Vermont Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF VERMONT — 2027-2028 Biennium

                       H. ____
                       S. ____

BY __________ (Introduced by request)

CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE PROGRAMS FOR FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE, PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, AND EDUCATION MODERNIZATION TO ENSURE THE MATERIAL SECURITY, PHYSIOLOGICAL WELL-BEING, AND DEVELOPMENTAL MATURITY OF ALL VERMONTERS, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, ENACTING NEW SECTIONS OF THE VERMONT STATUTES ANNOTATED RELATING TO TITLE 6 (AGRICULTURE), TITLE 16 (EDUCATION), TITLE 18 (HEALTH), AND TITLE 33 (HUMAN SERVICES), MAKING APPROPRIATIONS, AND PROVIDING EFFECTIVE DATES.

                          A BILL FOR AN ACT

LONG TITLE

AN ACT CONCERNING THE CREATION OF THE VERMONT FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, ENACTING NEW SECTIONS OF THE VERMONT STATUTES ANNOTATED TO BE COMPILED IN TITLE 6 (AGRICULTURE), ESTABLISHING THE VERMONT FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM; ENACTING NEW SECTIONS IN TITLE 18 (HEALTH), ESTABLISHING PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE FINDINGS; ENACTING NEW SECTIONS IN TITLE 16 (EDUCATION), ENACTING THE VERMONT EDUCATION MODERNIZATION ACT; ENACTING NEW SECTIONS IN TITLE 33 (HUMAN SERVICES), ESTABLISHING FUNDING MECHANISMS; MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE GENERAL FUND AND FROM STATE REVENUE SOURCES; AND PROVIDING FOR EFFECTIVE DATES AND IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULES.

LEGISLATIVE ROUTING NOTE

Vermont does not have a citizen initiative process for statutes. Vermont allows constitutional amendment proposals through the General Assembly every four years but does NOT permit citizen-initiated statutory ballot measures. This bill must pass the General Assembly — the House of Representatives and the Senate — to become law.

FILING: A bill may be introduced by any member of the House of Representatives or the Senate. Bills are designated H. (House) or S. (Senate) followed by a number. Bills are filed with the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT: Upon introduction, this bill would likely be assigned to: - House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and

    Forestry or Senate Committee on Agriculture (Division I)

- House Committee on Health Care or Senate Committee on

    Health and Welfare (Division II)

- House Committee on Education or Senate Committee on

    Education (Division III)

Because the bill spans multiple committees' jurisdictions, it may be referred to the House Committee on Appropriations or Senate Committee on Appropriations, or referred jointly.

FISCAL NOTE: The Joint Fiscal Office prepares fiscal notes for all bills with budgetary impact, pursuant to Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 2, Sec. 505.

FLOOR VOTE: Simple majority in each chamber (76 of 150 Representatives; 16 of 30 Senators). Governor's signature or veto override (two-thirds of each chamber).

SESSION: The General Assembly convenes in January. Vermont legislative sessions are not constitutionally limited in length. All members of both chambers serve two-year terms.

ANNUAL BUDGET: The State of Vermont operates on an annual budget with a fiscal year running from July 1 to June 30. Vermont has a progressive state income tax, a state sales and use tax, a meals and rooms tax, and various other revenue sources. Vermont's annual general fund budget is approximately $2.2 billion. The fiscal argument for this bill is straightforward: Vermont already spends among the most per pupil in America on education. The bill REDIRECTS spending from an ineffective structure to an effective one. Not more spending — better structure. The Green Mountain Care cost lesson: single-domain reform is unaffordable. Three-division reform is affordable because the divisions reduce each other's costs (food security reduces health costs, education reduces both).

THE SANDERS COMPLETION — VERMONT'S DEFINING FRAME:

Bernie Sanders is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in American history. He represents Vermont in the United States Senate and has done so since 2007. Before the Senate, he served as Vermont's sole United States Representative from 1991 to 2007. Before Congress, he was elected mayor of Burlington in 1981 as an independent socialist, defeating five-term Democratic incumbent Gordon Paquette by ten (10) votes — one of the most consequential municipal elections in American political history. Sanders ran for president in 2016 and 2020, winning the New Hampshire and Nevada primaries in 2020, making "democratic socialism" a mainstream American political term for the first time since Eugene Debs.

Sanders has championed: Medicare for All, free public college tuition, fifteen-dollar minimum wage, breaking up big banks, taxing billionaires, the Green New Deal, universal childcare, expanding Social Security. These are Division I and Division II proposals. Sanders understands that the market fails to distribute essential goods equitably. He understands that the markup kills. He understands Galbraith's private opulence and public squalor.

WHAT SANDERS IS MISSING: Division III. Sanders proposes free college — which is a FUNDING reform, not a STRUCTURAL reform. Free college within the existing educational structure still produces the Bowles and Gintis reproduction of class hierarchy through credentialing. The K-20 pipeline is not free college. It is a completely different developmental model — eight quotients instead of GPA, developmental stages instead of credit hours, structured ordeals instead of standardized tests, public service integration instead of career placement, brain maturation science instead of seat-time requirements. Sanders has never articulated the developmental architecture. He funds the existing system. Cooper redesigns the system.

THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST PARADOX: Sanders' democratic socialism provides material floors (minimum wage, universal healthcare, free education) but does not transform the human development model. It is a better distribution of resources within the existing hierarchy. Cooper's argument goes further: the hierarchy itself must be replaced with a developmental architecture. Democratic socialism distributes the inventory more fairly. Cooper builds the abundance. Vermont — Sanders' state — should be the state that recognizes the difference.

"I WROTE THE DAMN BILL": Sanders' famous debate line about Medicare for All. Cooper's response: "I wrote the NEXT bill." Medicare for All is Division II. The K-20 pipeline is Division III. Sanders wrote Division II. Cooper wrote the full three- division proposal. Vermont — where Sanders first won office — is where the next step begins.

THE COOPERATIVE ECONOMY: Vermont already practices communal economic models. Champlain Housing Trust (founded during Sanders' mayoral tenure, now the largest community land trust in America with approximately 3,000 housing units), Cabot Creamery (farmer-owned dairy cooperative since 1919, ~800 farm families), City Market/Onion River Co-op (member-owned food cooperative in Burlington, two locations, more than 12,000 member-owners), Vermont Federal Credit Union, and dozens of CSA farms. The cooperative model IS the at-cost distribution model. Vermont does not need to be convinced cooperatives work. Vermont needs to SCALE cooperatives to state infrastructure.

LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK: The General Assembly of the State of Vermont is a bicameral body consisting of the House of Representatives (150 members) and the Senate (30 members). All members serve two-year terms. This bill is designed for introduction in the 2027-2028 biennium.

HISTORY: A version of this proposal was first developed in 2016 through the Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation (SMRF), the first non-partisan political trade school in the United States, registered with the Colorado Department of Higher Education, Division of Private Occupational Schools (DPOS). The original proposal was written for Colorado and sidelined during the 2016-2017 legislative cycle. The present version is the Vermont adaptation, incorporating updated research from the Historical Apoplexy series (Cooper, 2025- 2026), a ten-paper academic work providing the evidentiary foundation for this legislation. Vermont is the thirty-second state in this legislative series.

