Vermont
Final Reading: Vermont lawmakers ask, what do cuts to the U.S. Department of Education mean for Vermont? – VTDigger
“My job has never been so exciting,” Anne Bordonaro, who leads the Vermont Agency of Education’s work on federal education programs, told lawmakers in the House and Senate Education Committees Thursday.
Exciting, though, could easily be replaced with “chaotic.”
The fate of the U.S. Department of Education remains an open question. Just this week, the department’s new leader, one-time professional wrestling company CEO Linda McMahon, announced plans to cut the department’s staff in half. An onslaught of executive orders from President Donald Trump and his administration have destabilized public schools nationwide, and court cases challenging the president’s actions only add to the ever changing landscape.
“As you can imagine, just about anything you put on paper is obsolete about 30 minutes later,” Bordonaro told lawmakers.
At the moment, the agency doesn’t expect “significant cuts” to “core education programs” as a result of federal funding reductions this school year or next, according to Bordonaro. But impacts in the 2026-27 school year are uncertain.
Through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the state receives more than $68 million annually from the feds, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act provides another $37.5 million for Vermont’s schools, Bordonaro said, among other streams of federal dollars.
But while the biggest potential changes may not be imminent, the turmoil in Washington is already trickling down to local classrooms.
Brooke Olsen-Farrell, superintendent of the Slate Valley Unified School District, said in the joint hearing that her relatively low-income district relies on federal dollars to pay for all of its academic interventionists and school psychologists, among other staff.
Slate Valley’s school board, worried about drastic actions in Washington, instructed Olsen-Farrell to add language to the contracts of about 20 staff making their positions contingent on federal grant funding.
“So they all received contracts today with that in it and to say there was a lot of emotion is an understatement,” she told lawmakers. “I’m significantly worried about retention and stability.”
— Ethan Weinstein
In the know
The Vermont Senate voted Thursday 22-8 to confirm Zoie Saunders as education secretary, ending a yearlong saga over her appointment.
Last spring, the Senate voted 19-9 not to confirm her as the education secretary, a rare rejection of a cabinet appointment. Now, with education policy dominating conversations in Montpelier, Saunders has served as the face of Gov. Phil Scott’s “education transformation proposal,” which seeks school district consolidation and a new education funding formula. The goal, she’s said, is to expand educational opportunities while also reducing costs.
“What she’s trying to do is provide the best opportunity she can for every kid in the state,” Sen. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, chair of the Senate Education Committee said, explaining his support for Saunders on the Senate floor.
Yet many senators who opposed Saunders’ appointment last year once again spoke out against her confirmation. Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor, told her colleagues she’d heard even more opposition to Saunders from constituents this year than last year.
“I have to vote no,” White said. “We can resist school closures and consolidations.”
Read more about the confirmation debate here.
Federal fallout
With tensions rising between the U.S. and Canada, Vermont businesses have been caught in the crossfire of a simmering trade war between the two countries.
Already facing the prospect of price hikes and supply chain disruptions due to tariffs on Canadian goods that Trump has enacted and postponed multiple times, Vermont companies now have to contend with another knock-on effect of fraying tensions between the nations: Canadians are shunning Vermont goods.
Signature Vermont brands from Skida to Barr Hill are paying the price. Read the story here.
— Habib Sabet
Funding aimed at making a struggling Williamstown farm more resilient has been paused. A program that distributes local, free food has been cancelled. The Department of Environmental Conservation is missing $10.7 million for clean water quality projects.
In the last few months, the new Trump administration has pulled back federal funding related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, climate change and the Inflation Reduction Act, signed in 2022 by his predecessor Joe Biden.
Around Vermont, those funding changes are affecting farmers and the organizations that support them, prompting alarm and confusion. Altogether, the federal government has paused or cancelled tens of millions of dollars in funding for agricultural programs across the state.
Read more about the federal funding cuts for farmers here.
— Emma Cotton
Kids shouted, stilt-walkers strode and paper-mache puppets swayed above the crowd as a procession snaked through downtown Burlington last week.
What for? Trout.
Sustainability Academy students and their supporters marched across the city to the beat of bucket drummers May 29 for the second annual Trout Parade, a showcase of their conservation efforts for the state’s official cold-water fish.
Their chants and hoisted fish-shaped cutouts served as a send-off to brook trout raised by students as part of a schoolwide science project.
“The Trout Parade was really just our students lining up to say goodbye as we loaded them onto the bus to be released,” said Kestrel Plump, a sustainability coach at the academy.
