[O]n the day Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the state budget over lawmakers’ refusal to adopt his education health care proposal, the state’s largest teachers union continued its assault on him and his plan.
“Gov. Scott, don’t be a D.C.-style political operative,” Vermont-NEA President Martha Allen said during a Statehouse news conference Tuesday.
Many Democrats and the teachers union say Scott’s proposal to negotiate a statewide contract for teacher health insurance violates a fundamental aspect of collective bargaining. They also are upset Scott introduced the proposal in the last two weeks of the legislative session, which ended in May.
But Scott’s administration insists legislative leaders began hearing about the plan in February. Scott says it would save the state as much as $26 million annually. He said if the Legislature didn’t approve it or find a guaranteed $26 million elsewhere, he’d block the state budget.
At the news conference, Allen said she feared a government shutdown, although Scott has said, “This isn’t D.C., and I will not shut down state government over this issue.”
“You’re better than this, governor,” Allen said.
Three other former and current Vermont teachers decried Scott’s stance, all accusing him of “D.C.-style” politics.
The attack on the governor won’t likely end soon. On Wednesday, the Vermont Democratic Party and a coalition of labor, education and environmental groups have planned a number of protests across the state.
At the news conference, U-32 math teacher Kate McCann said the state offers students a sound education. And sometimes, she said, protecting it means saying no.
In 2010, for instance, teachers said no to the U.S. Department of Education program dubbed Race to the Top, she said.
In 2012, teachers said no to the No Child Left Behind Act, she said.
“And in 2017,” she said, “we need to say no to Gov. Scott.”
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Correction: Kate McCann is a teacher at U-32 Middle & High School, not Montpelier High School.
