Parents in the Northeast Kingdom’s Essex County — the most rural county in the state — have few options when it comes to finding a pre-K program for their children. At least, one this side of the Connecticut River.
But lawmakers and local school officials hope to change that.
S.214, a bill introduced by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, would amend the state’s pre-kindergarten statute and allow school districts in Essex County to pay tuition to send pre-K students to New Hampshire schools.
Sharon Ellingwood, an Essex North Supervisory Union board member, said during Senate Education Committee testimony Friday that students in Essex County access K-12 education out of state by necessity. School choice in this region, she said, “functions as a lifeline.”
But because of a “technical statutory barrier” in the state’s pre-K law, 3- and 4-year-olds in this county have for years been unable to access pre-K programs across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire.
Essex County students in grades K-12, she said, miss “two very important years of early intervention because of this.”
“I don’t believe any area of the state would have let this go on 10 years,” she told lawmakers. “It’s really important for me to say that. We need to recognize this, and that we have a lot of current students who have been excluded from this due to this technical oversight.”
If enacted, the law would take effect on July 1, 2026. But why just New Hampshire?
“We wanted to make sure it was limited to going outside of the state in counties where there simply was no option in that county,” Ram Hinsdale said.
Still, Essex County is not the only county with capacity issues.
Erin Roche, the Vermont director of First Children’s Finance, a national organization advocating for expanding child care, said during testimony that Essex, Franklin and Grand Isle counties lack pre-K availability.
Ram Hinsdale noted that efforts are underway to build out more pre-K and child care facilities in Franklin and Grand Isle counties. But Essex’s geography, with a large mass of state and federally protected lands, makes it difficult to build out more programs.
Still, Roche, Ellingwood and other lawmakers during testimony questioned whether the law should consider similar changes to allow districts to pay tuition to send pre-K students to New York and Massachusetts facilities.
Janet McLaughlin, the deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department for Children and Families’ Child Development Division, cautioned lawmakers to keep larger reform efforts in mind as the law proceeds.
But, she noted that “this is a place where we agree that we can’t let perfect be the enemy of much better.”
Lawmakers floated the possibility of adding a two-year sunset to the law to prevent it from conflicting with future education reform language.
“We need to do something in the interim, even if it’s a little messy,” said Sen. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, the Senate Education Committee chair. “It seems to me that there’s a true urgency here. We need to make this happen for next August, period.”
— Corey McDonald
On the move
The House passed its version of this year’s midcycle tuneup to state spending on Friday. The “budget adjustment” bill, H.790, got unanimous approval on a roll call vote and is now in the Senate’s court for further consideration.
House budget writers increased total spending in their proposal by about $50,000 over the version of the BAA Gov. Phil Scott first proposed. That’s a pretty modest increase compared to the overall $9 billion budget the bill is modifying, legislative leaders noted this week.
The House’s version, notably, includes $5 million to help shore up Section 8 housing providers, though that money would come out of a pot lawmakers already set aside last year to plug federal funding cuts. Also on the housing front, legislators reduced a $2 million infusion of cash the governor had recommended for developing and operating shelters and directed the lion’s share — about $1.3 million — to a grant program for community-based service providers.
House budget writers also proposed slightly less money than the governor to bail out nursing homes with what’s known as “extraordinary financial relief.” Most of the governor’s proposed tweaks to state spending made it through the chamber, though, including $500,000 to expand the governor’s “accountability court” initiative beyond just Chittenden County.
— Shaun Robinson
‘Why do they have a TV?’
It seems fair to assume that people who commit the most violent crimes would be under the tightest supervision in prison. But actually, whether someone has a TV or lives in an honors dorm is based on how well they behave inside prison — not the crime they committed.
Representatives in the House Corrections and Institutions Committee got off track at the mention of an honors dorm when they were discussing proposed building upgrades to Vermont prisons.
The public may wonder, “why do they have a TV?” Emmons said. “Well — you know what — they had to earn that one way or another,” she said.
Corrections staff need rewards they can give people for following the rules, she said. “It gives incentives to those folks who are incarcerated, that there is something they can achieve,” she added.
Travis Denton, who directs facilities for the Vermont Department of Corrections, said those incentives go a long way for creating a safer and calmer prison. It makes it much easier on staff, he said.
“Those are those little pieces that play into the culture of a correctional facility,” Emmons said.
— Charlotte Oliver
Remember that guy?
Brandon del Pozo, who resigned as Burlington police chief in 2019 after it was revealed he created an anonymous social media account to troll a local activist, is back in the news. Del Pozo’s recent writings on how ICE’s actions are the antithesis of good law enforcement were cited in the New York Times on Friday.
“For one former police chief, Brandon del Pozo, (a) contrast with ICE is an opportunity for local departments to show that they are committed to improving even when no one is compelling them to do so,” the Times wrote.
No mention of his actions back in the Queen City, though.
— Ethan Weinstein
