WORLD 012622

Saturday, February 12 • 5:30
Valentine’s
with the
One You Love
Central Vermont
Home Health & Hospice
page 2 The WORLD January 26, 2022
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Vermont Students Convene to Declare Their
Priorities for the 2022 Legislative Session
Vermont students representing the Vermont
Youth Lobby and the Vermont Student
Anti-Racism Network united on Zoom and
declared their priorities for the 2022 legislative
session. In this address they looked back
to their calls to action for the state seen in the
Climate Congress Declaration and the work
of the Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network,
and they highlighted the actions they
have called for that have been left untouched.
“Vermont legislators need to implement
the Climate Action Plan, pass the environment
justice bill, pass anti-racism standards
in education, pass the Bottle Bill and so much
more,” said Jenna Hirschman, a student from
Essex High School in Chittenden County, representing
the Vermont Youth Lobby.
“From the perspective of us young people,
there are an array of bills that the legislature
could and should pass this session related to
anti-racism. These include equity in housing,
abolition of slavery, removing armed officers
from schools, prohibiting discrimination, and
providing reform for the criminal justice system,”
said Addie Lentzner, a student from Arlington
Memorial High School in Bennington
County, representing the Vermont Student
Anti-Racism Network.
Students emphasized their frustration with
lack of action on climate in the state legislature
and demanded better leadership from
the legislature on this issue. “Every new year
I have high hopes. I have little dreams and
prayers that things will go right and that I will
see direct and just climate action from legislators
and decision makers. That people who
are supposed to be dealing with this will start
doing their job. I have had high hopes since I
was in the third grade and I have seen the momentum
build, I have seen the beginning of
solutions, but I have seen far from enough to
fulfill my hopes. The time has come to pair my
hopes with expectations I’ve decided because
it is no longer acceptable to me that people are
allowed to sit in a position of power and make
promises to me that they don’t keep,” said
Django Grace, a student at Brattleboro Union
High School in Windham County.
“True leadership often requires making
• • •
tough decisions which can be confrontational.
To help stop climate change, some tough decisions
are going to have to be made about
changing the way Vermonters rely on fossil
fuels as part of their everyday lives. Anything
short of this will fail to stop the climate catastrophe
currently engulfing our planet,” said
Willow Sterling-Proulx, a student at Montpelier
High School in Washington County.
The press conference ended with a call to
action from Pacem School student Miriam
Serota-Winston. “So, like so many before us,
we are faced with a seemingly insurmountable
problem. Where do we start? We start by
speaking up for our home, for our rights, and
for our future. We start by showing up together
for what we believe in: a just, equitable,
and safe future for us all. We are here and we
have a chance to fix this. The bills that other
speakers today have spoken about include
concrete action to fix this crisis. If we show up
and if we work hard, we can take that rapidly
disappearing chance to stop climate change
in its tracks. Together we can ensure that not
only is there a future for all of us but that that
future is just and equitable. We can make it to
tomorrow and we can make that tomorrow the
best it can be.”
This surely won’t be the last we hear from
this courageous group of young leaders. Vermont
and the state legislature can expect to
see and hear a lot more action from these
groups throughout the session – they are not
going away.
The Vermont Youth Lobby is launching a
Fridays for Future program, where every Friday
students from across the state will be doing
legislative activism work.
“Youth care about these issues and legislators
need to as well. That is why we are
launching a Fridays for the Future Youth
Lobby program. Every Friday we will have
students from Vermont doing legislative activism
work. Because we care, we care about
these issues, we care enough to be here today,
we care enough to be there every Friday, we
care about the world we are going to be handed.
It’s our future and we want a say.” – Jenna
Hirschman Essex High School.
Dust off the Yellow Scarves, School Choice
Week is Back in Vermont
Great students and great schools deserve a
celebration. That’s the message Vermont families
are bringing to their events for National
School Choice Week 2022.
Vermont schools, organizations, and individuals
are planning 45 celebrations for the
week, which will feature more than 26,000
activities nationwide. Among the notable celebrations
in Vermont will be an event at the
Capitol featuring homeschool and private
school students and educators on Thursday,
Jan. 27.
Across the country, more than two dozen
U.S. landmarks and notable buildings will
light up in special colors to mark the week.
The week’s celebrations focus on community
building, sharing student and teacher
successes, and raising awareness about how
to put kids first when it comes to education.
The goal? Supporting families and highlighting
schools so more kids can find learning fits
where they thrive.
Here in Vermont, there are a variety of
educational options to attend including: traditional
public schools with exible open
enrollment, magnet schools, online learning,
private schools, and homeschooling. Students
in specific Vermont towns are eligible
for a tuitioning program, which funds their
attendance at nonreligious public or private
schools outside their communities.
“Given its original history of school choice
dating back to the 1800s, it’s time for Vermont
to keep connecting families to educational
opportunity,” said Andrew Campanella, president
of National School Choice Week. “We
hope that during this School Choice Week
school spirit spreads among all K-12 communities
and renews the education conversation,
helping it become one of greater collaboration
and positivity.”
To download a guide to Vermont school
choice, use the school finder tool to search
schools in your area, or see celebration photos
and proclamation updates, visit schoolchoiceweek.com/vermont.
Local celebrants are available to discuss
their plans with reporters upon request. For
more information, send us the specifics of
your coverage area at pressofficeschoolchoiceweek.com,
or preview a sampling of
Vermont events at schoolchoiceweek.com/
vermont.
VSAC Response to the Governor’s Budget Address
• • •
The Vermont Student Assistance Corp.
(VSAC) thanks Gov. Phil Scott for his leadership
and support and for recognizing that
making a strong commitment to expanding
educational and training opportunities in Vermont
is essential to addressing our state’s demographic
challenge.
“Vermont’s workforce development, affordable
higher education, more internships
opportunities, and renewed emphasis on
trades training for Vermonters are critical to
build the Vermont economy of the future,”
said Scott Giles, VSAC President & CEO.
“Initiatives led by VSAC including 802 Opportunity
and Advancements Grants have
proven very successful. Investing wisely in
these programs create huge dividends for Vermont
families and for the Vermont economy.”
VSAC Highlights:
Workforce Recruitment and Retention
$10 million to reduce education costs for
those working towards jobs in the trades, like
CDL drivers, plumbers, and welders, including
$3 million to help students attain a nursing
degree.
Advancement Grant
$1 Million added to VSAC’s Advancement
Grants to help adults pursue non-degree training
programs and put people into careers with
higher wages like LNAs, EMTs, line workers
and web programmers.
802 Opportunity
$1.5 million for 802 Opportunity to allow
any Vermonter from a family earning less
than $75,000 to attend Community College of
Vermont tuition free. Since it began last fall,
some 1,750 students have participated in 802
Opportunity. The current eligibility cut-off is
a family Adjusted Gross Income of less than
$50,000 per year.
VSAC looks forward to working with the
governor and with the legislature to fully
fund these vital efforts to meet today’s critical
workforce needs and build Vermont’s workforce
of the future.