[Re “Rural School Boards Feel Pressure Amid Ed Reform Speculation,” October 1]:
Act 73 entrusted members of the Commission on the Future of Public Education with a solemn duty: to preserve the voice of communities in governing their schools. That voice cannot be reduced to a survey or replaced by centralized decision-making outside the community that funds its school — and this state — through taxes. It must remain a vote: a deliberate, warned democratic act by those whose children, future and identity are bound to that schoolhouse.
Local control is not a privilege; it is the foundation of legitimate government under the Vermont Constitution and U.S. Constitution. Removing a community’s right to vote on its school’s fate denies consent of the governed and violates due process under 14 V.S.A. §1 and public participation rights. A voice without a vote is a hollow gesture — an illusion of democracy.
Closing a school reshapes a town’s civic, social and economic fabric. Such action must be approved only by a warned local vote. Anything less is unjust, unconstitutional and arguably illegal. If the legislature removes this right, it will not withstand legal or moral scrutiny. The people of Vermont will remember who silenced them.
Closing schools also damages children, fails to save money, deepens inequity and erodes communities. These closures harm students, waste resources and weaken Vermont’s rural heart.
Committee members should stand with the people — the parents, teachers and children whose liberties depend on your judgment.
Eric Pomeroy, PEACHAM
Source: Letters to the Editor (11/5/25) Seven Days (scroll down to see this letter)
