Vermont’s Act 73 Is Here, What Does It Mean for Your Town?
Vermont Just Radically Overhauled Its Education System. Here Are 5 Surprising Things You Need to Know.
A Seismic Shift in the Green Mountains
For generations, Vermont's identity has been deeply intertwined with its system of local control and small, community-centric schools. But in July 2025, that long-standing tradition was upended. The passage of Act 73, formally titled "An act relating to transforming Vermont’s education governance, quality, and finance systems," initiated a radical transformation of the state's education structure. This sweeping 147-page law is poised to fundamentally reshape Vermont's educational landscape.
For Vermonters and education policy observers nationwide, understanding the full scope of this complex overhaul is a challenge. This article distills the law into its five most impactful and surprising takeaways.
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1. Say Goodbye to Local School Districts as You Know Them
One of the law's most profound changes is a mandate to consolidate Vermont's 119 school districts into a much smaller number of new, larger districts, each intended to serve between 4,000 and 8,000 students. This represents a complete restructuring of the state's educational map.
A newly created "School District Redistricting Task Force" is now charged with proposing up to three new district maps for the state legislature to consider in 2026. If a new map is approved, the existing governance structure will be dissolved.
This consolidation means many local school boards will simply "cease to exist," shifting power away from individual towns and toward regional authorities. The scale of this change has led to significant concern that the law will, as one analysis put it, "radically upends our system of local public schools and, therefore all but eliminate local control." This has created a climate of uncertainty, with community members like one Hartford School Board member expressing deep attachment to their local districts: "I don't want to see them go anywhere other than Hartford."
This redrawing of the state's educational map isn't just structural; Act 73 also takes direct aim at one of Vermont's most historic educational practices: school choice.
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2. America's Oldest School Choice Program Is Being Sharply Curtailed
Since 1869, Vermont has operated a "town tuitioning" system, one of the nation's oldest school choice programs. It allows towns that don't operate their own public schools to pay tuition for resident students to attend public or private schools elsewhere. Act 73 sharply curtails this historic practice.
Recent federal court rulings, most notably the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin, had forced states like Vermont to include religious schools in public tuitioning programs. This led to a significant increase in public dollars flowing to these institutions. Against that backdrop, Act 73 introduces new restrictions. To remain eligible for public tuition funds, an independent school must now pass two new tests:
- It must be located in a supervisory union where at least one school district does not operate a public school for some or all grades.
- At least 25% of its student body during the 2023-24 school year must have been publicly funded.
The impact is immediate and significant. According to one estimate, "more than half of Vermont’s independent schools that were previously eligible for public funding will now no longer be eligible." An effective, if officially unintended, consequence is that public tuition dollars will be halted for all 12 of the state's religious schools that had previously received them. While lawmakers have stated this was a "side effect, not the intent," it directly reverses the recent trend of increased funding for these schools.
An advocate for independent schools framed the policy shift in stark terms:
“H.454, now Act 73, results in the biggest reduction in access to independent schools in the history of Vermont’s education system, without question.”
The constraints on school choice are particularly concerning for small towns, which now face an even more existential threat under the new law.
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3. Small, Rural Schools Are Facing Elimination
Among the most immediate fears surrounding Act 73 is that many of Vermont’s smallest and most rural schools could be forced to close their doors. This concern is driven by a new set of state-mandated minimums for average class sizes. While these mandates create the immediate pressure, the broader district consolidation strategy is the long-term mechanism designed to create a system where such small, "inefficient" schools are no longer viable.
Under the new law, schools will be required to meet the following standards:
- Grade 1: Average of 10 students
- Grades 2-5: Average of 12 students
- Grades 6-8: Average of 15 students
- Grades 9-12: Average of 18 students
The situation at Sunderland Elementary School serves as a powerful case study. The school has seen its enrollment decline by over 40% in the last five years and now serves only 50 students. As a result, it no longer meets the new state minimums for either class size or grade configuration.
For communities like Sunderland, the potential closure of a local school is not just a policy change; it is a deeply emotional event. As BRSU Superintendent Dr. Randi Lowe noted, this resistance is rooted in a profound sense of community loss.
"What people resist is not change per se, but loss. The loss of a school community is significant."
The threat to small schools and the push for consolidation are both symptoms of the law's central theme: a fundamental transfer of decision-making authority from local communities to the state.
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4. Funding and Policy Decisions Are Moving from the Town Hall to the Statehouse
Act 73 represents a clear and deliberate shift of power from local communities to the state government in Montpelier. This is most apparent in the new statewide "foundation formula" for school funding, which replaces locally developed budgets. Under this system, the state sets a per-pupil base amount—specifically $15,033.00 for fiscal year 2029—and adds additional funding "weights" for students with specific needs, such as those in poverty, English language learners, or those requiring special education services. In short, "funding decisions are made in Montpelier, not in local communities."
This centralization extends beyond funding. The law also directs the state to establish other key policies, including:
- A statewide school calendar
- Statewide graduation requirements
The stated rationale for this centralization, as laid out in the law's findings, is to ensure "substantially equal educational opportunities for all Vermont students." The goal is to create a system where a "student’s home address does not dictate the quality of education they receive." While the intent is clear, the long and complex implementation of this vision has left local officials scrambling in a fog of uncertainty.
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5. The Law's Uncertainty Is Already Causing Local Chaos
Because Act 73 is a massive piece of legislation with an implementation timeline staggered over several years, it has created a climate of deep uncertainty. This has led some communities to make preemptive, high-stakes decisions based on speculation about the future.
The town of Danville provides a stark example. There, a parent submitted a petition to force a town-wide vote on closing the local high school. This dramatic step was prompted by a local lawmaker's warning that if the community didn't act now, the option to switch to a school choice model might be legislated away in the near future.
The local school board, feeling caught between state-level ambiguity and local pressure, expressed its frustration and powerlessness in a letter to the state's redistricting task force.
"Beholden to the whims of your Task Force, and more broadly, the State Legislature...we are forced to assume and plan for the worst case scenario, and do everything in our power to prevent it. And so our ask to you...is to give us clarity."
The situation in Danville illustrates a central challenge of this reform effort. While the state is methodically planning a long-term overhaul, local communities are in the difficult position of having to make life-altering decisions now with incomplete information.
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An Unwritten Future for Vermont Schools
Act 73 represents an unprecedented and intentional shift from local to state control over public education in Vermont. The consolidation of districts, the sharp curtailing of school choice, the pressure to close small schools, and the centralization of funding are all facets of the same fundamental transfer of power from the town hall to the Statehouse. This top-down transformation, designed to build a more efficient and equitable system, has predictably culminated in local chaos as communities are forced to react to a future they cannot yet see.
The full consequences will unfold over the next several years, shaped by task force recommendations, legislative votes, and community reactions. As Vermont charts this new course, can it build a more equitable and sustainable education system without losing the very community connections that have always been its greatest strength?
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