Education spending in the state seems to be at odds with the recent NECAP results.
Only 25 percent of high school juniors are proficient in science. And there is the issue of declining enrollments. What is your position on education spending, and what steps are you prepared to take to address these issues?

Education is one of the cornerstones on which our communities and culture are built.  As a longtime educator myself, I know how important it is to motivate students of all abilities to do their absolute best in order realize their potential as adults.  I also know that this motivation takes talent, resources and community investment, both personally and financially.

As taxpayers and parents, we struggle with the competing interests of quality and affordability and are confused when costs still go up when enrollment declines.  We wonder why over half of our students at CVU did not meet the standard on the recent science NECAPs.

The answers to these questions are quite complex and multi-layered.  Act 68 does address cost containment by tying spending to enrollment. Staff reduction takes time and it is tough to lose promising young teachers.

I am not convinced that money is the only answer to quality education.  I am also aware that the cost of education is significantly less than the cost of adults who cannot live independently, are incarcerated, or get stuck for generations in the welfare system.  On a daily basis, I see how Essential Early Education translates to school readiness, how school readiness translates to availability for learning, and how availability to learn relates to success in life.

My response to the science NECAP scores has less to do with my position on spending and more to do with my position regarding the constructive use of data to help drive instruction.  Gathering data needs to be followed by critical analysis and interpretation, action plans for improvement, and public discussion.  CVU Principal Sean McMannon tells me this analysis is underway.

Getting to ‘Yes’

By Kate Webb

When times are tough, Vermonters have a history of coming together to find solutions that make life better not only for themselves and their families, but for the whole community. We have a tradition of taking responsibility for helping each other whether it be raising a barn, putting in hay, building a playground or helping a neighbor in need.

Today many pressures threaten the future of our communities, our country and our world.   We face threats to our economic security and the health of our planet.   We are wondering how we can afford quality health care and education.  It is easy to be negative these days.  It seems like so many things are going wrong.
Negativity has its place in helping us identify constraints to today’s challenges.  Over time though, sustained negativity simply makes us feel powerless, puts the focus on finding faults and takes us away from ingenuity and the hard work of getting things done.
As has always been the case, the most powerful strategy for reaching solutions is to tap into the cumulative strength of people committed to finding solutions and working together to bring them into form.  Today’s leaders in the private sector and in government must be ready to work together to solve complex problems; be skilled in collaborating with divergent points of view and be ready to move forward to solve our interconnected challenges.
Barns are not raised nor playgrounds built by getting stuck in what we can’t do or what we have not done.    Now more than ever, we need to move off “no,” and work toward “yes.”