Research & Publications

The latest: Education reform

After considerable confusion and dissent, the Legislature ultimately approved and the governor signed the education reform bill (Act 73) into law in July 2025 with the explicit goal of spending less on public education.

But neither the House plan nor the Governor’s plan address the two biggest problems we face in education funding:

• unfairness in who pays school taxes
• the biggest cost drivers out of districts’ control like teacher healthcare and inflation

And both plans are proposing some big structural changes that raise serious concerns:

• reverting to a foundation plan
• dismantling democratic participation in schools
• state-imposed school and district consolidation
• eliminating income-based taxes and doubling down on property-based taxes

Vermonters did not ask for another overhaul of our public education finance and governance system; they asked for tax relief. Our schools and communities are still reeling from the pandemic and the last decade of major changes imposed by the governor and legislature: consolidation, special education reform, and pupil weighting changes. The state has not provided any evaluation of the outcomes of those reforms, but there has been a lot of confusion and chaos and negative unintended consequences.

Vermont’s income grew more slowly than its neighbors’

Vermont total personal income reached $49.6 billion in fiscal 2026—a 3.8 percent increase from 2025. That was the smallest increase in the New England states and the fourth smallest among all the states and the District of Columbia. Total personal income includes income received by all persons living in Vermont from all sources except capital gains.

Tracey Witherspoon Joins Public Assets’ Board

Montpelier – Educator Tracey Witherspoon has joined the board of the Public Assets Institute.

Tracey is a 26-year educator at Twinfield Union School, a pre-K—12 school in Plainfield, VT. She teaches social studies and directs Renaissance, the personalized Twinfield learning program for high school students. Renaissance enhances the curriculum in the small, rural high school, providing opportunities for all students to design challenging, in-depth, standards-based studies based on individual interests and learning styles. Her creativity and dedication have made a positive impact on generations of Vermont students.

“Tracey’s expertise and first-hand understanding of what’s working and what’s not within our public education system are vital additions to the board,” said Board Chair Jared Duval. “At a time when public education—our most essential public good—is under threat, her work to protect the integrity of public education in Vermont is invaluable.”

By any measure, thousands of Vermonters struggled to meet basic needs

On average, 7 to 9 percent of Vermonters lived in poverty between 2023 and 2025. This amounts to 46,000 to 57,000 people, including 9,000 to 11,000 children.

These numbers are based on recent data from the U.S. Census, which measures poverty in two ways: the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) and the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The OPM compares pretax income to a national poverty threshold adjusted annually for inflation and varying by family size and members’ ages. The SPM—generally considered more accurate—factors in government supports plus childcare, taxes, local housing and other expenses, and compares the results to a threshold based on costs from five years of recent consumer expenditure surveys.

Recent federal cuts harm women and children

The 2025 federal tax and spending bill made unprecedented cuts to federal economic security programs and denied eligibility to many based on immigration status. Millions of people are losing access to healthcare and food assistance, including thousands of Vermonters. Many others are facing reduced benefits and new barriers to eligibility. Women who are solo caregivers and their children are more likely to rely on Medicaid and SNAP (known in Vermont as 3SquaresVT), so the gutting of these critical programs disproportionately harms them.

More Vermont women than men have union representation

Nationally, since the 1970s, more men than women have been in labor unions. But in Vermont, women’s union membership has surpassed men’s for more than 20 years.

The number of Vermont women who were represented by unions peaked in 2024 at over 27,000, or nearly one-fifth of all women in the labor force. While that share has since declined, it remains higher than the share of Vermont men and of U.S. men and women represented by unions.

Vermont ranks 13th in the country for overall union representation. Hawaii leads the country, with more than a quarter of its workforce represented by a labor group. Last year, unionized workers across the country earned hourly wages more than 14 percent higher than nonunionized workers in similar jobs.

More Vermont women than men juggle several jobs

For each of the past 30 years, more Vermont women than men have held multiple jobs at once. The total number of people working several jobs peaked in 2007, with nearly 19,000 women holding more than one job, compared with about 15,000 men. Since then, the total number of Vermont workers with multiple jobs has declined, and the difference by sex has narrowed.

Despite this decline, nearly 7.5 percent of the total Vermont workforce still juggled more than one job last year. This was higher than the national rate of 5.5 percent. Only 10 states had a higher share of multi-job workers than Vermont, and none were in New England. Kansas had the highest share, with more than 9 percent of its workforce holding more than one job.

Don’t wait till later to talk about school funding

The education reform train the Legislature assembled a year ago finally left the station when Gov. Phil Scott signed Act 170, but it is still a long way from its final destination. Even the bill the governor just signed, “An act relating to next steps in transforming Vermont’s education system,” is just the start of a vitally important process of local community engagement to shape control and management of Vermont schools going forward.

