Opinion: Wearing masks based on unfounded fear
We need to educate ourselves about masks and ensure that leaders in all areas of our society have a thorough understanding of the fact that masks cause harm. There are other options to get the job done.
Roper: Giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote — why not?
These politicians know that inexperienced, developing, often confused young people are more prone to peer pressure, are more likely to do stupid things, and care less about future consequences that they can be easily manipulated. And manipulate them is what they intend to do.
Rep. Charles Wilson: The last of the Mohicans — or Republicans
The current supermajority rules and it is all about programs and committees, out-of-state agendas, and a huge growing bureaucracy. Who really stands to benefit? The very few elites.
Opinion: Biden’s ‘green’ policies are following Europe straight into the dark
The entire Biden administration has been systematically and intentionally dismantling the powerful, reliable energy system America has built over the past century, and offering in its place little more than vague promises of a “clean, renewable” system will miraculously appear to replace it.
A Brave New World in the so-called Brave Little State
A recent set of survey questions distributed to elementary school students in the Addison Northwest School District raises important questions about the new direction Vermont schools have quietly embarked upon in stewarding children.
Letter: Compelling testimony from transgender youth
While most countries in Europe are now shielding youth and minors from gender-affirming care practices, most Vermont legislators plow forward regardless of evidence of the harms of gender-affirming care. For the sake of the mental health and physical well-being of our children and youth, we ask you to vote “no” on both H.89 and S.37.
Stan Greer: Teacher union bosses fight higher teacher pay
Teacher union bosses’ stubborn opposition to any sustainable and workable reform of the way public educators are compensated highlights why they should never have been granted the legal monopoly-bargaining privileges they now enjoy in nearly 40 states.
Roper: Will the Clean Heat Standard destroy Vermont’s maple sugar industry?
The estimates are that S.5 will add somewhere between $0.70 and $4.00 to each gallon of oil, propane, natural gas, and kerosene sold in Vermont. That means it will cost Vermont sugar makers somewhere between an extra $2.80 and $16.00 to produce a gallon of syrup.
Letter: Shield bill will constrict Article 22, leaving children vulnerable in a shielded system without oversight
H.89 will protect every unknown person participating in the one direction of “gender-affirming” care, leaving no protection for parents, mental and medical doctors, and others who do not agree.
Tom Evslin: Homeowners and hotels swap guests
We can have the vacation and housing stock we need. It will be built largely with private money — if government does what it should do in keeping the peace and does not do what it shouldn’t do and decide exactly how each property is to be used.
Nicholas Smith: About the April 13 vote on Vermont’s Education Quality Standards
It’s clear that the State Board of Education is looking to push these EQS updates through quickly, as is evident by the increasing frequency of meetings to finalize the proposal and the addition of this Special Meeting, with minimal notice.
Alison Despathy: Affordable Heat Act was developed without transparency
“We have this elite group that has come up with a policy that proposes to totally disrupt an entire industry in the state of Vermont without the transparency that the legislators are being led to believe happened at the Climate Council.”