Gov. Phil Scott signed the first bill of the biennium into law on Friday afternoon, creating a working group to study how to make Vermont’s schools more inclusive.
“We know all students who see and hear from a range of different perspectives and cultures at an early age, are more likely to show tolerance and respect, and less likely to bully others and be swayed by messages of hate,” the governor told a packed and jubilant room during a signing ceremony at the Statehouse.
H.3 – which will soon officially become Act 1 – establishes a 20-member task force charged with recommending to the State Board of Education changes to Vermont’s statewide academic standards. By law, curriculum is set at the local level, but advocates hope to use the standards, which broadly define what students should know, to encourage schools to better include the history and contributions of marginalized groups in their lesson plans.
“This is about Vermont, and what we really stand for,” said Rep. Kevin “Coach” Christie, D-Hartford, the bill’s prime sponsor.
Similar legislation was introduced last session, but it got bogged down in committee and never made it to the governor’s desk. But the measure took on renewed importance this year, especially after Kiah Morris, then Vermont’s lone black female lawmaker, stepped down over the summer after repeated incidents of racial harassment. It moved quickly out of committee, and passed both the House and Senate unanimously.
The legislation has broad support from LGBTQIA, civil rights, racial justice, indigenous, and school groups. Amanda Garces, who has spearheaded the Vermont Coalition on Ethnic and Social Equity in Schools, which pushed for the bill, said the legislation would help students get an education that better reflected their history and heritage.
“We are creating a world where people don’t say ‘I don’t see color,’ but rather say ‘I embrace all of who you are,’” she said.
The law comes at a time when Vermont schools are increasingly trying to tackle racism in the classroom. Schools have been engaged in bitter fights about removing Confederate mascots, and lengthy debates about raising the Black Lives Matter flag.
Students have been key figures in leading change at their schools. Montpelier junior MaryAnn Songhurst, who is Haitian-American, a member of the Racial Justice Alliance at her high school, also spoke on Friday. The group made national news last year when it convinced high school officials to fly the Black Lives Matter flag – a first in the country.
“I am excited and very hopeful to see how the work directed by H.3 over time, not just for students today, but for future generations,” Songhurst said.
The new law also instructs the State Board to take data on harassment, bullying, and hazing that is reported by Vermont schools on an annual basis and break it down by ethnic and racial groups, religious groups, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, and English language learner status.
The new reporting requirements are intended to help the state get a better picture of the school climate in Vermont and whether students are being given equitable opportunities. But during the bill’s drafting, the Agency of Education repeatedly raised concerns that the data collection the legislation envisioned would be administratively difficult – and would deliver an essentially useless product.
Schools already likely massively under-report bullying incidents to the state. And because of federal privacy laws, Vermont suppresses reported numbers below 11 in its annual hazing, harassment, and bullying report, which means that its annual data report on the subject is almost entirely redacted.
