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 diversity, equity and inclusion staff; restorative-justice practices; anonymous incident-report boxes; free breakfast and lunch for all students; and nurses and counselors on site at all times. She also called for advanced classes beginning in ninth grade, more career- and topic-specific elective options, and multiple ways for students to demonstrate learning, from projects to presentations.

Nicole Miller, executive director of Vermont After School, told the committee her organization provides logistical support to the youth council and that the students were speaking in an individual capacity rather than offering a formal council recommendation.

Jeremiah Watson, a former legislative page, spoke separately in favor of school-choice policies, including a statewide voucher program. He argued that vouchers would increase parental involvement and permit families to choose schools he said best fit their children. Watson also called for stricter limits on what he described as “anti-bias” curricula and urged protections that would bar biological males from women’s sports and women’s restrooms and private spaces at school.

“Biological males should also not be allowed in women’s sports to protect the safety and competitiveness of women’s athletics,” Watson said. He also stated that “biological males should also not be allowed in women’s bathrooms and private spaces.” These positions were presented as his personal views to the committee.

Other council members emphasized different priorities. Aliyah Ivy League, a ninth-grader from Shaftesbury who said she has dyslexia, urged more certified classroom teachers, more special-education teachers and case managers, mandatory home-economics classes in high school, a statewide adaptable curriculum, and consistent outdoor breaks for students K–12. She said Vermont’s low reading and math scores and a teacher shortage make those steps urgent for student stability and long-term outcomes.

Elizabeth Daley, a member of the youth voice committee and an eleventh-grader, defended the role of small schools in rural communities and urged expanded state funding to help small schools offer AP courses, STEM programs and career training. Daley also urged more school counselors and transportation options so rural students can access technical centers and extracurricular programs.

Students described classroom practices they said would make schools more inclusive and effective: routine teacher check-ins, one-on-one support, a mix of assessment methods, opportunities for student-led clubs, and school environments with natural light, plants and murals. Valdivo also said schools should offer addiction-recovery supports that prioritize help over punishment when students are found with substances on campus.

Committee members thanked the students for their input and said the testimony is timely as the panel weighs education-system changes. No formal motions or votes were taken during the appearance by the youth council members.

The testimony combined recurring themes—student mental-health services, staffing and curriculum stability, protections for small schools and increased career-technical opportunities—with a separate, more partisan advocacy for vouchers and restrictions on transgender students’ participation in single-sex spaces and athletics by one speaker.