Naively, I had assumed that the measure of diversity in a school system was the number of languages spoken — some 20. But the metrics are much more complex. Imagine a diversity of diets, dress, medicines, gender relationships, and religious traditions.
A parent’s duty is not to take the easier, softer way that results in adulation, but instead to raise resilient, responsible adults. The parallel for the legislator is the duty to make the difficult decisions that underlie a just and sustainable society.
Bill Schubart is a retired businessman and active fiction writer, and a former chair of the Vermont Journalism Trust, the parent organization for VTDigger.
Today, the $2.7 billion earmarked for Vermont includes $731 million worth of direct $1,400 payments to those earning less than $75,000 and $152 million for rental assistance, as well as $47 million for child care subsidies and support for child care providers.
Vermonters should insist that the current system be objectively reviewed and redesigned for fairness, accountability and cost-efficiency, and with greater consideration for the interests of both the child and parents.
When and if we finally act, we overlook the connected nature of our problems, and so our “solutions” are too narrowly focused and generate unintended consequences on which we pile new legislation.
If the health care system continues as it is now — managed for profit even in the “nonprofit” realm — we’ll never achieve the goal of improving our national wellness.
Colleges need to be reinvented, transformed, so they acknowledge change and fiscal realities — and guarantee a quality, accessible education for learners of any financial ability.
Bill Schubart is a retired businessman and active fiction writer, and was a former chair of the Vermont Journalism Trust, the parent organization for VTDigger. The term “social media” has never made linguistic sense to me. It seems like an oxymoron. To me, “social” implies my predigital childhood, where people I knew walked and talked […]
Rather than consolidate and close smaller schools, we should expand their mission to become vital community assets.
We can emerge stronger and wiser, or we can settle back into the “old normal” where Vermonters continue to struggle to find employment that pays enough to afford housing, food, health care and education.
Missing from the discussion is the quality and relevance of our public school curriculum to the current and emerging needs of today’s Vermonters.
My friendship with later-to-become Vermont state Sen. Fred Westphal was a profound lesson in how to talk and be friends with someone whose ideas you revile, a social discipline we would do well to pursue today.
We’ve done little or nothing from a policy perspective to stem the immense damage done by addiction to refined carbohydrates, which are propelled untaxed into our food systems and with government subsidy.