence for publication. Letters may be edited for AP style and clarity and will be printed at the editor’s discretion and space availability. Email [email protected].
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Tech, nature are out of synch
May 7, 2025
Dear Editor, I have been thinking since Earth Day about modern technology and our environment and how much they are out of touch with each other. Last summer, my wife and I traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska, for a wedding. While there, we went to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. It…
Under one roof: Vermont or bust!
May 7, 2025
Dear Editor, We’re heading north and so excited. We’re moving full time to Vermont! For decades we’ve been snow birds, like my parents, spending half the year in Bradenton, Florida. But now our Florida house is up for sale — a 1929 Spanish Mediterranean brimming with beauty and charm. A young family we hope will…
Stop the SAVE Act and protect women voters
May 7, 2025
Dear Editor, On April 10, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, H.R.22, passed the US House and is on its way to the Senate. The League of Women Voters of Vermont (LWVVT) opposes the SAVE Act because it requires American citizens registering to vote or updating registration information to present in-person proof of citizenship.…
Gov. Scott is keeping promises
April 30, 2025
Dear Editor, I commend Gov. Scott and his efforts to make Vermont affordable through financial common sense and accountability to taxpayers. Gov. Phil Scott’s recent vetoes of the budget adjustment bill signals the end of one-sided policy-driven bills forced through the Vermont Legislature. With Vermont voters deciding last November to eliminate the Democrat/Progressive supermajority in…
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Senate’s draft of H.454 weakens accountability for private schools
April 30, 2025
Dear Editor, Last week, the Senate Education Committee got to work on H.454, the education reform bill that recently passed the House. While the Senate’s new draft preserves many of the bill’s broad goals, it also reflects a troubling shift in priorities, particularly when it comes to holding independent schools that receive public dollars to…
Vermont School Board Asso. supports H.454 ed plan
April 23, 2025
Dear Editor, VSBA supports the bill as a more thoughtful and phased approach than Governor Scott’s rushed, five district proposal. Grounded in a more realistic timeline: H.454 is the most grounded and actionable proposal developed during the 2025 session. It acknowledges the operational realities education leaders face every day. The implementation timeline is more manageable…
Vote Bill Vines for Killington Select Board
April 23, 2025
Dear Editor, At the special election on May 28, I am running for the 2-year seat on the Killington Select Board. An incredibly diverse group of people call Killington home; my partner Mary Furlong and I included. After years of renting a ski house, we purchased our first Killington home in 1995. In 1997 we…
We moved to Vermont to escape Florida’s schools
April 16, 2025
Dear Editor, If you’re wondering what Gov. Phil Scott and Sec. Zoie Saunder’s education plan will be like in practice, I can tell you— our family lived through it in Florida. My family relocated to Vermont from Florida just a couple of months after Saunders and her family. Unlike Saunders, we moved to Vermont to escape Florida’s…
In support of Woodstock police chief
April 16, 2025
Dear Editor, We moved to Woodstock, Vermont, in early 2017. It was the first time we had spent any time in Vermont, and we fell in love. We loved the town, the community, and everything else. We opened a business, and one of the first people we met was then officer Joe Swanson. He was…
Medical debt relief to help survivors
April 16, 2025
Dear Editor, At the Vermont Network, we support survivors of domestic and sexual violence, amplify their voices, and build safer communities. We represent 15 independent nonprofits that provide direct services to survivors and prevention programming in their communities. S.27, a proposal to eliminate up to $100 million in medical debt for low-income Vermonters and exclude…
Where is Phil Scott?
April 9, 2025
Dear Editor, I was at the Hands-Off rally in Montpelier on Saturday. It was an amazing display of solidarity and showed the determination we need to oppose what’s going on in our nation’s capital. The size of the crowd gave me hope that we are at the start of a true resistance movement that will…
Library funding slashed
April 9, 2025
Dear Editor, I would like to bring to your attention The Institute For Museum and Library Services Executive Order. Services are threatened. The March 23 Manchester Journal quoted Starr LaTronica, the director of Brooks, about the cuts to essential library services, including staffing, purchasing large print books, and inter-library loan service. (Vermont’s 228 libraries shared…
America’s suicide attempt
April 9, 2025
Dear Editor, Can an entire country kill itself? We’re about to find out. Among all the self-destructive policies being pursued by this administration, I’ll focus on the one I spent my entire academic career studying: our medical response to infectious disease. In 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner created the smallpox vaccine. But now, under Robert F.…
Rural Vermonters define ed equity
April 9, 2025
Dear Editor, Equity is meaningless when it is defined by those in power, rather than by stakeholders. Legislators need to keep this in mind as they reimagine Vermont’s education system. Living in a rural area is a social determinant of health, of educational outcomes, and, I would argue, of power. Nearly 65% of Vermonters live in small towns, rural,…
Trump tariffs on Canadian products could bite consumers in the behind
April 2, 2025
Dear Editor, As if the onslaught of U.S. tariffs on goods from the Great White North weren’t enough... … now this, per Bloomberg via The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington. The Trump tariffs on Canadian petroleum, cars, hydropower, medications, vehicles, and softwood lumber for construction include wood pulp for … paper products. Yes, that includes toilet paper.…
Advocating for the arts
April 2, 2025
Dear Editor, March was Youth Art Month, and we held our bi-annual show at the statehouse in Montpelier. I want to share my speech from that evening. My name is Melissa Kristiansen, and I am honored to serve as president of the Vermont Art Education Association and co-chairperson of Youth Art Month alongside the incredible…
Climate initiatives are investments in Vermont’s farmers and future
March 26, 2025
Dear Editor, I want you to imagine standing in a field surrounded by 9,000 beautiful, healthy Brussels sprout plants—months of careful planning, hard work, and abundance growing from the soil. But then, in a matter of days, relentless rain pounds the earth, drowning the roots, rotting the harvest, and washing away not just my crops…
Vermont energy policy
March 26, 2025
Dear Editor, I think about energy a lot. I grew up in a drafty house with cold bedrooms, whereas my best friend lived in a modern, passive solar home that was always comfortable. That contrast put the role energy consumption and efficiency played into clear focus at a young age. This idea led me to…
Thoughts on education reform
March 19, 2025
Dear Editor, A considerable amount of attention and work this legislative session has been devoted to Vermont’s preK-12 public education system and its funding. This is important work as 30% of state spending is devoted to our most precious resource, 83,000 children. Vermonters understand how meaningful these conversations are. Education is critical to our communities…
