Prosecutor’s Priorities

[Re “Jurors Convict Eaton in Shootings of Three Palestinian Men,” September 21, online]: Sarah George won the Democratic nomination for Chittenden County state’s attorney for a reason. She spends her resources on what counts. Look how she handled the Jason Eaton trial: A jury convicted him after only two hours of deliberation. Sarah did this trial herself because she is a hands-on state’s attorney for Chittenden County. She put on a tight case. We have to accept that there may be a few shoplifters who are wearing shoes they did not pay for in order to get the convictions when the crime is serious and we need the defendant behind bars for our safety.

AOE Is Failing

Thank you for Alison Novak’s reporting on the Agency of Education’s directive that school boards hire superintendents for only one year [“Seeking Short-Timers,” September 16]. This directive underscores why Education Secretary Zoie Saunders is failing to provide the independent, effective leadership Vermont’s schools need. She is the governor’s appointee, and this directive appears to advance his agenda.

The AOE is relying on questionable statutory authority. The power to provide “advice” is not the power to impose a mandate through “advice and consent.” The directive also reflects a troubling misunderstanding of Act 170. Local merger study committees are still evaluating whether consolidation makes sense for their communities, and proposed mergers will require voter approval. Consolidation is not a foregone conclusion.

More broadly, the directive offers a disturbing indication of Gov. Phil Scott’s intentions for public education. Superintendents create the conditions in which teachers and students succeed. They recruit and retain effective educators, address ineffective teaching, and keep their districts focused on instruction and learning. Why, at a time of enormous uncertainty, would the administration weaken the applicant pool by limiting candidates to one-year contracts?

Vermont’s school districts are already navigating potentially transformative changes. This directive will only make it harder to attract strong leaders, further destabilizing and weakening our schools.

Vermonters need to pay close attention to what the governor’s AOE is doing to public education — and vote accordingly in November.

‘We Pay Dearly’

The article “UVM Health to Eliminate 199 Positions Amid Growing Financial Pressure” [September 15, online] positions potential layoffs as another necessary but painful business decision. UVM Health offers the usual excuses of “financial pressure,” as though this is simply another industry trying to balance its books during these frequent economic downturns.

This is the problem.

We all know that health care is not, and should never be, a business proposition. It is a human necessity and right. When a hospital says it needs to save money, the question here should not simply be: Where can we cut? It should be: How do we protect the people who depend on our hospitals for health and life? The closing of the birthing centers clearly illustrates this point [“Expecting Trouble,” September 9]. We pay dearly for these hospitals in fees, premiums and taxes. This should not be a bottom-line issue, as top hospital officials and the state seem to view it.

We should not accept the premise that UVM Medical Center’s (or other hospitals, for that matter) cutting frontline workers is inevitable. We should ask a much harder question: Where is the sacrifice at the top?

UVM says it has reduced executive positions and eliminated incentive compensation for senior leaders. Hmm. Perhaps. But why in the hell are we still discussing our lives and health care through the vocabulary of corporate management?

Why haven’t we as a state understood this? Or do we want to understand it?

Follow the Money

Rep. Laura Sibilia’s complaint against Americans for Prosperity for failing to disclose its spending against the legislature is welcome [“Rep. Sibilia Files Disclosure Complaint Against Koch Group,” September 14, online]. But Sibilia’s complaint only scratches the surface of this Koch-funded group’s presence in Vermont politics.

AFP applauded Gov. Phil Scott for rejecting H.727 on the same day he issued the veto. The bill would have protected Vermonters from skyrocketing utility bills, water consumption and PFAS risk caused by data centers.

That wasn’t a one-off. In July, AFP praised Scott’s executive order deregulating health insurance and pushing age-based premiums. AFP has also cheered his vetoes of climate-action legislation and expanded oversight of homeschooling.

In 2016, the Republican Governors Association spent more than $3 million through its dedicated super PAC, A Stronger Vermont, supporting the election of Scott as governor of Vermont. Charles Koch, the late David Koch and Koch Industries were seven-figure donors to the Republican Governors Association.

