Guest editorial: How AI is reshaping education and society

We’re halfway into the fall, 2024, academic term, and chatter suggests anxiety about the future of education and artificial intelligence.  That AI will replace human teachers entirely. Students using AI tools are always cheating. Learning to use AI isn’t an important skill for students. AI can’t foster creativity or critical thinking. 

Many Vermonters have been told that Act 18, the Affordable Heat Act, will result in much higher fuel prices, that it’s a “carbon tax,” that it involves mandates or requirements for how they heat their homes or the fuel they use, and that the unprecedented … (read more)

It was, in a way, a remarkable moment when Vermont homeowners opened their tax bill this year. Whether conservative or liberal, living in Essex or Chittenden counties, in a mobile home or mansion, I suspect there was unanimity of shock and dismay at the i … (read more)

No political insiders in Montpelier were surprised when Sen. Jane Kitchel condemned the Scott administration’s proposal to zero out the education fund reserves to provide short-term property tax relief, saying “that is a practice that we never ever had co … (read more)

This detailed response by Vt. Attorney General Charity Clark of Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of a bill, H-121, to protect Vermonters’ data privacy is notable for several reasons, but chief among them is the misinformation Gov. Scott has spread about the bill an … (read more)

I conceived and introduced the Leahy law in 1997 because our Latin partners, and security forces in many other countries, were violating the basic principles that the United States stands for, and we were complicit. Today, people are asking whether the la … (read more)

I am in complete agreement that 100% renewable energy is a must. But a major flaw in H.289 threatens Vermont renewable energy jobs and the ability of Vermonters to participate in the benefits of community solar power projects.

The impending 17 percent increase in property taxes has our elected leaders on the political edge, thinking they are about to be tarred by the taxpayers’ brush and that doing something, anything, would be better than doing nothing. They are wrong.

Our capitalistic economy is often thrown up as the major cause of the income gap between the rich and not so rich. I think that is a bunch of bunk.

As we begin a new year, and as I embark on my second year as CEO of the University of Vermont Health Network, I feel a sense of both optimism and urgency.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.

There have been five wars in the last 15 years between Israel and Hamas. How do we end the current one and prevent a sixth from happening, sooner or later?

I recently retired as the state botanist in the Fish and Wildlife Department, where I served for over 30 years. In that time I have reviewed many permits for aquatic nuisance control and stream alteration.

Premature deaths produce an intense, unyielding force of overwhelming sadness. This is where we find ourselves at Middlebury College.

There is no shortage of complexity involved in Vermont’s healthcare reform project. Act 48, passed by the Legislature in 2011 ran to 141 pages.