Despite the immediate demands of the next several months, it is not too early to start talking about the future of education funding. The governor and some legislative leaders act as though the new foundation funding system described in last year’s education reform bill (Act 73) is a done deal. But Vermont voters and taxpayers will have the final say, and they don’t have enough information yet to make that decision.

Stephen Klein Joins Public Assets’ Board

Stephen Klein, the long-time director at the Vermont Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office, has joined the board of the Public Assets Institute.

Klein joined the staff of the Vermont General Assembly in 1992 as a fiscal analyst and was appointed chief fiscal officer one year later. Under his leadership the nonpartisan office provided fiscal analysis, budget evaluation, performance oversight and fiscal policy support for the Committees on Appropriations, Finance, Ways & Means, and Transportation and for the legislature as a whole. Klein oversaw up to 14 full-time staff and many consultants, and served as chief for nearly three decades before retiring in 2021.

“Stephen’s experience is an asset to the board, to Public Assets, and to the people of Vermont,” said Board Chair Jared Duval. “We are thrilled to have his decades of expertise with state tax and budget on the board. I’m looking forward to seeing all the ways his contributions will enhance our work.”

Vermonters’ wages lag behind the national average

Vermont’s average wage in 2025 was $67,172 annually, well below the U.S. average of $78,722. Most states’ averages fell below the national because a handful of higher-wage states drove up that number.

All of Vermont counties’ average wages also came in below the national average. But two, those of Chittenden and Washington, were above the state’s average. Grand Isle and Essex had the lowest wages, below $52,000, with Grand Isle ranking among Vermont counties showing the fastest growth over the last decade and Essex among the slowest. Across the U.S., counties’ average annual wages varied from less than $34,000 in parts of Nebraska and Missouri to over $200,000 in California.

Jonathan Williams and Carlen Finn join Public Assets’ board

Jonathan Williams and Carlen Finn have been unanimously elected to the board of Public Assets Institute.

“We are thrilled to announce two additions to the board,” said Board Chair Jared Duval, “Jonathan Williams’ strong background in policy, advocacy, and human services work, and his experience of serving in the legislature will complement the skills and talents of the board. And Carlen Finn’s dedication to Public Assets is decades-long. Her professional and personal commitments to this work are a great benefit to us all.”

Williams attended Boston University, served in the US Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Morocco, and earned a master’s degree in public administration from UVM. In Vermont he has worked as an advocate for Vermont League of Cities and Towns, as a town administrator, a development professional for the Vermont Foodbank, a member in the Vermont House of Representatives, and he currently serves as the Executive Director for Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to ensuring every youth in Vermont has a safe and happy childhood.

Finn is a founding board member who served, from 2003 to 2024 in the role of Treasurer for most of those 19 years, before taking a 2-year hiatus. She is a long-time child policy advocate and educator. A staff member of Voices for Vermont’s Children for over 30 years, Carlen has served as research director, executive director, and is at present a senior policy associate focused primarily on public education and health equity. Carlen has extensive experience in data and policy analysis, outreach, coalition building and coordination. Carlen has a B.A. from Vermont State University and a post baccalaureate teaching degree from the University of Vermont.

Progress toward gender wage equality is slowing

Over the last decade, Vermont narrowed the gender wage gap. From 2014 through 2021, women’s median wage grew at 3.5 times the rate of men’s, closing the gap from 16 cents to just 7 cents per dollar.

But between 2021 and 2024, that trend reversed. Men’s wages grew four times as quickly as women’s over that period. In 2024, women working full time earned $61,000 annually, compared with $67,000 for men.

Privacy matters

In the last year we’ve seen firsthand the dangers of sharing and using people’s data without their consent. The Department of Homeland Security has used data from the IRS and Center on Medicaid Services to locate and detain people in many communities. This has had a chilling effect on people accessing services they are entitled to, like medical care, childcare and food assistance.

In 2023 a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 67 percent of Americans had little knowledge about what data are collected about them. While people share some information willingly on social media, data are also collected on search engines and websites, by automobiles and doorbells, and at the doctor’s office. The use of the data can lead to real economic harm—one example is surveillance-pricing, where companies use consumer data to set different costs for buyers.

With so much uncertainty and the lack of transparency around these practices, we need a systemic response protecting the collection and sharing of private data.

While many men returned to the workplace, women kept telecommuting

Before the Covid pandemic,
the numbers of Vermont men and women working remotely were roughly the same. This is according to the U.S. Census, which asked how workers usually got to work the week prior to answering the survey. During the pandemic, the number of both men and women working from home tripled. But after Covid’s peak, as telework declined a gender disparity emerged.

