Vermont Education Reform Stalls in 2026 Legislative Session

Vermont’s education reform push is losing momentum fast, and Dartmouth’s Upper Valley neighbors are watching closely.

Three months into the 2026 legislative session, the Vermont House and Senate have produced competing education overhaul proposals that share little common ground, and neither chamber’s plan appears to satisfy Gov. Phil Scott, who has made clear he expects significant progress before lawmakers adjourn for the year.

The tension traces back to Act 73, the comprehensive reform law passed last June that promised an equitable, affordable education system built around larger school districts and a “foundation formula” funding model that gives the average student the same base dollar amount statewide, rather than letting local voters set spending levels. When the 2026 session opened, leaders of both chambers’ education committees said they were ready to move quickly. The reality has been messier.

The House Education Committee advanced its version, H.955, which would divide Vermont into seven cooperative education service agencies, known as CESAs. The regional model is already used in 43 states, letting districts pool resources for special education, transportation, administrative services, and professional development. Under H.955, study committees in each CESA would consider voluntary district mergers, with voters weighing in on final consolidation decisions in November 2028. A new funding formula would take effect July 1, 2030.

That voluntary approach is exactly what the governor doesn’t want.

Scott has said H.955 “is not acceptable and would be vetoed in its current form,” according to a spokesperson. Education Secretary Zoie Saunders testified before the House education committee days before it voted out the bill, laying out her serious concerns and reiterating the administration’s preference for mandatory mergers. The governor’s position hasn’t softened.

House Education chair Rep. Peter Conlon (D-Cornwall) told reporters last week that mandatory mergers are “politically unrealistic” and suggested the Scott administration might eventually come around to that view. Seven Days Vermont reported that Conlon said he hoped the two chambers could “come together, recognize our shared vision here and work out something in the end that will pass both bodies.”

Whether that’s optimism or wishful thinking isn’t clear yet.

The sticking points go beyond mergers. Lawmakers can’t agree on whether regional cooperatives should be mandatory or optional, how to handle school choice in towns that don’t operate their own public schools, or how fast any of these changes should actually happen. The House and Senate proposals sit far enough apart that a conference committee fight looks likely, with a veto threat already hanging over whatever emerges.

For students and families along the Connecticut River corridor, the stakes are real. Many small communities in Windsor and Grafton counties already struggle to fund adequate programming at the local level, and the foundation formula central to Act 73 was designed in part to address that disparity. Hanover and its surrounding towns have watched Vermont’s school funding debates for years, since what happens in Montpelier affects Norwich, Hartford, and White River Junction directly.

Vermont’s situation also fits a broader national pattern. The National Conference of State Legislatures has tracked school district consolidation debates across the country, and the voluntary-versus-mandatory question has tripped up reform efforts in state after state. Rural communities resist losing local control; governors and reformers push for structural change that smaller systems can’t achieve on their own. Vermont’s impasse is familiar.

The session’s final weeks will test whether a deal is possible. Conlon’s committee has at least moved a bill. The Senate’s position remains murkier, and the governor’s office hasn’t signaled any willingness to accept a voluntary framework. Without movement on all three fronts, Vermont could end the year with Act 73 still waiting for the implementing legislation it needs to actually reshape anything on the ground, leaving the promise of a more equitable system somewhere between a June vote and a July 2030 funding formula that may never arrive on schedule.