END OF SESSION REPORT

As I look back on my time this session. I’m humbled to have this opportunity to represent the community during this transitional time. I want to take a moment to say thank you for all your feedback, thoughts, and encouragement, kindness, and wisdom. It helped make this first session easier to understand more specifically what our community’s values and needs are. My takeaway is that we are proud stewards of this land. We have a vision of an affordable, reliable, well resourced, thriving community for all to live and grow. We care deeply for our environment and we continue the tradition of living in harmony with it. 

Ending the session with an unresolved education bill is hard but I do agree that with something this complicated and consequential we need to take time. We must make sure that we get this right. The Committee of Conference is currently vetting new 11th hour proposals brought forward by Senate conferees which includes allowing districts to vote on spending as little as 85% of the foundation formula. This is a departure from what is in either of the proposed bills from the House and Senate and is not supported by the governor. Typically new proposals are not considered during the Committee of Conference. So this will need analysis from the Joint Fiscal Office to better understand what impact it would have on the foundation formula’s ability to delivering equity to Vermont’s students. The foundation formula is designed to balance spending throughout the state to achieve educational equity while considering cost factors like rurality and special educational needs. We also have a State Constitutional mandate to deliver an evidence based, equitable education for each and every student in Vermont regardless of their means, ability, or location. I look forward to the conferees crafting a bill that does just that, by keeping support for our public schools with a funding structure that crafts and implements the creative, hands-on, exploratory education Vermont’s students are craving.

HOW WE GOT HERE

The House passed H. 454 our version of the education bill, with very diligent work on the part of all committees, we crafted a bill that aims to balance property taxes with student, family, and community needs. Our bill proposes a predictable foundation formula to help stabilize the tax system. It also offers important provisions for community input regarding small schools. It seeks to find community driven solutions that encourage lifelong learning, community care, and local vibrancy. While the bill is not perfect it offers an evidenced based framework to start making the considerations needed to create transform and stabilize our tax system while delivering equitable education to all Vermont students.

The house bill does study transportation, redistricting, governance, and CTE. These issues have a long way to go both in the coming sessions to create and integrated, scaleable system. Vermont is a particular state with families that live in very rural areas. We need to build a responsive system that ensures they get a fair education too. Every young person deserves an education that sets them up for a thriving future and I believe we will get there.

COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE HIGHLIGHTS

CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION (CTE) + ADULT EDUCATION

The Commerce and Economic Development Committee took a close look at Career Technical Education. We’re working to improve access to these programs while reducing competition for funding and resources between sending schools and CTE centers. As we continue to work on the State’s comprehensive education transformation, we are looking at the Governor’s proposal for a single CTE district that would oversee the statewide CTE centers. 

There continue to be challenges in integrating CTE into the education transformation plan. We are concerned about how we better integrate our adult education programs and younger learners into CTE to create a system for true lifelong learning from “cradle to career”. There is continued transportation costs associated with students moving back and forth between centers and sending school. We also want to ensure that our CTE students are not left out of their traditional high school cultural experiences. Along with the state’s CTE directors, we are advocating for a statewide schedule to alleviate the number of sending school schedules that CTE centers have to balance in order to run successful programs.

Oftentimes programs like CTE and Adult Education are cast aside as a place to send students who may have difficulty in traditional classrooms. This adds a harmful stigma to these proven programs. These programs also mirror long standing career readiness programs carried out by both public and private educational institutions that employ programs like  internships, coops, field work, and residencies to provide students with on-the-job training. We want to ensure that our CTE and Adult Education students have a stigma free educational experience. We’ll continue to work with the CTE directors and the Administration to craft a system that fully integrates CTE into the education system while reducing competition for resources and funding. 

I recently had the honor of meeting with the Twin Valley Elementary Student Advisory Council. In our conversations the students were enthusiastic about hands-on learning especially in art and science. This says that our students are eager for what CTE has to offer even at our youngest levels. CTE is a valuable teaching style that combines hands-on learning and academic study. CTE can be employed throughout our education system. Not just for the trades like construction or advanced manufacturing but also for the medical professionals, accountants, computer programmers and educators that our state so desperately needs.  I believe that this will unify the education system, diminish needless stigma, while allowing us to reach the scale we need to stabilize the property tax system.

DATA PRIVACY + ONLINE PROTECTION

Trigger Warning: this sections makes reference to self harm and sexual violence. Please take care when reading.

In one of my proudest moments my committee, Commerce and Economic Development worked on and successfully passed S. 69 the Age Appropriate Design Code which protects young people online by limiting the predatory, addictive design features that keep our youth’s attention on their devices, leading them to a relentless on slot of dangerous content. Online platforms and services use additive design tactics seen in the gambling industry to keep kids hooked on their screens. These addictive design features feed their brains with an unceasing stream of sexually explicit material, self harm content, and abject violence even when they are searching for positive uplifting content. Instant recommendation and friend requests have led young people into the arms of predators resulting in real world instances of bullying, rape, and suicide. These design features exacerbate the ongoing youth mental health crisis which bears very real, potentially fatal harm. This bill does not regulate content or aim to infringe on core business function. It aims to give kids and families privacy over their data and freedom from the additive features that hold their attention captive. 

As part of our research we watched a documentary about the targeting of youth on social media called Can’t Look Away which outlines the dangerous, real world effects of these harmful features. These product features lead very young users to be exposed tp repeated content containing information about buying and selling drugs, suicide, self harm, and sexually explicit material. Who wouldn’t want this reigned in. But this important work faces headwinds with strong pressure coming from the over one hundred tech industry lobbyists in the state house who don’t want any oversight for their products. To be clear this is not an attempt to control content but to manage the harmful features that create dark patterns of use.

