Amanda Janoo is not just a fresh voice in Vermont’s political landscape, she’s a bold and critical thinker ready to tackle the state’s biggest problems, a savvy economist skilled in the ways to make small economies work to benefit citizens, and, as a native Vermonter, she understands the importance and value of keeping the state’s small, rural communities strong.
That means supporting the state’s rural schools and finding other ways to create savings in education rather than a knee-jerk reaction to consolidate the state’s 119 school districts into five, as Gov. Phil Scott has proposed.
That means revisiting the state’s health care report commissioned by the Legislature four years ago and following through on some of the more promising ways to reduce health care expenses — something the Scott administration largely dropped as soon as it was delivered and has never pursued.
That means making Vermont housing more affordable by reducing the cost of permitting; by working with rural communities to establish small, multi-unit parcels that infill our rural elementary schools.
That means fighting to keep manufacturing jobs from fleeing the state, a growing problem that has seen Vermont lose over 700 non-farm jobs in 2025 with another 900 jobs lost this past April and 400 lost this August with hardly a peep from the governor’s office.
It also means standing arm-in-arm with the state’s dairy farmers, orchardists, vegetable farmers, roofers, builders, restaurant and inn owners as they fight to keep ICE from illegally snatching and deporting our friends and neighbors in the migrant community without due process. It’s illegal. It’s immoral. It’s an affront to our democracy and it demands a vigorous response. Amanda Janoo would be a leader in that fight, where Gov. Scott has preferred to duck and keep a low profile.
GOV. SCOTT’S RECORD
After a decade in office, for better or worse, Gov. Scott’s team can put out flowery press releases and air misleading ads on television paid for by out-of-state PACS financed by the likes of Koch Industries, but at the end of the day he has to run on his record. If the Governor wants to claim he’s the leader the state needs, then buck stops with him — he can’t continually blame the legislature for failing to do his job. The results over the past decade are telling.
• On education, Vermont’s education system has slipped from being one of the top-performing states in the nation to scoring in the middle to lower-third nationally, despite maintaining one of the highest per pupil spending in the nation. Scott’s answer throughout has been to reduce spending, not improve performance, and his most recent push has been to severely consolidate schools at the expense of the state’s rural communities. In short, his leadership (or lack thereof) hasn’t contained cost and has undermined what was a top-ranked system.
• The state’s affordable housing stock in the past decade has gone from bad to worse. By 2024, a Vermonter earning the median income could afford roughly a third of the homes in the state, down from about half in 2019. Roughly 51% of Vermont households spend more than 30% of their income on housing, making them cost-burdened. Vermont homelessness rates have climbed dramatically, placing Vermont second per capita nationally as counts tripled between 2019 and 2023.
• Similarly, in health care, Vermont is facing the highest costs and premiums in the nation. Silver and bronze plan rates have roughly doubled or surged significantly since 2018.
Of the issues currently facing Vermont, Gov. Scott left the door open for Vermont to host data centers by vetoing legislation passed this past session; continues to undermine the state’s push to embrace more renewable energy and help reduce carbon pollution; and, compared to many other governors throughout the nation, he has remained largely silent in the face of Trump’s efforts to undermine the nation’s democracy.
As testament to the state’s dire prospects, a recent poll found that nearly two-thirds of young people in Vermont plan to leave the state within five years. That’s a significant change from 10 years ago, when Vermont Public reported that as many young people were moving into the state as were leaving.
A NEW VISION
No one can accurately predict the success any new candidate will have going forward (certainly those who predicted Gov. Scott would make things better have to be disappointed), but what voters can assess is one candidate’s record and the other candidate’s vision.
We know Scott’s record.
Here’s a part of how Amanda Janoo describes the state-of-the-state and her vision forward:
“We are living through extraordinary times. Vermonters are burnt out. We’re working harder than ever and barely staying afloat. Families are being crushed by healthcare and housing costs. Young people can’t afford to build a life here. Communities are losing schools, local businesses, and a real voice over the decisions that shape their future. Our people and democracy are under attack, and people are anxious about the future and for good reason.
“But Vermont has never been a place that simply accepts its fate.
“I was born and raised in rural Vermont, where I learned that strong communities aren’t built by billionaires or distant political institutions. They’re built by people who know how to build what’s needed, repair what’s broken, grow what sustains us, and care for one another. By neighbors showing up for one another. By communities having a real voice in the decisions that shape their lives.
“We don’t wait for someone else to decide our future. We decide it together.
“I’ve spent my career helping governments across the United States and around the world build stronger, more resilient economies, and it’s only strengthened what Vermont taught me as a kid: the strongest places don’t wait for prosperity to trickle down. They invest in their own people, their own businesses, their own farmers, and their own communities. They build resilience from the ground up.”
Janoo has the leadership skills and unique ability to envision solutions to Vermont’s intrinsic problems in ways that will make the state stronger. She rejects the tired old trickle-down economics and embraces the value of Vermont’s character and resilience. A vote for Janoo is a vote for stronger schools, stronger communities, and a more vibrant, renewed and collaborative economy. It’s a vote for progress, not continued decline.
Angelo Lynn
