PART 8 - Vermont must reform regional coordination and governance and advance efficiency and foresight in state planning.
By Bill Schubart The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD)’s deep dive into the issues facing Vermont is informed by interviews with and input from thousands of Vermonters.
Part 8 is of particular interest to me as I have written about it before.
There are several lenses through which one must view the generation and implementation of public policy in Vermont.
Is it top-down or ground-up?
Is it motivated by ego, privilege, and greed, or by a commitment to the common good?
The significant realms of policy and law are development, environment, equity, healthcare, education, agriculture/food systems, housing, and culture.
The Mountain Times
By Bob Allen, former president of Green Mountain College, Poultney
The Select Committee and the Vermont Legislature have a difficult task ahead. Covid-19 exacerbated and accelerated a problem that has existed in higher education for at least a decade or more. I will argue the business model for most public and private colleges and universities is broken and needs immediate change.
I had the honor of leading Green Mountain College as its president from 2016 until its closure in the summer of 2019. Prior to my leadership position at GMC, I spent five years as the president and CEO of the nonprofit Windham Foundation based in Grafton; however, most of my professional life was spent in the for-profit sector. I spent 25 years in a succession of senior leadership positions at The Vermont Country Store, ending as president and CEO. Most of my ideas come from the perspective of operating a Vermont business that received no public support. Success was entirely dependent
How two nontraditional newsrooms in Vermont are winning readers
Could their examples hold the key to fixing âThe Expanding News Desertâ?
By Mark Shanahan Globe Staff,Updated December 28, 2020, 12:44 p.m.
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Anne Galloway wondered if her journalism career might be over.
It was January 2009 and the Sunday editor of the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus was among 16 employees abruptly laid off when the newspaperâs owner slashed positions in a round of budget cuts.
âI knew I wanted to stay in journalism,â says Galloway. âBut there werenât many jobs in the offing.â
Or any. All over Vermont, the story was the same: Newspapers were downsizing as readers in ever greater numbers were getting their news for free on the Internet, and advertising revenue â which sustained print journalism for two centuries â had dwindled to a trickle during the recession between 2007 and 2009.