Vermont youth urge more counselors, meals, career tracks; one speaker advocates statewide school choice

Members of the Vermont State Youth Council told the House Education Committee on Feb. 28 that the state’s public schools should expand mental-health supports, on-site nursing, free meals, and career- and community-linked courses while protecting the viability of small schools.

The testimony, delivered by student members and supported by Vermont After School staff, came as lawmakers continue reviewing broader education transformation proposals. The council members described priorities they said would help students’ academic success and wellbeing across Vermont’s rural and larger schools.

“An ideal public school system to me would make an effort to academically challenge students and prepare them to benefit society while in school and after they graduate and provide them with the appropriate holistic supports to do so,” Harmony Valdivo, chair of the Vermont State Youth Council and a tenth-grader at Harwood Union High School, told the committee.

Valdivo outlined a package of supports she said should be universal: clear anti-bullying and discrimination consequences implemented through trained…