I agree, instate tuition should be free up to about $100k family income. Then graduated to about $200k toping out at about $10k/yr instate tuition.

Long story short, my mothers side of the family (Gallant) is at least 7 generations VT. They snuck over the border from Canada some time between the Revolution and the Civil War.

You can't have any substantive discussion of VT policy without first providing your VT bonafides. Unfortunately I grew up on the other side of the lake in NY where my dad is from. I have been a VT property owner for 40 yrs and f/t VTer for 20. I went to an Ivy league school in NY where the total ticket was $7200/yr. You could buy a brand new VW Beetle for $2995 that year.

My fraternity brother and roommate was from the same town as me, yet I had never met him before college. I thought that odd because I new most all the tall black men from my hometown that ran HS track, like me.

Turns out he was new in our town. His family had just moved to town so his dad could take a job with the state. "What agency?" I asked, because many families in my middle class neighborhood worked for the state. "State University" he told me. "Oh, what job?" I asked, my best friends dad worked there, maybe they were acquainted? "Chancellor" he told me.

I was a (lower) middle class kid, from a neighborhood full of state workers and laborers and hourly wage earners, not executives.

His dad had been hired to run the NY State University system. He had been hired specifically to cut costs, close up to a dozen State Colleges and Community Colleges and cut the budget by hundreds of millions of dollars over a period of a few years.

First thing 'Cliff' did was visit every single State College and CC in the state, ALL 64. He spoke with deans, faculty, unions and community leaders. Most of the colleges in NY are actually Upstate. This was during the recession of the 1970's that featured high unemployment AND high inflation, stagflation.

As a Harvard and U of Chicago PhD. trained economist, Cliff understood that the colleges were the economic hub of these small towns. Closures would be devastating. He also understood the value of the human capital created at these colleges. He knew that the only chance many of the students at these schools had of improving their lives was to get a college degree.

When Cliff reported his findings and his decision to the NY Board of Regents who reported to the NY legislature, they were pissed. His mandate was to cut costs and close colleges and he refused to do either. He insisted MORE investment was necessary, not less.

Fortunately he had a reluctant ally in NY Gov Hugh Carey who had been re-elected in 1978. Cliff was able to charm the NY State Legislature through numerous hearings and various types of financial legerdemain to balance the budgets and get the necessary funding.

Cliff could see companies like Corning Glass and Xerox and Kodak and Polaroid and IBM all needed an educated workforce to succeed. They needed to fill jobs that required skills and a technical education. Cliff could see the impending personal computer revolution starting and the economic impact that would have.

Cliff got his funding and got his wish to keep ALL 64 colleges open. Even though the number of HS students in NY is LESS THAN HALF of what is was back then, ALL 64 colleges are STILL open to this day, and thriving.

Cliff went on to receive an honorary degree at UVM in the 80's. He became the Chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation and the CEO of TIAA-CREF and turned that pension fund around, quadrupling it's assets in just a few years and instituting numerous organizational changes. After TIAA-CREF Cliff went on to become the Undersecretary of State in the Clinton Administration.

When he was hired at MSU Cliff was known as 'the the first Negro president of a major predominantly white college in the country.' He insisted on wider financial aid and need blind admissions at MSU. He was then the first African-American to lead a Fortune Fifty company.

VT needs a visionary like Cliff. Or at least someone who understands the value of a college degree. We have a Governor that sees the State contribution to the Univ and State Colleges as a 'gift' a line item expense. He doesn't regard the Univ and State College as an investment in the future. He's a cheapskate who led the charge to withhold more state funding to the colleges when he was in the Senate and he's only now agreeing to pitch in a little extra because the state is flush with Covid Cash.

VT has one of the highest HS graduation rates in the country. But of the top 20 states with high HS graduation rates we rank LAST in percentage of students who matriculate to college. Why is this? Likely sticker shock. Our CCV tuition is near the top of nationwide CC tuition rates. Same with UVM tuition.

CCV offers almost nothing of interest outside classes. They have no gym, no dinning halls, cafeterias, dorms, intramurals, intercollegiate athletics, clubs or extra-curricular activities that help to lure students. Nothing. Go to neighboring states NY and MA and their CC's are like real colleges at less cost.

The State Colleges have changed names three times in the last four or five years. And in that time frame FOUR VT colleges have closed their doors forever!

The state, led by Gov Scott, let four colleges with hundreds of acres and hundreds of thousands of square feet of floor space, and hundreds of employees fall out of active educational space.

With just a little bit of creativity, these spaces could have been part of the State College system. They could have been Incubator Spaces, Co-Working spaces, places for emerging technologies and entrepreneurship.

Our Governors only solution to the aging population and shrinking tax base is to import remote workers. And he'll use the 'Covid exodus' from cities to VT as proof positive that his plan is working.

It's not working. A few areas of the state are doing well while others are floundering. The kids in those areas will not thrive, they will not do well and they will likely leave VT and look for better jobs and lower costs elsewhere, most likely the American South.

In-state education, combined with internships, entrepreneurship, maker-spaces, co-working spaces; these are the things that keep people here and help build and preserve the tax base.