Dear School Board

Public education in America is in very big trouble. The state of Vermont is facing a fiscal calamity. Vermont is not alone. Indeed, many states are in far worse shape. And as states continue to struggle, it is the towns and small cities that are going to bear the brunt of the pain. In Vermont, school boards are experiencing extraordinary difficulties in budgeting for fiscal year 2010-2011. These difficulties are the result of an increase in the state education tax rate, a state education grant base amount that is not increasing, dramatically falling state and local tax revenues, and significant declines in the value of the state property assessment "grand list".