For about five months this year, the school lobby became a hatchery as students cultivated fish from eggs supplied by regional conservation group Trout Unlimited.
Interim Principal Antony Dennis said the trout would be released in the Huntington River the next day, May 30.
“This is the second year that it’s been this big that we actually got to a point where it went off campus,” Dennis said. “It used to be a small event.”
The parade began for students outside the school as residents set out from The Flynn to join them and continue together to Battery Park.
The school has conducted the project for roughly five years, but this was only its second time partnering with The Flynn and Vermont puppeteers Janice Walrafen and Erik Gillard, or Erok.
The kids thought the jumbo puppets were magical, Walrafen said. “The same with the masks. You put on a mask, and then all of a sudden you get to be transformed as something other than your little self,” she said. “You get to be part of something bigger.”
Onlookers, bicyclists and pedestrians stopped and recorded the spectacle with their phones.
If they had any question about its object, answers came by way of lilting treble chants.
“Tell me what it’s all about!” a parade leader called out over a megaphone.
“Trout!” a chorus of kids chimed back.
They followed their leader in reciting: “We love the trout, but we must let them out!”
The parade concluded with a pageant accompanied by a harpist. The students were sent off with ice cream given out by retired University of Vermont faculty member Patrick Malone.
Asked if students get attached to the aspiring fish or just see them as blobs in a science project, Plump, the school sustainability coach, let a group of girls answer.
“The first one,” one of them said.
And were they happy to see their piscine pals released?
“Quite,” another responded.
Corey Arwood is the Burlington Free Press city reporter and can be reached by email at clarwood@gannett.com.
Vermont
Debate over ICE masking bill complicates, for a moment, end of session in the Vermont House – VTDigger
We’re outta here
That’s all, folks.
The Vermont Legislature adjourned for the year, and for the 2025-26 biennium, Friday night. Senators finished up their work just before 6 p.m., and the House followed suit two hours later. I’m not complaining about the time. I was happy, in fact, to be on the road home with a sliver of daylight left.
The House took longer to finish in part because its adjournment got tangled up in a bill, ultimately doomed, that as originally proposed would have barred federal officers such as ICE agents from wearing masks.
The bill, S.208, emerged from a joint House and Senate conference committee Thursday. In order for the latest version of the legislation to be taken up on the floor so soon after, though, the House needed to suspend its rules. Such a procedural move needs three-quarters approval. And while rules suspensions are common late in the session, when it came to taking up S.208 “for immediate consideration,” that was not the case.
House lawmakers voted 81-51 in favor of expediting the bill’s timeline, falling 18 short of the 99 needed to meet the threshold to cast aside the chamber’s rules.
After that, the House took up and passed, with no debate, this year’s budget bill, H.951. Then, House Speaker Jill Krowinski, in her last floor session holding the gavel, brought up the last thing lawmakers had to approve for the year: a resolution formally dictating the terms of adjournment.
But some lawmakers weren’t ready to be done with S.208. Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, stood and asked for a roll call vote on the adjournment resolution itself, “due to the important impact of S.208 on our open democracy.”
His comments mirrored those of several senators earlier in the night who had lamented on the chamber floor how the bill was falling by the wayside. The Senate also adjourned without taking any floor action on the compromise version of S.208.
Ultimately, 15 other House members joined Cina voting against the adjournment resolution in a vote of 114-16. After it was approved, the rest of the formalities of adjournment played out, including a requisite speech from Gov. Phil Scott.
“I’m going to try and make this brief,” the governor said at the outset of his remarks. “I guarantee it’ll take less time than it did to roll call the adjournment address.”
Beyond debate over S.208, adjournment in both chambers was marked by emotional farewell remarks from Krowinski, D-Burlington, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, both of whom aren’t seeking reelection.
Krowinski said her favorite memories from her 14 years in the House have been “the quieter moments most Vermonters never witness,” such as “members helping one another through difficult days, offering support regardless of politics and members coming together to support a colleague through a rough time.”
Baruth at times teared up as he recounted his 16 years in the Senate. And the English professor closed his speech with a nod to some of his favorite literature.
“It will hurt not to find my seat when the bell rings next session,” Baruth said. “But even Frodo Baggins — and you know that ‘The Lord of the Rings’ means everything to me — even Frodo Baggins knew when it was time to follow Bilbo to the Grey Havens.”