LEGISLATIVE DECLARATION

It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:

SECTION 1. Legislative findings and declaration.

    (1) The General Assembly hereby finds, determines, and
    declares that:

    FINDINGS RELATING TO THE STRUCTURAL IMPERATIVE FOR STATE
    ACTION:

    (a0) Twenty-two federal government shutdowns since 1976,
    including a forty-three-day shutdown in 2025. The House frozen
    at 435 since 1929; 762,000 constituents per representative —
    worst in the OECD. Federal H.R. 1 (2025) shifted SNAP
    administrative costs from fifty percent to seventy-five percent
    state share. The federal machine is structurally overloaded
    (Cooper, Paper VII, 2026). This state has the authority to act
    under its own legislative power rather than await federal
    action that structural overload prevents;

    (a1) DENIAL IS NO LONGER NEUTRAL. Inaction by a legislature
    possessing the authority, capacity, and documented need to act
    constitutes active harm. The burden rests on denial;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO FOOD AND COMMODITY INSECURITY:

    (a) According to the United States Department of Agriculture
    Economic Research Service, 13.5 percent of United States
    households experienced food insecurity in 2023, and 5.1 percent
    experienced very low food security. Vermont's food insecurity
    rate is approximately 12.2 percent (Feeding America, Map the
    Meal Gap, 2023), representing approximately 79,000 Vermonters
    who lack consistent access to adequate food in a state that
    produces massive dairy and agricultural surplus;

    (b) The United States Department of Agriculture Economic
    Research Service Food Dollar Series establishes that the farm
    share of the United States food dollar is 24.3 cents, with
    the remaining 75.7 cents allocated to processing,
    transportation, wholesale, retail, and food service markup.
    Total United States food-at-home spending is approximately
    $1.09 trillion; production cost is approximately $213 to $327
    billion. The difference of approximately $496 billion
    represents markup above production cost;

    (c) The cost to close the food insecurity gap for all 47.9
    million food-insecure Americans is approximately $32 billion,
    which represents 6.5 percent of the $496 billion markup between
    production cost and retail price (Cooper, "The Mathematics of
    Abundance," 2025);

    (d) The United States military commissary system, established
    by the Military Commissary Act of 1867 and now codified at
    10 U.S.C. Section 2484, has operated at-cost food distribution
    continuously for one hundred fifty-seven (157) years through
    approximately 236 commissary stores worldwide, delivering
    savings of 17 to 25 percent below civilian retail prices to
    approximately 2.8 million authorized users. This program is
    funded by all federal taxpayers but available only to military
    families and retirees, establishing a proven precedent for
    government-operated at-cost food distribution;

    THE DAIRY CRISIS — VERMONT'S FOOD DOLLAR MADE PERSONAL:

    (e) Vermont is the number one per-capita dairy producing state
    in America. Vermont's identity — rolling hills, red barns,
    Holstein cattle — is inseparable from dairy farming. Yet
    Vermont dairy farming is in crisis. The number of dairy farms
    in Vermont has declined from approximately 11,000 in 1947 to
    approximately 636 in 2023 (USDA; Vermont Agency of Agriculture,
    Food and Markets). Vermont dairy farmers receive less for their
    milk than it costs to produce. The 24.3/75.7 split is killing
    the people who produce the food. Farmer suicides. Farm closures.
    Generational farms lost. The USDA Food Dollar is not an
    abstraction in Vermont — it is the reason the barn is empty
    and the farmer is dead. Division I bypasses the 75.7 percent
    markup that is destroying Vermont's agricultural identity.
    At-cost distribution pays farmers the production cost and
    delivers to consumers without the retail markup. The farmer
    survives. The consumer saves. The 75.7 percent dies;

    BEN AND JERRY'S — THE CORPORATE ABSORPTION:

    (f) Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded Ben and Jerry's
    Homemade Holdings, Inc., in Burlington, Vermont, in 1978.
    The company built its brand on progressive values — living
    wage, social mission, Vermont identity. In 2000, Unilever
    acquired Ben and Jerry's for $326 million. The progressive
    brand was absorbed by a multinational corporation headquartered
    in London and Rotterdam. The ice cream is still manufactured
    in Waterbury, Vermont. The profits flow to Europe. Ben and
    Jerry's is the story of the markup in ice cream form: Vermont
    milk, Vermont labor, Vermont brand — multinational profit.
    Division I keeps the value local: Vermont production, Vermont
    distribution, Vermont benefit. No multinational middleman;

    THE COOPERATIVE PRECEDENT:

    (g) Vermont already practices communal economic models at
    significant scale. Cabot Creamery, founded in 1919, is a
    farmer-owned dairy cooperative with approximately 800 farm
    families. Cabot keeps profits within the cooperative — but
    still sells through the retail markup system. City Market/
    Onion River Co-op in Burlington is a member-owned food
    cooperative with more than 12,000 member-owners across two
    locations, operating at minimal markup. The Champlain Housing
    Trust, founded during Bernie Sanders' mayoral tenure in 1984
    as the Burlington Community Land Trust, is now the largest
    community land trust in America with approximately 3,000
    housing units. The trust owns the land; residents own the
    buildings. When a home is sold, appreciation is shared between
    the owner and the trust, keeping housing permanently
    affordable. This is communal ownership of the productive
    asset with individual benefit within the communal framework —
    the same philosophy as Division I's commissary model applied
    to food. Vermont's cooperative economy is the commissary model
    in miniature. The bill scales what Vermont already practices;

    THE CSA MODEL AT SCALE:

    (h) Community Supported Agriculture — in which the consumer
    pays the farmer directly and receives produce without retail
    markup — is practiced extensively throughout Vermont. Vermont
    has one of the highest CSA participation rates in America.
    CSA is Division I's philosophy at farm-stand scale: at-cost
    distribution, direct relationship between producer and
    consumer, no intermediary markup. The bill industrializes
    what CSA demonstrates in miniature — at-cost distribution of
    all essential goods, not just one farm's vegetables;

    THE BILLBOARD BAN AS ANTI-VEBLEN:

    (i) In 1968, Vermont banned billboards — one of only four
    states in the nation to do so (Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, and
    Alaska). Thorstein Veblen documented conspicuous consumption's
    role in sustaining the markup — advertising creates artificial
    demand for branded products at premium prices. Vermont already
    rejected the advertising apparatus. Division I extends the
    rejection: eliminate not just the advertisement, but the
    markup the advertising supports;

    THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM:

    (j) Orleans, Essex, and Caledonia counties — Vermont's
    Northeast Kingdom — constitute the state's most rural and
    most impoverished region. Rural poverty is hidden by the
    postcard Vermont of covered bridges, fall foliage, skiing,
    and artisan cheese. Food insecurity in communities surrounded
    by dairy farms and maple groves — the production-insecurity
    paradox at Vermont's intimate scale, visible from any
    farmhouse window;

    MAPLE SYRUP SOVEREIGNTY:

    (k) Vermont produces approximately fifty (50) percent of all
    maple syrup in the United States, making it the nation's
    leading producer by a wide margin (Vermont Maple Sugar Makers
    Association). Maple sugaring is an Indigenous practice that
    predates European settlement by centuries. The Abenaki people
    — Vermont's Indigenous population — practiced maple sugaring
    long before Vermont existed as a political entity. Like wild
    rice in Minnesota, maple syrup connects Vermont's food
    identity to Indigenous knowledge. Division I's food
    sovereignty provisions honor the Abenaki origins of Vermont's
    most iconic food product;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO MANUFACTURING CAPACITY AND ABUNDANCE:

