I’ve been following the work of the School District Redistricting Commission, created by Act 73 of 2025; the many recent area school board forums about it, and the work of the state’s Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont, created by Act H.887 of 2024. All of them are struggling with the work of reducing the cost of Vermont’s educational system without taking away from the important value of student outcomes and maintaining local schools.
As I’ve thought about writing this commentary, nothing can better express my sentiments than the words of the almost 100 year old 1927 Inaugural Address by Governor John E. Week, which ends: “Money, spent in repairing the school houses and making them neat and the grounds attractive, will pay better dividends in education than money spent on transportation busses, and at the same time it will tend to keep up the population in the rural districts, which is of the utmost importance for the general welfare of Vermont.”
It seems an important conclusion for which the full text leading to it follows.
“Vermont ranks high in intelligence and leadership among the states of the Union. To thoroughness in early school training we must attribute, in large measure, our enviable position. We have made progress educationally, and I believe that under the school system that has prevailed, excellent work has been done in furthering efficiency and standardization.
“To provide better rural schools, schools with better buildings, better equipment and better surroundings, and supplied with capable, trained teachers, is a task immediately confronting us. Influences which improve conditions of work in the rural schools, or which promote interest in those schools, have a beneficial effect upon the welfare of our communities.
“The Constitution of Vermont from the days of the independent State republic to now has contained the first principle of a sound educational policy: ‘A competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town for the convenient instruction of youth.’
“From that declaration of principle, adopted by the people before Vermont became a State, we cannot safely depart. The fathers emphasized both an adequate number of schools and their location convenient to the children. They knew Vermont, its narrow winding valleys compelling a scattered population, and its rugged climate. God gave us our mountains, and with them He gave us school problems which must be solved in our way with our own good sense.
“We have, I believe, drifted away from the Constitution in abandonment of school centers for the convenient instruction of youth. A community which has lost its school is likely to lose also its spirit and its pride. Abandoned school houses mean abandoned farms. It is yet to be proved that children who are forced to spend hours a day riding to a larger school receive a better education or turn to be stronger men and women than children who attend smaller schools near their own homes. It is not the size of the building or the number of grades that makes a good school, but the kind of teaching that is done in it. With a devoted teacher — and there are many such in Vermont — there is no better place for a start in education than the neighborhood school fostered by the local community. School taxes are paid more willingly when the money is spent nearby and not to build up the institutions of a larger center. The loyalty of a neighborhood to its school, and pride in the attainment of the children, are more stimulative to excellence than the most skilled supervision can be. The financial assistance of the State should be brought as near as possible to the children, and that means higher wages to the teachers, especially in the more scattered districts where the burden is naturally heaviest.
“In educational matters especially we can well afford to respect the principle of local self-government. The people of Vermont can be trusted to provide for the education of their children. Let us foster the local school and help every school district where there is a sufficient number of pupils to keep its school and to make it a good school. Money, spent in repairing the school houses and making them neat and the grounds attractive, will pay better dividends in education than money spent on transportation busses, and at the same time it will tend to keep up the population in the rural districts, which is of the utmost importance for the general welfare of Vermont.”
Vermonters working on the future of the state’s public education system would do well to take Weeks’ advice and likely have positive effects on other state issues, including the important one of attracting affordable housing to support businesses in rural towns.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
