The Vermont Rural School Community Alliance
Education Transformation Platform
We believe that the Vermont Legislature should seek a balanced response to this question:
How can Vermont provide an excellent public education system that prepares children for success, supports families and thriving communities, and is delivered at a cost hardworking Vermonters can afford?
Our platform provides recommendations based on current tax realities and in response to plans being presented by Governor Scott and the legislature in hopes of answering this question. Our platform contains five guiding principles around these topics:
Educating young students.
Elementary-aged children should be educated close to home. We support Vermont public schools of all sizes. Elementary schools are a fundamental element to a thriving community.
Opportunities for older kids.
Older students tend to be able to travel longer distances, are ready developmentally to thrive amidst larger peer groups, and can take advantage of increased program choices and expanded extracurricular activities in larger regional schools.
Keeping schools open.
Closing schools is not necessarily the fix for Vermont’s problems – and could create damaging new ones. Research shows no consistent correlation between cost and quality in relation to size, and closing schools frequently fails to produce the savings anticipated after factoring in resulting increases in costs, such as transportation.
School governance.
School Governance should be a partnership between districts and state.
State standards and accountability are important. School districts welcome clear expectations, rules, guidance, and accountability. Democratically elected local School boards are an asset, they add value to Vermont’s Education system at little cost.
Funding reform.
Funding reform should center on equity and fairness, while strengthening Vermont communities. We need an education funding system that provides immediate tax relief to low- and middle-income Vermonters and distributes education funds equitably, while strengthening high quality education across the state.
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RSCA Statement on H.454 (Act 73) Redistricting Task Force
July 10, 2025. The Rural School Community Alliance (RSCA) is cautiously hopeful with the news of appointments of members to the Redistricting Task Force established under H.454 (now designated Act 73). The Alliance has expressed concerns about the necessity of authentically representing the state’s rural communities throughout the process of the legislation’s development.
According to the RSCA Steering Committee, “Among the appointees to the new task force are experienced and highly-qualified educators as well as legislators with direct leadership experience serving Vermont’s rural communities. While not all appointees have these qualifications, we believe inclusion of these appointees indicates acknowledgement of the need to represent and serve all of Vermont’s children, communities, and taxpayers throughout the state.”
Some of the appointees have seen and understand the benefits of place-based, high-quality community schools that exist within the collaborative supervisory union governance model that works effectively in Vermont’s rural areas. Supervisory unions are an essential part of any redistricting model in order to maintain democratically-representative rural schools in Vermont. The alternative is merged school districts that dissolve local school boards, de- stabilize local economies by closing community-based schools, and require busing of students over long distances to schools in the new merged districts, sometimes for many hours a day. Such outcomes would be inequitable, unfair, and unlikely to produce either cost savings or improved education.
The Redistricting Task Force is scheduled to deliver a report to the Vermont legislature by no later than December 1, 2025. The RSCA will continue to advocate for Vermont-specific evidence as an essential requirement to inform, support and provide justification for Task Force recommendations. There must be Vermont-based and relevant data to demonstrate that cost savings will be achieved and educational quality will be improved in equitable and practical ways if their recommendations are to be implemented.
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About the Vermont Rural School Community Alliance
The Vermont Rural School Community Alliance is a coalition of educators, parents, and community members dedicated to advocating for equitable, high-quality public education in Vermont. School boards, select boards, parents and other groups in 100 Vermont towns have joined the Alliance. The RSCA’s work is informed by direct experience in Vermont schools and leading research in rural education.