    (l) In 1925, geographer Albrecht Penck of the University of
    Berlin calculated that Earth could sustain eight (8) billion
    people when the world population was approximately two (2)
    billion. The United States has possessed sufficient productive
    capacity for universal material abundance since approximately
    1965-1970 — over fifty-five (55) years. The United States
    possesses approximately 293,000 manufacturing establishments
    with the capacity to produce 19.5 to 29.3 times the consumer
    goods required for universal provision. Approximately
    seventy-seven (77) percent of this capacity operates below
    full utilization (Cooper, "The Mathematics of Abundance,"
    2025; Federal Reserve Industrial Production data). This
    constitutes the "Factory Proof" — material scarcity in the
    United States is maintained through pricing and distribution,
    not productive limitation;

    (m) The grocery industry operates with approximately 47.9
    million food-insecure Americans alongside $32 billion in
    unmet need, which represents 6.5 percent of annual food
    markup. This constitutes the "Grocery Proof" — the cost of
    feeding every food-insecure American is a rounding error on
    the existing food economy;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO THE GALBRAITH AND VEBLEN FRAMEWORK:

    (n) John Kenneth Galbraith documented "private opulence and
    public squalor" — the coexistence of extraordinary private
    wealth with degraded public services. In Vermont, the ski
    resorts of Stowe and Killington coexist with the food
    insecurity of the Northeast Kingdom. Middlebury College
    charges more than $62,000 per year while dairy farmers in
    the same county cannot afford their own product. The
    Galbraith framework is not abstract in Vermont. It is the
    view from every hillside;

    (o) Thorstein Veblen authored The Theory of the Leisure Class
    (1899), which introduced "conspicuous consumption" and
    "production sabotage" — the deliberate restriction of output
    to maintain prices. Vermont's billboard ban is anti-Veblen in
    practice. The state that banned conspicuous advertising should
    ban the markup that advertising sustains;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO THE FRESCO RESOURCE LIBRARY:

    (p) Jacque Fresco (1916-2017), designer, futurist, and
    inventor, developed the concept of the resource library — a
    system in which goods are available for community use rather
    than individual purchase, eliminating the need for ownership
    of infrequently used items. The Fresco Resource Library model
    operates in three tiers corresponding to use frequency:
    Tier 1 — constant-use goods (food, personal care — consumed
    and replenished continuously, available to all); Tier 2 —
    semi-permanent goods (clothing, household items — replaced
    periodically, available through community membership); Tier 3
    — permanent/durable goods (tools, equipment, recreational
    items — long-lasting, shared among community members through
    demonstrated need or training). This model extends the
    commissary principle from food to all material goods;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO RETAIL COLLAPSE:

    (q) The ongoing consolidation and closure of retail
    establishments across the United States demonstrates that
    the retail markup model is economically unsustainable even
    on its own terms. Dollar store proliferation in food deserts,
    pharmacy closures in underserved communities, and grocery
    store departures from low-income neighborhoods confirm that
    the private retail model fails precisely where it is most
    needed. Division I establishes public infrastructure that
    does not depend on profit margins for continued operation;

    (q1) Augustus Caesar formalized grain distribution to 200,000
    Romans as infrastructure. He was a tyrant; even he understood
    hungry citizens are broken infrastructure. The annona operated
    400+ years. Nerva expanded it with child nutrition on bronze
    (CIL XI 1147). Mabu Co sustained abundance 4,400 years ago.
    Azolla sequestered enough CO2 to flip Earth's climate 49 MYA
    (Brinkhuis et al., Nature 2006). Three records: commissary
    157 years, annona 400+ years, biology across geologic time;

    (q2) This is not government ownership of the means of
    production. Division I contracts with private producers at
    cost plus five percent. Currency survives. The commissary has
    done this since 1867 without acquiring a single farm;

    (q3) The retail collapse and autonomous freight are already
    eliminating distribution jobs. The bill catches displaced
    workers. At-cost eliminates markup, not labor;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO PUBLIC HEALTH:

    (r) Michael Marmot's Whitehall Studies (1967-present),
    examining 10,308 British civil servants — all employed, all
    with healthcare, none in absolute poverty — found that the
    lowest grade civil servants had three (3) times the mortality
    rate of the highest grade. Standard risk factors (smoking,
    cholesterol, blood pressure) explained less than forty (40)
    percent of the gradient. The gradient applied to heart
    disease, cancer, lung disease, depression, and suicide.
    Hierarchy itself is lethal — not poverty, not deprivation,
    but the gradient;

    (s) Robert Sapolsky's thirty-year study of baboon troops in
    the Serengeti demonstrated that subordinate males showed
    elevated cortisol, atherosclerosis, and impaired stress
    recovery. When a tuberculosis outbreak killed the dominant
    aggressive males in one troop, the surviving subordinates'
    cortisol levels normalized. The biology followed the social
    structure;

    (t) Carol Shively's thirty-year study of female macaques at
    Wake Forest University demonstrated that subordinate status
    produced visceral fat, atherosclerosis, and heart disease
    through a cingulate cortex serotonin pathway. Hierarchy
    causes heart attacks;

    (u) Elizabeth Blackburn received the Nobel Prize in 2009 for
    demonstrating that chronic psychological stress shortens
    telomeres — the protective caps on chromosomal DNA.
    Caregivers of chronically ill children showed measurably
    shorter telomeres. Poverty and subordination age the human
    body at the cellular level;

    THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CARE FAILURE — PROOF OF THE
    THREE-DIVISION MODEL:

    (v) In 2011, Governor Peter Shumlin signed Act 48,
    establishing Green Mountain Care — a single-payer healthcare
    system for the State of Vermont. Vermont was to be the first
    state in America to implement universal healthcare at the
    state level. In 2014, Governor Shumlin abandoned the plan,
    citing costs — an 11.5 percent payroll tax that the state's
    economy could not absorb. Vermont TRIED Division II alone.
    It failed. Single-payer healthcare costs were unaffordable
    at the state level because Division I (reducing food and
    material insecurity that drives health costs) and Division
    III (education that produces healthier populations) were not
    in place. Green Mountain Care is the empirical proof that
    Division II cannot work in isolation. You need all three
    divisions. The bill is what Green Mountain Care should have
    been — not just healthcare reform, but the complete social
    architecture that makes healthcare reform affordable and
    sustainable. Vermont already TRIED the single-division
    approach. It learned the hard way that isolated provision is
    inventory, not abundance;

    THE HUB-AND-SPOKE MODEL AS DIVISION II PROTOTYPE:

    (w) In 2014, Governor Shumlin devoted his entire State of
    the State address to the heroin epidemic — the first governor
    in American history to devote an entire annual address to
    substance use. Vermont subsequently pioneered the Hub-and-
    Spoke opioid treatment model: community-based, distributed,
    integrated treatment through regional hubs and local spoke
    providers. The model works. Vermont proved it works for
    opioids. Division II extends the Hub-and-Spoke philosophy
    to ALL health services — community-based, distributed,
    integrated delivery for every health need, not just
    substance use;