Why does this matter? For over 20 years our youth have been under a nonconsensual social experiment designed to hold their attention hostage. Our young people are left with weak protections that shifts the blame on to caregivers rather than fixing the problem. We know the harms that are being caused by this underregulated online industry. In our work as a body we strive to ensure our young people have the brightest future possible. All that work is for not if our kids are lured into attention robbing practices designed to erode their motivation and imagination. S. 69 is currently on the Governor’s desk awaiting signature. The lobbyist are working to the last minute to get him to not sign it. If this issue is important to you, be sure to let him know.

ONE MORE THING

Also as adult users of the internet we are all one careless or curious click away from having our most personal information available to malevolent actors. The Commerce Committee continues work to strengthen our state’s privacy protections for all citizens while maintaining smooth business function, particularly for our small businesses. Our goal is to ensure that our private information stays private and is not available to data brokers to bundle for sale to just any interested entity. For example, in less than 5 minutes and for under a dollar, a committee member was able to access the detailed personal information of another committee member. These implications are alarming if this information were to be in the hands of a malicious actor. We have a duty to protect Vermont.

TRADE

The Committee was joined by the delegation from Quebec for Tourism Economy Day earlier this session to talk about how tariffs and negative rhetoric coming out of Washington are affecting trade of our Vermont businesses with our Canadian partners. While the tariffs are paused, we heard that the uncertainty and disrespectful sentiments alone coming from the federal administration has caused real economic and community harm. Beyond trade we’re talking about the real relationships, friendships and family that are affected by this negative landscape. Tourism Day showed that we are committed to repairing and strengthening our relationship with our neighbors to the north. We also continue to support the administration’s efforts to strengthen our trade efforts both with other states and internationally to shore up our trade partnerships. 

Earlier in the session we were also visited by the delegation from Taiwan. Taiwan is our third biggest trade partner. Particularly with our growing microchip and advanced manufacturing sectors. With grants to the UVM tech hub being rolled back from the federal government, it is critical that we maintain the international partnership that will lead us to the future. This session, The Commerce Committee also had a visit from the Japanese delegation to talk about our over 20 year “sister city” relationship with the Tottori Prefecture. Tottori is the most rural and one of the least populated areas of Japan. There is a lot we can learn from one another about sustaining rural economies. While Vermont does have an International Business Office, we do not have a formal sister city program at the state level. A taskforce has been appointed to create a formal framework to nurture our international relationships and cultural exchange through formalized sister city program.

ADDITIONAL WORK THIS SESSION

HOUSING, WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT + HOUSING

As we work to grow and strengthen our community we find ourselves facing strong headwinds in the housing sector. We’re at the point where we need hosing to build housing. This session, in the legislature, we worked to place Vermont on track to face these challenges and come out stronger. We passed S.127, a bill that supports our current housing programs and will enable us to develop and repair the infrastructure we need in order to build the critical housing we so desperately need. Housing that will support our healthcare, education, agriculture, service, and manufacturing sectors. This is certainly not a silver bullet but it gets us on the way.

We passed S.122 to support Vermonts workforce. This bill includes continued support for small business development. The bill also outlines the duties of the commissioner of the Dept of Labor and the Executive Director of the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development. With the goals of aligning Vermonts workforce training programs. This will also identify the areas of overlap and give Vermonters a betters understanding of the available opportunities.

We worked hard to pass healthcare reform bills aimed at creating a more efficient delivery system by modernizing technology and rule making as well as rebalancing hospital finance by allowing more flexibility in how the Green Mountain Care Board can adjust hospital budgets with S. 63 and insurance with S. 30. These changes have the goal of returning more healthcare value  to Vermonters.

GOING FORWARD

I had the privilege to learn a great deal this session. Getting to experience law making first hand is something that I’ll never forget. Having a deeper understanding of what it takes to get traction for any idea let alone a good idea has made me have a greater appreciation for all the folks in the community who are so committed to ensuring Vermont’s future. 

Going forward I am redoubling my efforts on rural public safety. I spent this session learning more about how public safety works in our region. We have increasing year round disasters, major public safety concerns, and second home vacancies that can leave rural communities open to theft or break ins. This combined with weak communication (especially on back roads) keeps citizens vulnerable and makes it harder for first responders to affectively do their jobs. Certainly in light of recent tragic events, it is critically important that rural communities are not left behind when it comes to public safety. I’m working on strengthening our fundamental rural communications as Vermont embarks on updating its emergency communications system.

I am also still fighting for our  public schools. They are the heartbeat of the community and I want to see them thrive as the innovative spaces that they are. I’m committed to smart climate policy that includes much needed support in making our infrastructure disaster resilient, weatherizing our historic rural housing stock, and hardening our electric infrastructure. I am excited to work on ways to continue protecting our right to privacy. I’m also looking forward to continuing support for our small businesses. When it is said that “small businesses are the backbone of our economy” that's not a lie in Vermont. Small businesses make up over 90% of the businesses in the state. And most of these have under five employees. It is critical that the small business community is supported as we move forward into uncharted waters. With the shifts coming from the federal government, I’m looking out for how we come into our power as Vermonters. I’m looking for a way to invest in us so that we come out stronger on the other side. It is an honor to serve you. 

In Service and Gratitude,

Rep. Emily Carris Duncan