OK, our turn now
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VTDigger reporters fanned out this session to bring you the news from Montpelier. Clockwise from top left, Shaun Robinson, Ethan Weinstein, Charlotte Oliver and Corey McDonald. File photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerBefore we go, some thanks are in order.
Putting together an originally-reported newsletter every day of the session — on top of the traditional news stories our readers expect — is no easy task. While you’re used to seeing my byline, and that of our fearless Statehouse Bureau Chief, Ethan Weinstein, there are a host of others who make this work possible.
Several other VTDigger reporters took the lead on issues of Final Reading this year, including Charlotte Oliver, Olivia Gieger, Theo Wells-Spackman and Corey McDonald. Meanwhile, ace photographer Glenn Russell captured many of the moments — like this one — that defined this year’s session.
Chad Lorenz, contributing editor on the politics desk, and Ruth Hare, VTDigger’s managing editor, brought their decades of experience and watchful eyes to each day’s newsletter. Noel Clark, VTDigger’s digital editor, and Night Editor Nathan Allen turned the plain text of a Google Doc into the email that landed in your inbox every night. Taylor Haynes, the newsroom’s audience and product director, made sure that email looked as good as it did.
And of course, we’re grateful to all of you — almost 8,000 subscribers — who turned to this newsletter, and do so year after year, to stay on top of the news under the Golden Dome.
If Final Reading has helped you cut through the noise and understand our government better, please consider supporting VTDigger in an amount that works for you.
This week, every donation helps fund our reporting and provides a new book to a Vermont child through the Children’s Literacy Foundation.
Reliable information matters. So does helping young readers discover the power of reading. Today you can support both with one donation. Pretty cool!
— VTD editors
While we’re gone
Even though the legislative session lasts just five months, our coverage of state government and politics is year-round. Your tips and pitches help us find the stories readers care about and that need to be brought to light. So don’t be a stranger, even if it’s just a little harder to reach us than flagging us down in the Statehouse hallways.
Reach me at srobinson@vtdigger.org and Ethan at eweinstein@vtdigger.org. You can send a secure tip on our website here, and find other reporters’ contact information here.
Until next year!
— Shaun Robinson
Students who plan to enter the workforce after graduation are being celebrated at the Northwest Career & Technical Center’s 2026 Skilled Trades Signing Day.
The event is scheduled for 1 to 2:30 p.m. June 5 in the BFA Saint Albans Gymnasium, according to a community announcement.
Modeled after collegiate athletic signing days, the event will feature students signing “letters of intent” with future employers. The ceremony aims to recognize students for their hard work, technical skill development and commitment to pursuing careers in Vermont’s workforce.
Students from various programs at the Northwest Career & Technical Center are expected to participate, including those entering fields such as electrical, construction, cosmetology and engineering.
Participating students and their future employers include:
- Theodore DeCiantis – Alliance Group (Electrical)
- Nolan Howrigan – BP Construction
- Lexie Lemieux – Downtown Cuts
- Brayden Rooney – Engineers Construction Inc.
- Hunter Gagne – Engineers Construction Inc.
- Nicholas Boomhower – Engineers Construction Inc.
- Quinton Nicholas – Handy Toyota
- Natalie Powers – Hayward Tyler
- Kaleb Bocash – Hazelett
- Damien Callan – Husky
- Hailey Carey – Jubilance Salon
- Hallie Robtoy – Jubilance Salon
- Ryiah Gaudiaso – Lake Shore Hair
- Kris Mumert – MEI Electrical Contractors
- Logan Little – Milton CAT
- Alisa Freighberger – Nail Nook
- Jonas Wagner – Omega Electric
- Collin Langevin – PC Construction
- Vernon Ouellette – PC Construction
- Brandon Murray – RPM Engines
- Wyatt Blake – United Ag & Turf
- Edan Peters – VHV
- Owen de Jesús López – VHV
- Grace Robert – Villa Rehab Center
“We are incredibly proud of these students and the opportunities they have earned,” said Lisa Durocher, assistant director at Northwest Career & Technical Center. “This event highlights the value of career and technical education and the strong partnerships we have with local employers who are investing in the next generation of skilled professionals.”
The Northwest Career & Technical Center, located in St. Albans, provides career and technical education opportunities for high school students and adult learners throughout northwestern Vermont. Programs include automotive technology, building trades, cosmetology, culinary arts, digital media, electrical, engineering technologies, human services, medical professions, outdoor technology and public safety and law enforcement.
This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
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