Vermont-NEA Urges Governor Douglas, Senator Shumlin to Reverse Course and Support Repeal of Two-Vote Mandate

MONTPELIER ­ The 11,500 members of Vermont-National Education Association on April 7th repeated their call to repeal the two-vote school budget process enacted last year, saying the measure is “fundamentally flawed public policy.”

The call for repeal comes after the state’s largest union voted during its annual meeting Saturday to press President Angelo Dorta to contact Governor James Douglas and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin and “urge them to reverse their positions on the two-vote provisions of Act 82.”

The resolution, passed as part of the Association’s annual Representative Assembly, is the latest statement on the law from Vermont-NEA as it and other members of the state’s education community seek to overturn the two-vote provisions in Act 82, provisions that impose a Montpelier-based spending cap on local voters.

“The process is an unnecessary and dangerous cap on local school funding, and is contradictory to Vermont’s centuries-long tradition of local control of public education,” the resolution said. “The two-vote mandate is insulting to local voters, harmful to students, educators and schools and detrimental to communities.”

Dorta and the Association have long opposed the measure; the House of Representatives, after taking additional testimony and hearing from thousands of Vermonters, reversed course in February, replacing the two-vote mandate with a tightening of the excess-spending threshold in current law.

The resolution called on Sen. Shumlin and Gov. Douglas to “do what is best for Vermont’s excellent local public schools by supporting a repeal of the two-vote mandate much as was done in the House.”

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