BRATTLEBORO-The education funding formula for Vermont is broken, badly broken. It's been broken for years. The most recent tinkering with the formula by the Legislature has resulted in an outrageous and unsustainable property tax increase. A tax increase brought to us by the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Emilie Kornheiser.
Without action, property tax increases will only get worse, but the Legislature is proposing yet another "study" of education funding. Multiple studies have been conducted over the years - and yet, no results.
Emilie Kornheiser has been in the Legislature for six years. She is chair of its most powerful committee. In that time, she has not brought forward any solutions to education funding.
It's time for a change. That's why I'm voting for Amanda Ellis-Thurber.
Amanda Ellis-Thurber listens to her neighbors, who are frustrated with going to the school board meeting and being told, "We don't know how much your property taxes will go up; that will be set by the Legislature."
I'm sure Amanda Ellis-Thurber will push the Legislature to develop a fair and transparent tax formula to support our schools, one that is sustainable. As a farm owner, she has experience making hard choices. She knows that if something isn't working, doing the same thing over and over again will bring only more failure.
The education funding formula is a failure - it is broken. It needs fixing! It needs fixing now.
I'm voting for change. I'm voting for Amanda Thurber.
John P. Kennedy
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].