Current News

by Sue Ceglowski, VSBA The Vermont School Boards Association strongly opposes Governor Scott’s proposal to radically change education governance in Vermont. Rather than “supporting an ecosystem built on strong public schools,” as portrayed by Education Secretary Zoie Saunders, Governor Scott’s education governance proposal is a playbook to expanding school vouchers and defunding our public schools. The Governor’s plan calls for the State to pay funding directly to private schools for students in grades 9-12 statewide via a lottery. This use of vouchers will allow public funds to be used for private schooling across Vermont. Multiplying the number of students eligible for vouchers will not rein in costs. In other states that have enacted such programs, education costs have skyrocketed, causing budget deficits and cuts to critical state programs like water infrastructure and highway repairs.

by Charlotte Oliver, Community News Service Facing record caseloads and short staffing, the Vermont Human Rights Commission has turned away dozens of Vermonters attempting to file complaints of discrimination in recent years. The cases it does accept have taken about six times longer than the state standard. Hartman and others from the commission have talked about their concerns with legislators in recent weeks, and the House Committee on General and Housing is weighing a bill, H.38, that would give the commission more staff. But a similar bill last year never made it to the House floor. Supporters of the new proposal believe the commission’s work will only grow more important in the future, and staff at the commission want to take on the cases. 

Vermont Business Magazine Hazel Winter, 82, lives for her dog, Gracie. But as she aged, she found most other daily activities increasingly difficult. Plagued by fibromyalgia – a disorder characterized by pain, fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues – she found herself frequently in pain and experiencing debilitating shortness of breath. “I put it down to me being a former smoker and old age,” says Winter, who lives in Williston, Vermont. “But in hindsight, I just wasn’t listening to my body.” A minor stroke sent her to the Emergency Department at University of Vermont Medical Center, where clinicians discovered a problem with her heart. An echocardiogram revealed tricuspid valve regurgitation, a condition where the valve allows blood to leak backward into the heart. The condition causes fatigue, swelling in the legs, shortness of breath, irregular heart rhythms and, in severe cases, heart failure. Older patients like Winter are at particular risk.

Vermont Business Magazine Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) have introduced the bipartisan Rural Hospital Support Act to prevent rural hospital closures by extending and modernizing critical Medicare programs. Specifically, the Rural Hospital Support Act would: Permanently extend the Medicare-Dependent Hospital (MDH) program to ensure eligible rural hospitals are reimbursed for their costs; Permanently extend the Low-Volume Hospital (LVH) program to level the playing field for rural hospitals whose operating costs often outpace their revenue; Update the rebasing year for Sole Community Hospitals (SCH) and MDHs to allow hospitals to tie reimbursement estimates to more recent trends in costs. 

Vermont Business Magazine A longtime Emergency Department (ED) physician and clinical leader at University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center has been honored for what colleagues and addiction treatment professionals throughout the region call his paradigm-shifting contributions to substance use treatment, recovery and support. Javad Mashkuri, MD, an emergency medicine physician and former medical director of the ED at UVM Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center, recently received the 2024 Davida Coady Gorham Medical Professional of the Year Award from NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC). The award, which was last conferred in 2021, recognizes individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the addiction profession.

Vermont Business Magazine The American Red Cross urges donors to give blood or platelets in February to help build up the blood supply after thousands of donations went uncollected last month. People of all blood types – especially those with type O negative blood – are encouraged to make and keep their donation appointments so hospitals can continue to ensure critical care for patients this winter. Since the beginning of the year, hundreds of blood drives have been canceled and more than 15,000 blood and platelet donations have gone uncollected due to severe winter weather and wildfires. As February continues, so does the potential for additional weather systems to disrupt blood drives. Flu and other seasonal illnesses are spreading, which could also force more people to cancel scheduled donation appointments, compounding the impact to collecting lifesaving blood products. 

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General Charity Clark and 21 other state attorneys general today sued the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for unlawfully cutting funds that support cutting-edge medical and public health research at universities and research institutions across the country. The coalition is challenging the Trump Administration’s attempt to unilaterally cut “indirect cost” reimbursements at every research institution throughout the country. These reimbursements cover expenses to facilitate biomedical research, like lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs. Without them, the lifesaving and life-changing medical research in which the United States has long been a leader could be compromised. 

Vermont Business Magazine Since 2013, thousands of high school seniors have earned college credits via Vermont's Early College Program, part of the Flexible Pathways Initiative within the state Agency of Education. The Early College Program makes it possible for high school seniors to earn college credit tuition-free at the same time they complete their final year of high school and earn their high school diploma. A record 377 high school seniors from every county in Vermont enrolled in Early College Programs at VSCS institutions, Community College of Vermont (CCV) and Vermont State University (VTSU), in Fall 2024.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Waterbury community celebrated the groundbreaking of Marsh House Apartments. Co-owners and co-developers, Evernorth and Downstreet Housing and Community Development partnered on Marsh House Apartments which will provide essential housing for 26 low- and moderate-income households in Waterbury, Vermont. Marsh House Apartments is the new construction of a three-story building with 26 energy efficient, permanently affordable apartments for families ideally situated in the heart of downtown Waterbury. Three of the apartments will be reserved for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities and five of the apartments will be reserved for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. Funding and financing totaling $15.3 million from a mix of public and private sources was raised to cover the total development costs. 

by Devon Green, VP of Government Relations, VAHHS On the timeline of the legislature, we’ve gone from introductory testimony right into the thick of policy. Below is what happened last week: FY 2025 Budget Adjustment Act: On Friday, the House passed the FY 2025 Budget Adjustment Act (BAA), a mid-year adjustment to the FY 2025 budget. 

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.14 per gallon, up 2.2 cents per gallon from last week's $3.12/g. The lowest price in the state yesterday was $2.85/g while the highest was $3.29/g, a difference of 44.0 cents per gallon. The national average price of gasoline has risen 4.8 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.09/g today. The national average is up 2.2 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 9.6 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets The Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center has a new grant for existing Northeast dairy processors. The Dairy Co-Packing Grant supports licensed dairy processors and dairy brands in the Northeast that already engage in or are planning to use co-packing arrangements. The grant is open to: Dairy processors who wish to initiate new co-packing arrangements; Dairy processors with existing co-packing services who want to grow, add new products, or expand partnerships; Dairy brands that plan to scale current co-packing or to initiate co-packing arrangements of existing products.