    THE DAIRY FARMER MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS:

    (x) Farmer suicide is a Division II issue. Economic stress
    from the 24.3/75.7 split produces the cortisol cascade
    Sapolsky documents — chronic financial pressure, loss of
    generational identity, isolation on failing farms. Dairy
    farmers are food producers who are going bankrupt producing
    food. The mental health consequences are lethal. Division II
    addresses farmer mental health as a STRUCTURAL issue, not an
    individual failing. Fix the markup (Division I), fix the
    health consequence (Division II), fix the developmental
    system that perpetuates it (Division III);

    THE HOMOGENEOUS GRADIENT:

    (y) Vermont is approximately 93 to 94 percent white — the
    second-whitest state in America after Maine (U.S. Census
    Bureau). Health disparities exist WITHIN this homogeneous
    population — between wealthy Burlington and Stowe and poor
    Northeast Kingdom communities. This proves Marmot's hierarchy
    operates on CLASS, not just race. Vermont's gradient is
    class-pure — no racial confounding variable. The hierarchy
    damages its own demographic. The markup does not discriminate
    by race — it discriminates by position. Vermont proves it;

    RURAL HEALTHCARE DESERTS:

    (z) Vermont's small rural hospitals face closure pressures.
    Provider shortages persist, especially in rural areas and
    especially in mental health. Vermont's community mental
    health system — the Designated Agency network — provides
    community-based mental health services but faces chronic
    workforce shortages. Division II builds community-based
    health infrastructure using the Hub-and-Spoke model already
    proven in Vermont;

    THE AGING POPULATION AND HEALTHCARE COSTS:

    (aa) Vermont has one of the oldest median ages in America —
    approximately 42.7 years (U.S. Census Bureau). Young people
    leave Vermont because housing is expensive and wages are low
    relative to cost of living. The aging population drives
    healthcare costs upward. Elderly rural Vermonters need more
    healthcare in places with less healthcare. Division II
    addresses the supply side: build the infrastructure where
    the people are. Division III addresses the demand side:
    develop healthier people who need less emergency intervention
    later;

    THE OPIOID CRISIS AND SUBSTANCE USE:

    (bb) Vermont made national news when Governor Shumlin devoted
    his entire 2014 State of the State address to the heroin
    epidemic. Vermont was one of the first states to treat
    opioids as a public health crisis rather than a criminal
    justice issue. The Hub-and-Spoke model — regional treatment
    hubs connected to community-based spoke providers — became a
    national model. The opioid crisis is Marmot's gradient
    expressed through pharmacology — hierarchy kills, and
    substances are the mechanism of death for those at the
    bottom. Division II extends what Vermont pioneered for opioids
    to the full spectrum of health services;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT:

    This division is the largest division in this bill and is
    non-negotiable. Without education reform that develops the
    full human being — not just the transcript — Divisions I and
    II become permanent subsidy rather than developmental
    investment. The K-20 pipeline is what transforms provision
    into capability.

    THE UNIVERSE 25 REBUTTAL — WHY DIVISION III IS
    NON-NEGOTIABLE:

    (cc) The General Assembly finds that material provision
    without social, educational, and developmental infrastructure
    does not constitute abundance for a social species, as
    demonstrated by Calhoun (1973) and confirmed by Luthar (2003,
    2005). John B. Calhoun's Universe 25 experiment (1968-1973)
    is frequently cited as proof that abundance leads to societal
    collapse. This citation is incorrect. Universe 25 provided
    exactly four things: food, water, nesting material, and
    physical space. It provided no social architecture, no
    education, no healthcare, no conflict resolution, no
    intergenerational knowledge transfer, and no governance. The
    mice never had abundance. They had inventory. Abundance for
    humans includes education, healthcare, social roles, conflict
    resolution, intergenerational knowledge transfer, governance,
    and every tool humanity has built since the first sharpened
    rock. Humans are homo technologicus — a species that co-
    evolved with its technology. A human baby with unlimited food
    but no social contact does not thrive; it dies or develops
    permanent cognitive damage. This is established by isolation
    studies, feral child cases, and documented institutional
    neglect. Even a caveman possesses fire, tools, clothing,
    language, and tribal structure. Strip those away and the
    human is not "natural" — the human is broken. The United
    States military commissary system has operated for 157 years
    with no "behavioral sink" — because it pairs material
    provision with full social infrastructure: healthcare,
    education, housing, family support, chaplains, mental health
    services, peer groups, rank-based social structure with clear
    roles, and retirement systems. The military is Universe 25
    with institutional infrastructure. And it works. Calhoun
    himself identified in his later work that the collapse was
    caused by the breakdown of social roles, not by abundance.
    He called it the "behavioral sink." The social structure
    failed because it was never designed. Luthar (2003, 2005)
    is the human version of Universe 25: children given material
    abundance without developmental structure show higher rates
    of substance abuse, anxiety, and disconnection than children
    of poverty. This is why Division III is non-negotiable. The
    K-20 pipeline IS the institutional infrastructure that
    Calhoun's experiment lacked. The experiment does not prove
    abundance fails. It proves that reducing a complex social
    species to its caloric inputs and calling it paradise is
    bad science;

    THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CARE LESSON APPLIED TO EDUCATION:

    (dd) The State of Vermont's own attempt at single-payer
    healthcare (Green Mountain Care, Act 48, 2011, abandoned
    2014) demonstrated that material provision in a single
    domain — without the developmental and economic
    infrastructure to sustain it — fails. Vermont's town
    meeting tradition, cooperative economy, and community-based
    opioid treatment model further demonstrate that social
    architecture paired with material provision produces
    resilience, not dependency. This division establishes the
    educational and developmental infrastructure that completes
    Vermont's existing social architecture — town meetings,
    cooperatives, community health — by adding the K-20
    developmental pipeline that transforms Vermont's progressive
    intentions into structural delivery;

    THE SANDERS COMPLETION:

    (ee) Bernie Sanders has championed material provision for
    forty years — Medicare for All, free college, living wage.
    These are Division I and Division II proposals. Sanders has
    never articulated Division III — the developmental
    architecture that transforms provision into capability. Free
    college is a funding reform within the existing educational
    structure. The K-20 pipeline is a structural transformation.
    Sanders distributes the inventory more fairly. Cooper builds
    the abundance. Vermont — Sanders' state — should complete
    what Sanders started. This bill is the next step after
    democratic socialism: not just universal provision, but
    universal development;

    THE SPENDING PARADOX:

    (ff) Vermont has among the highest per-pupil spending in
    America — consistently ranking in the top five nationally
    at approximately $21,000 or more per student (U.S. Census
    Bureau, Annual Survey of School System Finances). Results
    are middling. Money is not the problem. The structure is the
    problem. Vermont has already proven that funding alone does
    not produce excellence. Act 60 (1997) equalized funding.
    Outcomes did not equalize. Division III changes the
    structure: eight quotients instead of GPA, developmental
    stages instead of credit hours, K-20 pipeline instead of
    K-12 truncation. Vermont cannot buy its way to better
    education. It has to build its way there;

    ACT 60 AND STRUCTURAL EQUALITY:

