Latest news with #Montpelier
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Vermont Senate finally passes education reform bill, but governor says he won't sign
MONTPELIER, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) – Vermont lawmakers spent the better part of three months finding a compromise on education reform. Now their 415-page bill looks to be sent back to the legislature for more work. Governor Phil Scott agreed Friday that reform is needed, but says he 'still cannot accept' House Bill 454 (H. 454) in its current form. H. 454 has faced criticism from both the right and the left, with Scott and other Vermont Republicans pointing at its impact on taxpayers while Vermont's progressives are concerned about school consolidation and effects on lower-income Vermonters. Scott wrote Friday, 'As I've said since the beginning of this process, I will only accept a final product that costs less than it does today, sets us on a clear path to achieve scale, reduces administrative overhead, and eliminates inefficiencies that prevent money from flowing towards more opportunities for students.' Scott proposed his own education reform bill in January, which would have put in place a single statewide property tax rate to fund schools. He also proposed dividing the state into five school districts and allowing students the option of entering a lottery to attend nearby private schools. Gov. Scott school choice plan receiving mixed reviews He said he still expects the legislature to pass education reform before it adjourns for the summer, and called the Senate passage of H. 454 'an important procedural step'. Earlier this week when he signed Vermont's $9.1 billion budget for next year, he wrote that Vermont policymakers 'must complete the work to transform our education system, starting with H.454'. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signs $9.1 billion FY26 state budget An open letter signed by 19 former Vermont legislators including former Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman, who ran against Scott for governor in 2020 as a Progressive, says the continued reliance on property taxes to fund schools is regressive. 'We hope you will fulfill the promise of Act 60, which we helped pass in 1997, and ask Vermont homeowners with the most income to contribute their fair share to the cost of education by paying based on income.' The Education Justice Coalition of Vermont, an activist organization, led a student walkout on May 21 based on what it said was the bill's failure to address the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the state as well as the risk of school consolidation. However, Vermont House Speaker Jill Krowinski said she voted for the bill in April because the 'status quo is unacceptable'. Vermont House approves school-funding reform bill The Vermont Senate amended the House bill several times over the past six weeks before eventually deciding to vote on a version close to that passed by the House. The bill passed in concurrence without a floor vote. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his U.S. citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. He spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with campus security guards inside the university's main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody, police said. Mahdawi said instead of being a 'beacon of hope," the university is inciting violence against students. 'Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,' Mahdawi said in the interview. 'They are supporting the initiatives and the agenda of the Trump administration, and they are punishing and torturing their students.' A spokesperson for Columbia University, which in March announced sweeping policy changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding, declined to comment Thursday beyond the response of the school's acting president to Wednesday's protests. The acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then asked police in 'to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,' she said in a statement Wednesday evening, calling the protest actions 'outrageous' and a disruption to students for final exams. The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge who released him ruled that he has raised a 'substantial claim' that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees. Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the U.S. and graduate student who was arrested in March. On April 14, Mahdawi had taken a written citizenship test, answered verbal questions and signed a document about the pledge of allegiance at an immigration office in Colchester when his interviewer left the room. Masked and armed agents then entered and arrested him, he said. Though he had suspected a trap, the moment was still shocking, he said, triggering a cascade of contrasting emotions. 'Light and darkness, cold and hot. Having rights or not having rights at all,' he said. Immigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Mahdawi was among the first to win release from custody after challenging his arrest. In another case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, upholding an order to transfer her from a Louisiana detention center back to New England to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released. Mahdawi said his message to the Turkish student and others was 'stay positive and don't let this injustice shake your belief in the inevitability of justice.' 'People are working hard. Communities are mobilizing,' he said. 'The justice system has signaled to America with my case, and with Rumeysa's yesterday with the Second Circuit, that justice is functioning and checks and balances is still in function.' Mahdawi's release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month. He said he plans to do so, though he believes the administration has turned its back on him and rejected the work of a student diplomacy council he served on alongside Jewish, Israeli and Lebanese students. 'I plan to attend the graduation because it is a message," he said. "This is a message that education is hope, education is light, and there is no power in the world that should take that away from us.'
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence
MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his U.S. citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. He spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with campus security guards inside the university's main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody, police said.
Associated Press
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his U.S. citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. He spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with campus security guards inside the university's main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody, police said. Mahdawi said instead of being a 'beacon of hope,' the university is inciting violence against students. 'Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,' Mahdawi said in the interview. 'They are supporting the initiatives and the agenda of the Trump administration, and they are punishing and torturing their students.' A spokesperson for Columbia University, which in March announced sweeping policy changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding, declined to comment Thursday beyond the response of the school's acting president to Wednesday's protests. The acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then asked police in 'to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,' she said in a statement Wednesday evening, calling the protest actions 'outrageous' and a disruption to students for final exams. The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge who released him ruled that he has raised a 'substantial claim' that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees. Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the U.S. and graduate student who was arrested in March. On April 14, Mahdawi had taken a written citizenship test, answered verbal questions and signed a document about the pledge of allegiance at an immigration office in Colchester when his interviewer left the room. Masked and armed agents then entered and arrested him, he said. Though he had suspected a trap, the moment was still shocking, he said, triggering a cascade of contrasting emotions. 'Light and darkness, cold and hot. Having rights or not having rights at all,' he said. Immigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Mahdawi was among the first to win release from custody after challenging his arrest. In another case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, upholding an order to transfer her from a Louisiana detention center back to New England to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released. Mahdawi said his message to the Turkish student and others was 'stay positive and don't let this injustice shake your belief in the inevitability of justice.' 'People are working hard. Communities are mobilizing,' he said. 'The justice system has signaled to America with my case, and with Rumeysa's yesterday with the Second Circuit, that justice is functioning and checks and balances is still in function.' Mahdawi's release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month. He said he plans to do so, though he believes the administration has turned its back on him and rejected the work of a student diplomacy council he served on alongside Jewish, Israeli and Lebanese students. 'I plan to attend the graduation because it is a message,' he said. 'This is a message that education is hope, education is light, and there is no power in the world that should take that away from us.'
Washington Post
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Released Palestinian student to meet with Vermont governor and lawmakers
MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Palestinian student arrested during an interview about finalizing his U.S. citizenship is helping to launch an initiative to help other immigrants facing deportation in Vermont on Thursday, a week after a federal judge freed him from custody. Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led protests against Israel's war in Gaza at Columbia University , spent 16 days in a state prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge ruled that he has raised a 'substantial claim' that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.
