Vermont has some great public schools, STEM programs, and colleges. I'm an engineer and went through a job hunting cycle here. I finally found a really cool local job that pays great, but 90% of the engineering jobs I have seen pay 25-50% less than the national average. New grad openings in Vermont today tend to pay $10k-$20k less than I made when I graduated in the Midwest in 2008. If a new grad can get past that, the opportunities are few and far between. It seems that Vermont is cranking out some well educated engineers with a lot of potential, but the well paying and interesting jobs they trained for just don't exist here. I think that is a reoccurring theme in other fields as well.