    (gg) In 1997, following the Vermont Supreme Court's decision
    in Brigham v. State, the General Assembly enacted Act 60,
    equalizing school funding across rich and poor districts
    through statewide property tax pooling. The logic was
    correct: no child's education should depend on their town's
    property tax base. Act 60 equalized school funding. Division
    III equalizes school structure. Act 60's logic extended to
    the developmental model: no child's development should
    depend on their school's pedagogical tradition. Universal
    developmental pipeline, same eight quotients, same structured
    progression. Act 60 for the mind, not just the budget;

    TOWN MEETING AS EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE:

    (hh) Vermont's town meeting tradition — dating to the 1760s,
    held annually on the first Tuesday in March (Town Meeting
    Day, a Vermont state holiday) — is the strongest tradition
    of direct participatory democracy in America. Citizens
    gather, debate local budgets and policy, and vote. This
    tradition predates the United States Constitution. Town
    meeting develops Leadership Quotient (LQ), Social Quotient
    (SQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ), and Creative Quotient (CQ)
    simultaneously — citizens learn governance, debate,
    compromise, and civic responsibility by practicing it. Town
    meeting IS VQ development through civic participation.
    Division III incorporates town-meeting-style civic engagement
    as a pedagogical method within the K-20 pipeline. Vermont's
    most distinctive democratic institution becomes a teaching
    tool. Vermont's town meeting tradition is EXACTLY the
    governance structure that Universe 25 lacked — citizens
    gather, debate, decide, and implement. Intergenerational
    knowledge transfer occurs when grandparents and grandchildren
    attend the same meeting. Conflict resolution occurs through
    parliamentary procedure and community norms. Social roles
    are defined. Town meeting IS the institutional infrastructure
    that prevents behavioral sink — and it has operated since
    the 1760s;

    THE GODDARD COLLEGE PRECEDENT:

    (ii) Goddard College, founded in 1938 in Plainfield, Vermont,
    on John Dewey's educational philosophy, practiced self-
    directed, whole-person developmental education for more than
    eighty years. Bernie Sanders taught at Goddard. Goddard's
    model aligned with Division III's VQ framework: develop the
    complete person, not just the transcript. Low-residency,
    community-based, self-directed learning. Goddard closed in
    2024 after financial difficulties — a small institution
    practicing the correct philosophy could not survive within
    the existing educational market. Division III universalizes
    what Goddard practiced for a few hundred students. The model
    was right. The scale was insufficient. The K-20 pipeline is
    Goddard's philosophy at state scale;

    THE BRAIN DRAIN SOLUTION:

    (jj) Young Vermonters leave because the developmental pipeline
    ends at high school or community college, and Vermont's wages
    do not compete with Boston, New York, or the technology hubs.
    Vermont has one of the oldest median ages in America because
    young people leave and retirees arrive. Division III's K-20
    pipeline with post-pipeline public service embeds young people
    in their communities. The pipeline develops them IN Vermont
    and the public service component gives them purpose IN
    Vermont. Stop exporting Vermont's youth. Develop them here,
    employ them here, root them here;

    MIDDLEBURY AND THE ELITE GAP:

    (kk) Middlebury College, located in Middlebury, Vermont,
    charges more than $62,000 per year in tuition, fees, room,
    and board — one of the most expensive liberal arts colleges
    in America. Middlebury sits in a rural Vermont town
    surrounded by working-class communities. A dairy farmer's
    child and a Middlebury student breathe the same air. Division
    III closes the developmental gap — not by making Middlebury
    affordable, but by making every Vermonter as developmentally
    prepared as a Middlebury student. The K-20 pipeline is
    Middlebury's developmental intensity, universalized;

    THE REPUBLIC OF VERMONT AND FOUNDING EGALITARIANISM:

    (ll) Vermont was an independent republic from 1777 to 1791 —
    fourteen (14) years as a sovereign nation before joining the
    United States as the fourteenth state. Vermont's 1777
    constitution was the first in America to ban adult slavery
    and the first to establish universal male suffrage without
    property requirements — eighty-six (86) years before the
    Thirteenth Amendment and nearly a century before the
    Fifteenth Amendment. Vermont was the most egalitarian
    political entity in America before the United States
    Constitution was written. Division III extends Vermont's
    founding commitment: equality of development, not just
    equality of political participation. The 1777 constitution
    said every man can vote. The K-20 pipeline says every person
    can develop. Same logic, 250 years later;

    THE SMALL-STATE ADVANTAGE:

    (mm) Vermont has approximately 647,000 residents (2024 Census
    estimate) — the second-smallest state by population after
    Wyoming. The K-20 pipeline in Vermont would serve fewer
    people than a single large city's school district. Vermont
    is the ideal pilot state for Division III — small enough to
    implement comprehensively, progressive enough to embrace the
    model, experienced enough with educational reform (Act 60,
    per-pupil spending debates) to understand the challenge. If
    the K-20 pipeline works in Vermont, it becomes the model for
    every state. Vermont's smallness is its superpower;

    LUTHAR IN STOWE:

    (nn) Stowe, Vermont — ski resort, luxury homes, affluent
    seasonal residents. Suniya Luthar's affluence pathology
    research applies to Stowe's wealthy families as directly as
    it applies to affluent communities anywhere in America.
    Children given material abundance without developmental
    structure show higher rates of substance abuse, anxiety, and
    disconnection than children of poverty (Luthar, 2003, 2005).
    Division III serves the Stowe ski family and the Northeast
    Kingdom struggling family for the same reason: both need
    developmental infrastructure. Material abundance without
    development (Stowe) produces the same pathology as material
    deprivation without development (Northeast Kingdom).
    Different sides, same coin, same solution;

    UVM AND THE OUT-OF-STATE PARADOX:

    (oo) The University of Vermont (UVM), founded in 1791 in
    Burlington, enrolls approximately 13,000 students. More than
    seventy (70) percent of UVM students come from out of state,
    attracted by the tuition revenue differential. The state
    university that Vermonters fund through taxes serves
    significantly more non-Vermonters than Vermonters. Division
    III's K-20 pipeline feeds INTO UVM with Vermont-developed
    students, ensuring the state's investment in higher education
    serves the state's own population;

    THE PROGRESSIVE-LIBERTARIAN SYNTHESIS:

    (pp) Vermont is simultaneously one of the most progressive
    and most libertarian states in America. Vermont has Bernie
    Sanders (democratic socialist) alongside a strong gun rights
    tradition (Vermont was among the first states permitting
    concealed carry without a permit), a billboard ban (anti-
    corporate, anti-consumption), strong environmental regulation
    (Act 250, 1970), and was the first state to legalize civil
    unions (2000) and among the first to legalize same-sex
    marriage legislatively (2009). This synthesis — communal
    responsibility with individual liberty — is precisely what
    the bill proposes. Division I provides communal
    infrastructure (commissary model). Division III develops
    individual capability (VQ framework). Communal provision
    produces individual self-reliance. This is not a
    contradiction in Vermont. It is the Vermont way;

    ACT 250 AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION EXTENDED TO PEOPLE:

