by Maria Amador
Legislators returned to the State House Tuesday for the second session of the 2025-2026 biennium, which is expected to again focus on the controversial issues that dominated in 2025.
Throughout the state, and certainly in Orleans County, lawmakers are preoccupied with the future of Vermont’s education system following the passing of Act 73 last summer. The bill, which has been contested since before it was drafted, set in motion a year-long effort to restructure how Vermont schools are funded and organized. Passage of the act came after several years of increasingly high property taxes.
A central tenet of the legislation is to mandate a state-wide consolidation of Vermont’s 119 school districts. In August 2025 a redistricting task force, composed of six legislators from both sides of the aisle, began meeting with the aim of developing three potential district maps before the end of the year.
On December 1 the task force surprised legislators and the public with its findings in a 41-page report that advocates not for redistricting as called for by Act 73, but for a …
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