Vermont’s schools are not the problem. Property tax is.

This commentary is by Paul Cillo, a former member of the Vermont House and co-author of Act 60. In his 2025 inaugural address, Gov. Phil Scott decried rising education property taxes. He noted that if trends continue as they have, property tax bills will have increased by an average of 33% in just three years. It is true that changes made in the Legislature to Vermont’s education financing system have propelled property taxes skyward. But instead of addressing education taxes head-on, the governor has used the problem to advance his pet education schemes: consolidation and greater state control. While talking about what he calls a “transformation” to make schools more efficient and better for children, he is pushing a Republican same-old, same-old: Cut taxes and “do more with less.” I’m not an expert on how to improve Vermont’s schools, but I know that spending less is not the first step to making them better for kids.

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