Vermont schools face “critical” staff shortages midway through the academic year, education leaders say, with some suggesting the state hack away at its 1,000 teacher and staff vacancies by providing loan support and reducing red tape in licensing and certification.
With a few exceptions, the opposition by Republican legislators to the clean heat standard has tended to be tepid. Republicans have been willing to vote against a bill, but not as enthusiastic about speaking out against it aggressively. That seems to be changing, at least to some degree.
Last week, Jamison Ervin, the manager of the Nature for Development global program, met with lawmakers of the House Committee on Environment and Energy to promote a “global deal for nature” aimed at preventing a “polycrisis” of environmental disasters.
The state’s senior economist presented a study to the Senate Economic Development Committee showing that early childhood programs under discussion would cost between $179 million and $279 million — and funding could come from either a payroll tax or a sales tax on services.
Workforce development, enrollment into English language courses, and driver’s license procurement has eaten away at $500,000 in Vermont’s budget earmarked “aid to refugees.”
During a briefing from the Energy Action Network on Vermont’s progress for meeting its greenhouse gas reduction goals under the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, pitched a plan to lower the speed limit on state highways to 55 mph.
A world-renowned physicist and a military fraud detector on Saturday took turns on the stage at Vibrant Church to discuss what they see as a prevalence of election fraud involving both electronic and mail-in ballot manipulation.
A bill introduced into the Vermont Senate last week would, in practice, break the sacred seal of the church confessional in cases of child abuse. According to the Catholic Education Resource Center, the seal cannot be violated for any reason. For a priest to do so is a crime against church law.
Last week, Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore met with the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee to discuss the investments needed in heating and transportation technologies to meet Vermont’s ambitious emissions reduction goals.
“It’s time for gun manufacturers and dealers to be held accountable when they act irresponsibly, such as in failing to prevent the straw purchasing of guns or employing marketing strategies that target vulnerable youth,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement.
The public health emergency was renewed for COVID, but due to budget cuts the 15% increase in 3SquaresVT benefits was not. Reversion to pre-COVID benefit levels will commence in March.
On the “Morning Drive” radio show earlier this month, Brattleboro Police Chief Norma Hardy explained why recent calls to allow the public to take over the disciplinary process for officers suspected of misconduct — and cutting out the chief from that process — is a bad idea.