Vermont’s federal workforce has plummeted since 2024

Vermont’s federal workforce decreased by over 600 workers—or 11 percent—between the end of the fiscal year in September 2024 and February 2026. This count includes personnel at federal agencies but excludes the U.S. Postal Service. It is the lowest number of federal employees in at least 10 years.

Vermont’s rate of decline is slightly lower than the country’s as a whole. Washington D.C. and Western states such as Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming saw losses closer to 20 percent over the period.

Despite growth, Vermont’s lowest wages aren’t livable

Over the past two decades, real wages for the lowest earners in Vermont grew more slowly than in any other New England state or in the U.S. as a whole. In 2025, 10 percent of Vermonters earned $15 per hour or less. That was higher than the U.S. wage for the same group but represented a smaller increase: 25 percent in 20 years in Vermont, compared with 32 percent growth for the U.S. The state’s minimum hourly wage was just over $14 in 2025, but the livable wage was closer to $20.

Medicaid cuts will hurt schools

Last July, Congress cut Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion over a decade as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Over 150,000 Vermonters—including 60,000 children—receive health insurance through Medicaid. Up to ten percent of adults could lose health coverage due to changes in eligibility and enrollment requirements, and kids may also lose coverage.

For Vermont’s schools and students, reduced Medicaid payments could mean budget shortfalls.

Vermont responds to ICE

The events this month during the ICE raid in South Burlington have prompted a lot of questions, and a number of investigations at the state and local levels about the conduct of Vermont law enforcement that day.

One thing seems clear to all involved: the state was not prepared for what would happen when Vermonters resisted ICE’s aggressive tactics.

Try looking from the other side

Spring is almost here and that means time is short for Montpelier to get in step with local communities on education funding. Montpelier wants to create a new system so it can control spending, and local communities are looking for help to cope with higher costs.

They aren’t the same thing.

Vermont’s growth is coming from abroad

Vermont’s migration trend last year continued a multi-decade pattern: international gains and domestic losses. Each year from 2005 to 2025, more people from abroad moved into the state than Vermonters left for other countries. Within the U.S., more Vermonters moved to other states than people in other states relocated to Vermont, resulting in net losses from domestic migration for 18 of the past 21 years. An outlier was 2021, during the pandemic, with a surge of nearly 5,000 people coming to Vermont through domestic migration. On average over the rest of the period, the state lost 800 people annually to other states. The international migration gains have helped offset these losses, contributing to net positive overall migration during this time.

Kicking the tax can

Some school districts are experiencing sticker shock heading into Town Meeting. Their projected tax increases for the next school year seem out of line with their proposed spending increases. A few different things can cause this, but one big factor was the Legislature’s decision last year to use one-time funds to lower tax rates for the current school year.

School tax rates are determined by per-pupil spending. But from year to year, spending and tax rates don’t necessarily track one another. For one thing, property taxes are the shock-absorbers for the funding system. Tax rates for other sources of education revenue, such as the sales tax or rooms and meals tax, are fixed. So if they fall short in any given year, property taxes have to make up the difference and rates go up accordingly.

The governance debate is about more than maps

Vermont’s current education debate seems stuck on what to do first: Overhaul the governance structure and then reform the funding system, or do something about spending and then re-draw school district maps?

Governance should be the priority, but it’s not about the maps. The first question is whether Montpelier is going to take power from voters or local communities will retain the control they now have, but with better support from an Agency of Education adequately staffed and committed to assisting schools to improve education for Vermont children. Then people will know if they still have a role or decisions about funding and governance will be made for them.

Resources for tracking federal policy changes

There have been a lot of changes to federal policy in recent months that are affecting Vermonters. Some have taken effect, some have been proposed and are under consideration, some have been implemented and then reversed, and some are working their way through court challenges. We will keep this page updated as much as possible as new changes happen.

Statement on Gov. Phil Scott’s Jan. 20, 2026 Budget Address

If these were ordinary times, we would expect Gov. Phil Scott to deliver his usual budget address calling for more of the same spending and revenue policies. But these are not ordinary times. The relationship between Washington and the states has fundamentally changed. The states are facing unprecedented federal cuts, spending freezes and abrupt changes to essential services. This new reality requires a new approach to revenue. Vermont, along with the other states, are going to need to reclaim the money used to provide federal tax cuts to the wealthy. Less help from the federal government doesn’t make us helpless. We can take matters into our own hands and ensure Vermonters get the services they deserve.

Fewer Vermonters are working than before the pandemic

After years of steady growth, the number of Vermonters working fell below pre-pandemic levels in late 2025.

It took more than three years for Vermont employment to return to normal in the wake of Covid. By early 2024, the number of Vermonters working exceeded the number employed before the crisis. Monthly employment reached an all-time high in January 2025, at 348,340. Then it dropped every month through November.