AFP is entitled to its opinions, and so is Gov. Scott. But Sibilia’s complaint is really about Vermonters’ right to know who is funding political influence in this state. That right doesn’t stop at legislative ads. When a Koch-backed dark-money group keeps showing up to praise the governor’s vetoes and executive orders, Vermonters deserve to know that, too.

More on Janoo

I don’t know a lot about Amanda Janoo, the Democratic party’s candidate for governor. With the election so close, one would expect media coverage to be more thorough and detailed.

To be fair, in Alison Novak’s September 7 [online] article “‘Do Not Slow Down’ on Ed Reform, Gov Tells School Leaders,” Janoo’s view of education reform is noted but not given the detail that an opposing candidate deserves.

Janoo, quoted from an email, makes the point that what the governor is calling “transformation” is in actuality “the dismantling of public institutions and the removal of decision-making power from local communities.” But that is all we get; I wanted to hear more.

From what I have read and seen so far, Janoo is someone who recognizes the complexity and many challenges associated with trying to meet Vermonters’ basic needs — for example, promoting more affordable housing and improving health care delivery. She is willing to actually voice these issues and take on these challenges.

Gov. Phil Scott and Republican legislators, on the other hand, seem to encourage low expectations, making us feel naïve and foolish for expecting something better. Is that leadership?

As she has said, “I’m running for governor because Vermont deserves better than managed decline. We deserve a hopeful vision for the future and a plan to get there together.”

While I don’t know a lot about Amanda Janoo, the more I learn, the more I am convinced that voting for her is a good idea and a vote for a better future.

Same Old, Same Old

[Re All the Best, August 5]: The Seven Daysies awards, along with the rest of the articles in the August 5 edition, represent why Vermont is so slow to evolve.

The same businesses, time after time, get this recognition. Maybe they’ll throw in a newbie every now and then, but everyone just votes for the same businesses. So boring.

Time and time again, this paper contains the same articles about how Burlington has failed to help the homeless and address addiction in any real way. Cheering for Burlington in good times and bad times is not a strategy. Same ideas = same results.

The same stories about the same artists who make the same work with the same people. (Hopefully not the same toxic behaviors that I’ve witnessed before.) Yawn. How about profiles on artists who are pushing boundaries and have complicated and uncomfortable things to say? Is Vermont so scared to taste transformation that it just keeps dumping funding on the same artists over and over again?

This sameness is why Vermont is behind in everything, why people don’t stay here and why it’s tough to live here if you’re not from here.

Do better. Try harder. Dig deeper. There are people who are doing transformational work, and we never hear about them. Find and elevate the businesses, social justice movements and artists who are shadowed by Vermont’s sickness of sameness. Maybe then reading your paper wouldn’t be so boring and there would be hope for some real change in this state.

Spread the Love

While it is commendable for Seven Days to recognize remarkable work by people in Vermont, the Seven Daysies awards are becoming redundant and more like a popularity contest [All the Best, August 5]. The same people are nominated over and over again and get the awards only because they can solicit votes by harassing people on social media. Your process bypasses many Vermonters and hidden gems that deserve recognition.

Perhaps consider a different process that shines a broader light on Vermonters. Many awards are only given once in a career, such as Teacher of the Year; this actually elevates the honor instead of diluting it. How many Daysies does a person, place, etc. actually need to show that they are loved? Spread it around.

Dust to Dust

I read your article on a new and environmentally friendly burial process done by Sacred Soil — a brilliant idea that makes much more sense for disposing my remains back into the soil where I enjoy gardening daily [“Back to the Land,” July 22].

This is a strong burial choice for those who aren’t comfortable with being wedged in a casket or burned to dust. My body can be reintegrated with the soil where I belong.

This process is an excellent choice for like-minded individuals searching for “a giving back to nature” final wish. Thanks for this most interesting article!

Corrections

Last week’s cover story, “Art at a Crossroads,” incorrectly identified one of the artists helping organize the Art at the Kent show. It is Mary Admasian.

The news story “Roof Raids” contained a paragraph based on misleading data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many of the detentions included in the data involved immigrants who were already in federal custody. ICE appears to have recently begun counting those detentions in its own data. This skewed the numbers, making it appear as though there was a major spike in ICE detentions in Vermont this year. A graph that accompanied the story, based on that data, was also incorrect.

This article appears in September 30 • 2026.