North Bennington strategically crafted its way into the choice/tuition system a few years back. Removed themselves from the public school system, shut down the elementary school and turned it independent, and gave residents the option to spend 17k on any school they want. Most of the kids are now in private/independent schools.

I’m in Bennington County in a supervisory union that has designated public schools depending on what town/neighborhood you live in. Move one town over into a place like Manchester, Dorset, or Winhall, and you get the option to use your $17k education tax on any school you want.

Tell me how that’s fair to some section 8 kid forced into Bennington public schools vs one in Winhall who can choose among a half dozen local private schools, a couple public schools, and even the option of an out of state boarding school.

Sure as shit, I want to move into one of those towns as my kids enter middle/high school. But damn, if you don’t have the means to pay into the high real estate of the Manchester area, you’re stuck with the public option.

If you can’t offer this option to every Vermont student, it shouldn’t be offered to those in specific towns.

I’d want to have a combined income of at least 120k to live in the rural or less desirable parts of Vt. If you’re looking at living in Chittenden county, Waterbury/stowe, Montpelier, upper valley, or higher end ski/resort towns, I’d put that figure closer to 200k+. Most folks that I know that live comfortably work in the trades, manufacturing, medical field, or work remotely.

Many of our friends have had mini splits installed in the past few years. All of them are happy with their purchase. Some of the nuisances… installers are fleecing the fuck out of folks in the past couple years.

Had one friend get an install with a compressor and 3 head units 3 years ago, and pay 8k installed. Had another friend put a compressor and 4 head units in this year to the tune of 22k. The later had a monthly electric bill at $600 on a sub 2000 sq ft house.

I’m holding out for the time being as the demand is making the install price of these things insane. Installers are fleecing the shit out of the consumer due to tons of folks jumping on the bandwagon all at once.

I’ve spent about $2500 in fuel oil this year with steam heat. I’d love to switch that to a wood stove and mini-splits, but until the mini-split price goes down I’m sticking to the ole oil and a couple window AC units.

Just to give you some hope, good friends of ours are both teachers (elementary and HS). They own a nice house in a nice neighborhood, have two kids, two cars, and live a simple and comfortable life (summers off!). Granted we’re outside of the Chittenden County area and not in a gold town - good houses are still around 250-350k here.