Vermont educators urge lawmakers to boost school funding, oppose spending caps and expand career-technical capacity

Members of the education community testified to a legislative committee on Feb. 25, pressing lawmakers to increase funding for schools, protect programmatic choices and address rising costs that they said are eroding services for students.

Peter Davenport, a behavior interventionist at St. Alban City School, told the committee that staff working one-on-one with students in crisis perform “miracles” every day and warned: “If we don't provide the care these kids need when we can, we set them up for failure in life with catastrophic knock on effects to our largest society.” He called for fair pay for school staff, universal health coverage and affordable housing as policy priorities to stabilize students and educators.

Several speakers linked out-of-school problems—housing instability, shrinking access to healthcare and household poverty—to growing demands on schools. Vicky Johnson, who teaches math and science at Randolph Union High School, said districts are serving…