MONTPELIER — In his annual address to Vermont legislators Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Phil Scott urged members of the House and Senate to move forward with the next stages of the sweeping education reform project they started last year, at his administration’s urging.

But as the 2026 legislative session got underway this week, it has seemed far from certain that the process of creating new school districts and developing a new funding model — with the goals of improving educational quality and making the system less expensive overall — will advance at the pace, or in the form, that the governor and his Republican allies want.

That’s in part because the school redistricting task force set up in last year’s education reform law, Act 73, did not recommend new proposed district maps in November ahead of the session — essentially flouting one of the law’s key directives. Any new maps would likely include far fewer school districts, with larger student populations in each, than what exists today.

Speaking to a joint assembly of legislators and other officials for his State of the State address in the House chamber, Scott called education reform “our most critical challenge.”

He pointed to how Vermonters could see a nearly 12% average property tax hike this year, about half of which is due to anticipated increases in school district spending in the 2026-2027 school year, according to estimates late last year from the Vermont Tax Department.

“These are the real costs of maintaining a system designed for a Vermont that no longer exists,” the governor said. “If there’s one thing you take away from this speech today, it’s this — education transformation is not optional. It’s essential.”

In fact, there was not much else legislators could take away from the speech, as Scott’s 35-minute address focused almost entirely on that topic. Scott also took the notable step of using his speech to issue an ultimatum: If lawmakers did not make the changes to the state’s education system that he wants to see, he would not sign other key pieces of legislation they pass, such as the annual state budget or the bill that sets property tax rates, known as the yield bill.

“From my perspective, the recent failure to produce maps was a political strategy to preserve the old system,” the governor said. “Following through is about keeping our word to students, teachers and taxpayers who all deserve better.”

Scott’s ultimatum drew criticism from the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate in remarks to reporters shortly after. House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said she did not think the veto threat was productive and, in fact, could make it harder to persuade her colleagues in the chamber to move forward with the plan the governor has laid out.

“It’s disappointing to hear,” she said. “I am 100% at the table to figure this out with the House, with the Senate and with the governor — and I think we all are coming to a place of having to reset and figure out what we do to keep education transformation going. And — what does that look like in a map?”

She added, “I think there’s concern and fear about what might happen” among House members, “but I truly believe that every member in my chamber wants to do something. It’s just how we get there — and that’s going to be the tough work ahead of us this session.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, said he “would have probably preferred no threat, but a private communication of how serious (Scott) is.” Baruth called Scott’s speech “the most narrowly focused State of the State I’ve ever seen” in his 15 years in the Senate, though he understood why the governor would make that decision.

Asked about his own appetite for advancing the stipulations of Act 73, Baruth bristled slightly at a reporter’s suggestion he was “bullish” on the law.

“I would say I’m committed to it,” he said.

In a statement issued shortly after the address, the minority leaders of the House and Senate, for their part, praised the governor’s speech. Scott “correctly identified education reform as our most urgent challenge,” said Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, and Sen. Scott Beck, R-Caledonia.

Scott also used his speech Wednesday to foreshadow — briefly — what he called the “hard choices” his administration, together with House and Senate budget writers, will have to make in the coming months when developing the state’s spending plan for the 2027 fiscal year. That time period runs from July 2026 to June 2027.

House and Senate leaders have already said they expect some existing programs will need to be cut as support from the federal government — especially for key human services programs such as nutritional benefits, Medicaid and assistance for home heating costs — wavers.

“This year’s spending package has required difficult decisions,” Scott said of his administration’s budget proposal, which he will present in another address later this month. From there, the House and Senate will develop a budget bill, which they’ll ultimately send back to Scott for his sign-off.

The governor said Wednesday that in national politics, “conflict is chosen over cooperation, division over decency and outrage over outcomes. People lose trust.”

He said he sees advancing the education reform plan he supports, and that legislators started last year in Act 73, as a way to set an example of how people’s “government still works for them.” Democratic leaders’ willingness to evolve the public education system in 2025 along the lines Scott proposed was, in part, a political response to voters’ outrage in 2024 over property tax increases. That spike led Democrats to lose a historic number of state House and Senate seats.

“We don’t need to be asked to do the right thing,” Scott said. “We just need to do it.”

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.