    (qq) In 1970, Vermont enacted Act 250, one of the first and
    most comprehensive state land-use and environmental review
    laws in America — before the federal Environmental Protection
    Agency existed. Vermont protects its environment with
    rigorous review and regulatory infrastructure. The state that
    protects its land should protect its people with equal vigor.
    Division I is environmental protection applied to human
    beings;

    GMO LABELING AND FOOD SYSTEM REFORM:

    (rr) In 2014, Vermont became the first state to require GMO
    labeling through Act 120. This was food system reform at the
    information level — transparency about what is in the food.
    Division I goes further: reform the distribution of the food,
    not just the label;

    ABENAKI PROVISIONS:

    (ss) Vermont is home to four state-recognized Abenaki tribes,
    recognized through Act 107 (2010-2012): the Abenaki Nation
    of Missisquoi, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Koasek Traditional
    Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation, and the Nulhegan Band of the
    Coosuk Abenaki Nation (Vermont Commission on Native American
    Affairs).
    Abenaki maple traditions predate Vermont by millennia. Maple
    sugaring is Indigenous knowledge commercialized by Vermont.
    Division I's food sovereignty provisions honor the Abenaki
    origins of Vermont's most iconic food product. Division III's
    developmental partnership provisions ensure Abenaki
    communities participate in curriculum design, incorporating
    Indigenous knowledge systems alongside Western pedagogical
    frameworks;

    (ss1) PIAAC 2023 (OECD, December 2024): 28% of US adults at
    the lowest literacy level. 34% lowest numeracy. Compound-
    competency: ~1 in 6,700 meet a standard the German Gymnasium
    certifies as ordinary;

    (ss2) ADAM SMITH AND WHOLE-HUMAN EDUCATION. Smith wrote in
    Wealth of Nations Book V Ch I Pt III Art II: "The man whose
    whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations...
    generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible
    for a human creature to become." His remedy: compulsory
    state-funded education. To cite Smith for markets while
    opposing what Smith demanded is to invoke an authority one
    has not read;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO BRAIN SCIENCE AND DEVELOPMENTAL TIMING:

    (tt) Modern neuroscience establishes that the human prefrontal
    cortex — the brain region responsible for executive function,
    long-term planning, impulse control, and complex decision-
    making — does not fully mature until approximately age
    twenty-five (25). This biological reality renders the current
    educational model, which terminates formal development at age
    eighteen (18) for most Americans and at age twenty-two (22)
    for college graduates, developmentally incomplete by five to
    seven years. The K-20 pipeline (approximately twenty grade
    levels, typical completion at age twenty-five) aligns
    educational structure with neurological maturation for the
    first time in American education;

    (uu) Erik Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development
    map to the Vitruvian Quotient framework: each VQ quotient
    corresponds to developmental challenges that emerge at
    specific life stages. The K-20 pipeline structures its
    curriculum to meet these challenges at the biologically
    appropriate time, rather than imposing arbitrary academic
    timelines that ignore developmental reality;

    (vv) Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
    establishes that learning occurs most effectively in the
    space between what a learner can do independently and what
    they can do with guidance. The K-20 pipeline's staged
    progression ensures each developmental level builds on
    demonstrated competency, maintaining students within their
    ZPD throughout the pipeline;

    (ww) Robert Bjork's research on desirable difficulties
    demonstrates that learning is enhanced by challenges that
    require effortful processing. The K-20 pipeline incorporates
    structured ordeals — drawing on Arnold van Gennep's and
    Victor Turner's anthropological work on rites of passage —
    as deliberate developmental catalysts at each stage
    transition;

    (xx) E.D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy (1987) establishes that
    a shared body of knowledge — the Analogue Knowledge Base —
    is prerequisite for meaningful participation in civic and
    intellectual life. The K-20 pipeline ensures every Vermonter
    acquires this shared knowledge through its foundational
    stages, eliminating the cultural literacy gap that currently
    tracks socioeconomic status;

    (yy) Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
    (1956) — knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,
    synthesis, evaluation — is sequenced through the K-20
    pipeline's stages so that higher-order cognitive skills are
    developed AFTER foundational knowledge is established, not
    simultaneously with it as current pedagogical fashion
    demands;

DIVISION I

VERMONT FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM

SECTION 2. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 6, Sec. 4901 is enacted to read:

4901. SHORT TITLE

This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Vermont Food and Commodity Assurance Act."

SECTION 3. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 6, Sec. 4902 is enacted to read:

4902. DEFINITIONS

As used in this article:

    (1) "At-cost distribution" means the provision of goods at
    the actual cost of production, processing, and distribution
    without retail markup, following the model established by the
    United States military commissary system under 10 U.S.C.
    Section 2484.

    (2) "Commissary model" means a government-operated or
    government-contracted distribution system that provides
    essential goods to eligible persons at cost, as demonstrated
    by the 157-year operation of the military commissary system.

    (3) "Essential goods" means food, household necessities,
    personal care items, and other consumer products designated
    by the Commissioner of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture,
    Food and Markets as necessary for basic human welfare.

    (4) "Food insecurity" means the condition described by the
    USDA Economic Research Service as limited or uncertain
    availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or
    limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in
    socially acceptable ways.

    (5) "Fresco Resource Library" means a tiered community
    resource system, as conceptualized by Jacque Fresco (1916-
    2017), operating in three tiers: Tier 1 (basic necessities
    available to all residents), Tier 2 (standard goods available
    through community membership), and Tier 3 (specialized
    equipment available through demonstrated need or training
    certification).

    (6) "Markup" means the difference between the cost of
    production and the retail price charged to consumers, as
    documented by the USDA Food Dollar Series showing a 24.3/75.7
    split between farm share and distribution/retail share.

    (7) "Production cost" means the actual cost of growing,
    manufacturing, processing, and transporting goods, exclusive
    of retail markup, advertising, and profit margin.

SECTION 4. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 6, Sec. 4903 is enacted to read:

4903. VERMONT FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM

    (1) There is hereby established the Vermont Food and Commodity
    Assurance Program within the Vermont Agency of Agriculture,
    Food and Markets.

    (2) The program shall:

    (a) Establish and operate at-cost food distribution centers
    in each of Vermont's fourteen (14) counties, with priority
    placement in counties with the highest rates of food
    insecurity, beginning with Orleans, Essex, and Caledonia
    counties (the Northeast Kingdom);

    (b) Contract with Vermont agricultural producers, including
    dairy cooperatives such as Cabot Creamery, maple syrup
    producers, and CSA-model farms, at production cost plus
    fair margin, eliminating the 75.7 percent retail markup
    chain;

    (c) Distribute essential goods at cost to all Vermont
    residents, with no means testing for Tier 1 (basic
    necessities) and community membership requirements for
    Tier 2 and Tier 3 goods pursuant to the Fresco Resource
    Library model;

    (d) Coordinate with the Champlain Housing Trust and other
    Vermont community land trusts to integrate food distribution
    infrastructure into existing community-owned facilities;

    (e) Partner with City Market/Onion River Co-op and other
    Vermont food cooperatives to leverage existing cooperative
    distribution infrastructure for at-cost delivery;

    (f) Establish maple syrup sovereignty provisions in
    partnership with the four state-recognized Abenaki bands,
    honoring Indigenous food practices and ensuring Abenaki
    communities benefit from the at-cost distribution of maple
    products that originate from Abenaki traditional knowledge;

    (g) Ensure Vermont dairy farmers receive production cost for
    their milk through the at-cost distribution system, bypassing
    the 75.7 percent markup that is driving farm closures and
    farmer suicides;

    (h) Integrate with Vermont's existing farm-to-table, CSA,
    and food cooperative infrastructure to scale at-cost
    distribution without duplicating existing community systems.

