Editor’s note: The writer submitted this letter at the beginning of the month but due to an error at the paper publication was delayed until now.
I was surprised at the vitriolic attack on me in the May 26 edition of your newspaper.
I will simply say you are not only off-base, but exceptionally misinformed in almost every attack you make, specifically with regard to my education and education funding reform efforts. Clearly you don’t know me, and haven’t bothered to do much research about me. In fact, I have always supported the Brigham decision. I believe that it was patently unfair that a town like mine was able to raise so much money on every penny in property tax to pay for their schools, while others struggled so much to pay for theirs. The equalization of funding is something of which we should be proud, and we must continue to ensure it in any reform proposal.
But the equalization of funding is no longer the primary issue. The question now is how can we provide a first rate and affordable education to students across the state so that they are able to compete successfully in the knowledge-based global economy of the 21st Century. The current system doesn’t do it, and it has been failing for years. It is time the people under the Golden Dome admitted that and made a concerted effort to reform it.
With regard to proposing solutions, I am surprised you make no mention of the fact that I am the only person who has a comprehensive education reform proposal, and I have introduced it in each of the last three bienniums. If you didn’t know, that is understandable. If you purposefully left out that fact, that, I fear, is purely political.
Fighting for meaningful reform against a supermajoirty and a governor in Montpelier who, until just this year argued that there wasn’t even a problem, is a difficult task. Clearly, taking pot shots from the side is easy.
Rep. Heidi E. Scheuermann
Stowe