It's the fourth installment of our annual fall series, School Stories. Every Tuesday this month, we’ve focused on issues related to Vermont schools. For this edition, we discuss pre-kindergarten.

In 2014, Vermont’s governor Peter Shumlin signed a universal pre-K bill into law. Thereafter, 3 and 4-year-olds could get free pre-K for 10 hours a week through their public school system, or through subsidy on tuition to a private or home-based childcare centers. We’re about a decade into the implementation of this law, and there have been some big wins. But the pre-K world in Vermont is far from some stable, done deal. 

Our guests this hour are helping to shape the vision for pre-k education in Vermont. We're joined by Vermont Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, Janet McLaughlin, executive director of the nonprofit Building Bright Futures, Morgan Crossman, and Executive Director of Turtle Island Children’s Center in Montpelier, Jocelyn York.

Broadcast live on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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