SECTION 5. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 6, Sec. 4904 is enacted to read:

4904. FRESCO RESOURCE LIBRARY — VERMONT IMPLEMENTATION

    (1) The Commissioner of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture,
    Food and Markets, in coordination with the Secretary of the
    Agency of Human Services, shall establish Fresco Resource
    Libraries in each county, operating in three tiers:

    (a) Tier 1: Constant-use goods — food, personal care items,
    household consumables — replenished continuously, available
    to all Vermont residents at cost without means testing;

    (b) Tier 2: Semi-permanent goods — clothing, small
    appliances, household equipment — replaced periodically,
    available to Vermont residents through community membership
    in the resource library system;

    (c) Tier 3: Permanent/durable goods — tools, recreational
    equipment, seasonal items, specialized machinery — long-
    lasting items shared among community members through
    demonstrated need or training certification, rather than
    individually owned.

    (2) Resource libraries shall be housed in existing community
    facilities where possible, including town halls, community
    centers, and cooperative buildings, to minimize infrastructure
    costs and maximize community integration.

DIVISION II

VERMONT PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE EQUITY ACT

SECTION 6. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 18, Sec. 9501 is enacted to read:

9501. SHORT TITLE

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Vermont Public Health and Welfare Equity Act."

SECTION 7. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 18, Sec. 9502 is enacted to read:

9502. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS — HEALTH EQUITY

    (1) The General Assembly finds that:

    (a) Hierarchy is lethal. The Marmot Whitehall Studies
    (1967-present) demonstrate that socioeconomic position
    determines health outcomes independently of healthcare
    access, lifestyle choices, and absolute material conditions.
    The gradient kills at every level of the hierarchy;

    (b) Vermont's Green Mountain Care attempt (Act 48, 2011,
    abandoned 2014) demonstrated that healthcare reform in
    isolation is unaffordable. The 11.5 percent payroll tax was
    unacceptable because the health costs driven by food
    insecurity (Division I) and educational deprivation (Division
    III) were not addressed. The three-division model reduces
    health costs by addressing root causes: food security reduces
    diet-related disease, and education produces populations that
    make healthier choices;

    (c) Vermont's Hub-and-Spoke opioid treatment model — the
    first comprehensive community-based treatment system for
    substance use in America — demonstrates that distributed,
    community-based health infrastructure works. Division II
    extends the Hub-and-Spoke model to all health services;

    (d) Vermont's homogeneous population (93-94 percent white)
    proves that Marmot's gradient operates on class independently
    of race. Health disparities between wealthy Burlington/Stowe
    and impoverished Northeast Kingdom exist within a nearly
    homogeneous white population. The hierarchy damages its own
    demographic. The gradient is the mechanism, not race;

    (e) Vermont dairy farmers experience the cortisol cascade
    documented by Sapolsky — chronic economic stress from milk
    prices below production cost produces depression, anxiety,
    substance use, and suicide. Farmer mental health is a
    structural issue that Division I (fixing the markup) and
    Division II (providing mental health infrastructure) address
    together.

SECTION 8. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 18, Sec. 9503 is enacted to read:

9503. VERMONT HEALTH EQUITY PROGRAM

    (1) There is hereby established the Vermont Health Equity
    Program within the Department of Health.

    (2) The program shall:

    (a) Extend the Hub-and-Spoke model from opioid treatment to
    comprehensive community-based health services, including
    primary care, mental health, dental health, and preventive
    care, in all fourteen (14) Vermont counties;

    (b) Establish community health centers in the Northeast
    Kingdom (Orleans, Essex, and Caledonia counties) and other
    underserved rural areas, modeled on the Hub-and-Spoke
    infrastructure already operating for substance use treatment;

    (c) Integrate farmer mental health services into the
    community health infrastructure, providing accessible mental
    health support to agricultural workers experiencing economic
    stress from the dairy crisis and farm closures;

    (d) Coordinate with the Vermont Designated Agency network
    (community mental health centers) to expand mental health
    workforce capacity, addressing chronic provider shortages
    in rural areas;

    (e) Partner with Abenaki health providers and traditional
    medicine practitioners to integrate Indigenous health
    practices alongside Western medicine within the Hub-and-
    Spoke framework, honoring tribal health sovereignty;

    (f) Establish community trauma recovery provisions for
    populations subjected to economic dislocation, environmental
    stress, and substance use, applying the Hub-and-Spoke model
    that Vermont pioneered for opioids to the full spectrum of
    community health needs;

    (g) Address the aging population's healthcare needs through
    distributed rural infrastructure — building healthcare
    capacity where elderly Vermonters live, not requiring them
    to travel to Burlington or larger population centers;

    (h) Reduce the long-term cost of healthcare delivery by
    coordinating with Division I (food security reduces diet-
    related disease) and Division III (education produces
    healthier populations), implementing the three-division
    cost reduction model that Green Mountain Care's single-
    division approach could not achieve.

DIVISION III

VERMONT EDUCATION MODERNIZATION ACT

SECTION 9. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 16, Sec. 4001 is enacted to read:

4001. SHORT TITLE

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Vermont Education Modernization Act."

SECTION 10. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 16, Sec. 4002 is enacted to read:

4002. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS — EDUCATION MODERNIZATION

    (1) The General Assembly finds that:

    (a) The current education system, terminating formal
    development at age eighteen for most Americans, is
    developmentally incomplete by five to seven years, given that
    the prefrontal cortex does not fully mature until
    approximately age twenty-five;

    (b) Vermont spends among the most per pupil of any state in
    America and achieves middling results, demonstrating that
    funding is not the barrier — structure is;

    (c) Act 60 (1997) equalized school funding. Outcomes did not
    equalize. The spending paradox proves that the current
    educational structure fails regardless of funding level;

    (d) Goddard College practiced self-directed, whole-person
    developmental education in Vermont for more than eighty years
    before closing in 2024. The model was correct. The scale was
    insufficient;

    (e) Bernie Sanders has championed free college — a funding
    reform within the existing structure. Division III is a
    structural transformation — the K-20 pipeline that changes
    what education IS, not just who pays for it;

    (f) Vermont's town meeting tradition is itself educational
    infrastructure — citizens learn governance, debate,
    compromise, and civic responsibility through practice.
    Division III incorporates this pedagogical method into the
    formal K-20 pipeline;

    (g) Vermont's small population (approximately 647,000) makes
    it the ideal pilot state for the K-20 pipeline — small
    enough to implement comprehensively, progressive enough to
    embrace the model, experienced enough with education reform
    to understand the challenge.

