Green Mountain Imperative Says Get Smart, Talk, Vote
[4.13.15] A new two-minute animated video from a Vermont coalition appeals to Vermonters civic-mindedness and urges them to participate in the ongoing debate about the future of public education in the state.
The video, created by the Green Mountain Imperative coalition and viewable at the coalition’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKefVjPCfk4), suggests that the future of public education in Vermont is too important to our state’s future to leave the debate exclusively to our representatives in Montpelier.
“Depending on who you talk to, Vermont’s public education system is either the best in the nation or near collapse,” observes Lisa Ventriss, president of the Vermont Business Roundtable and one of the Green Mountain Imperative coalition members. “The truth is somewhere in the middle.
“What we aim to do with this video is begin to help Vermonters better understand the challenges and complexities of the critically important civic resource we call public education.”
The video follows a two-day summit meeting hosted by Green Mountain Imperative in November, 2014. At the summit, 200 students, teachers, administrators, lawmakers, business leaders, and others collaborated to figure out how Vermonters can fulfill the promise of equal education opportunity at reasonable cost. The participants identified six areas of focus:
- Building student-centered learning systems,
- Establishing new accountability and metrics for evaluating school systems,
- Simplifying education governance,
- Establishing a sustainable funding system,
- Creating a 0-20 education continuum, and
- Tackling poverty through greater education and human services integration.
Green Mountain Imperative is a non-partisan coalition organized in 2014. Its convening members include:
- Julie Coffey, Building Bright Futures
- Stuart Comstock-Gay, Vermont Community Foundation
- Steven Dale, Vermont School Boards Association
- Jeff Francis, Vermont Superintendents Association
- Scott Giles, Vermont Student Assistance Corporation
- Rebecca Holcombe, Vermont Secretary of Education
- Stephan Morse, Vermont State Board of Education
- Shap Smith, Speaker, Vermont House of Representatives
- Lisa Ventriss, Vermont Business Roundtable
The video was produced and animated by Urban Rhino in Burlington.
###