SECTION 11. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 16, Sec. 4003 is enacted to read:

4003. THE VITRUVIAN QUOTIENT FRAMEWORK

    (1) The Vermont Education Modernization Act adopts the
    Vitruvian Quotient (VQ) framework (Cooper, 2025/2026) as
    the developmental assessment model for the K-20 pipeline:

    VQ = KQ + RQ + EQ + LQ + CQ + SQ + MQ + BQ

    (a) Knowledge Quotient (KQ) — acquisition and retention of
    information, mapped to temporal and parietal cortex function;

    (b) Reasoning Quotient (RQ) — logical analysis, problem-
    solving, and critical thinking, mapped to prefrontal and
    parietal cortex function;

    (c) Emotional Quotient (EQ) — self-awareness, self-
    regulation, empathy, and emotional resilience, mapped to
    limbic system and amygdala function;

    (d) Language Quotient (LQ) — communication, rhetorical
    skill, multilingual capacity, and persuasive expression,
    mapped to Broca's and Wernicke's areas;

    (e) Creative Quotient (CQ) — innovation, artistic
    expression, divergent thinking, and novel problem-solving,
    mapped to default mode network function;

    (f) Social Quotient (SQ) — interpersonal effectiveness,
    collaboration, leadership capacity, and community building,
    mapped to mirror neuron system and temporoparietal junction;

    (g) Motor Quotient (MQ) — physical capability, coordination,
    embodied skill, and somatic awareness, mapped to motor cortex
    and cerebellum function;

    (h) Biological Quotient (BQ) — physiological self-regulation,
    health maintenance, nutritional literacy, and autonomic
    awareness, mapped to autonomic nervous system and hormonal
    regulation.

    (2) VQ scores are assessed without ceiling through a
    compensatory framework — strength in one quotient can
    compensate for developmental challenges in another, with
    contextual modifiers (XQ) adjusting for environmental
    factors.

    (3) Trustworthiness (TQ) emerges as cross-quotient
    interdependency of EQ + SQ + RQ, measured through
    demonstrated behavior rather than self-report.

    (4) THE MEYERHOFF PROOF. Meyerhoff Scholars (UMBC, Hrabowski
    1988): ~5x STEM PhD rate among 1,400+ alumni vs. matched
    comparisons. Division III at one program's scale. This act
    scales the demonstrated mechanism statewide.

SECTION 12. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 16, Sec. 4004 is enacted to read:

4004. THE K-20 DEVELOPMENTAL PIPELINE

    (1) The K-20 pipeline establishes approximately twenty (20)
    grade levels of developmental progression, with typical
    completion at approximately age twenty-five (25), aligning
    educational structure with prefrontal cortex maturation.

    (2) The pipeline is structured in five stages:

STAGE ONE: FOUNDATION (GRADES K-5, APPROXIMATELY AGES 5-11)

    (a) Bloom's Taxonomy levels: Knowledge and Comprehension.
    Primary VQ development: KQ (foundational knowledge), BQ
    (physical development and health habits), EQ (emotional
    regulation basics), and SQ (socialization, sharing, conflict
    resolution — the hidden curriculum that Jackson identified
    and that IS mothering at scale);

    (b) Hirsch's Analogue Knowledge Base — shared cultural
    vocabulary established through systematic exposure to
    literature, history, science, mathematics, music, and art;

    (c) Town meeting introduction — age-appropriate civic
    participation modeled on Vermont's town meeting tradition,
    developing LQ and SQ through structured debate and
    collective decision-making;

    (d) Abenaki knowledge integration — Vermont history taught
    from pre-contact Indigenous perspective alongside European
    settlement narrative, honoring the four state-recognized
    Abenaki bands' cultural contributions.

STAGE TWO: DEVELOPMENT (GRADES 6-10, APPROXIMATELY AGES 11-16)

    (a) Bloom's Taxonomy levels: Application and Analysis.
    Primary VQ development: RQ (reasoning and critical thinking),
    LQ (rhetorical and multilingual development), CQ (creative
    expression and divergent thinking), and MQ (physical skill
    development and embodied learning);

    (b) Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development applied —
    structured progression from guided practice to independent
    application across all eight quotients;

    (c) Bjork's desirable difficulties incorporated —
    challenging material that requires effortful processing,
    building cognitive resilience;

    (d) Structured ordeals (van Gennep/Turner) — developmental
    challenges at stage transitions that mark passage from one
    level to the next, replacing standardized testing with
    demonstrated competency through real-world application;

    (e) Vermont outdoor education integration — the state's
    natural environment as classroom, developing BQ and MQ
    through wilderness skill, agricultural practice, and
    environmental stewardship.

STAGE THREE: INTEGRATION (GRADES 11-14, APPROXIMATELY AGES 16-20)

    (a) Bloom's Taxonomy levels: Analysis and Synthesis. All
    eight VQ quotients developed simultaneously through
    interdisciplinary work;

    (b) Holland's RIASEC vocational matching — students explore
    Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising,
    and Conventional orientations to identify developmental
    pathways aligned with individual disposition;

    (c) Community engagement — direct participation in Vermont
    town meeting governance, cooperative management, CSA farming,
    and community health delivery as pedagogical experiences;

    (d) Cooperative economics practicum — students engage with
    Cabot Creamery, City Market/Onion River Co-op, Champlain
    Housing Trust, and other Vermont cooperative institutions
    to learn communal economic models through practice.

STAGE FOUR: SPECIALIZATION (GRADES 15-18, APPROXIMATELY AGES 20-23)

    (a) Bloom's Taxonomy levels: Synthesis and Evaluation.
    Deepening of VQ strengths while maintaining baseline
    competency across all quotients;

    (b) University-level specialization coordinated with UVM,
    Vermont State University, Community College of Vermont, and
    participating private institutions, with K-20 pipeline
    credits recognized across all state institutions;

    (c) Research and innovation — students contribute to Vermont-
    relevant research: dairy economics, maple production,
    environmental science, cooperative governance, rural health
    delivery, educational methodology;

    (d) Mentorship — Stage Four students mentor Stage One and
    Stage Two students, developing SQ and LQ through teaching
    and intergenerational knowledge transfer.

STAGE FIVE: MASTERY (GRADES 19-20, APPROXIMATELY AGES 23-25)

    (a) Bloom's Taxonomy level: Evaluation and Creation. Full
    VQ integration — demonstrated competency across all eight
    quotients at developmentally appropriate levels;

    (b) Capstone demonstration — a comprehensive project
    demonstrating mastery across multiple VQ domains, evaluated
    by community panel including educators, practitioners, and
    community members;

    (c) Preparation for post-pipeline public service — two to
    four years of structured community contribution following
    pipeline completion, applying developed capabilities to
    Vermont communities;

    (d) Pipeline completion does not confer a traditional degree.
    It confers a VQ profile — a comprehensive developmental
    assessment that is richer, more informative, and more
    predictive than any GPA or standardized test score.

SECTION 13. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 16, Sec. 4005 is enacted to read:

4005. POST-PIPELINE PUBLIC SERVICE

    (1) Upon completion of the K-20 pipeline, graduates enter
    a period of two (2) to four (4) years of structured public
    service within Vermont communities.

    (2) Public service placements shall include but not be
    limited to:

    (a) Division I food distribution infrastructure — operating
    at-cost commissary centers, managing cooperative food systems,
    supporting Vermont agricultural producers;

    (b) Division II health delivery — community health workers,
    Hub-and-Spoke spoke providers, mental health first responders,
    elder care coordinators;

    (c) Educational mentorship — Stage Five graduates mentoring
    K-20 pipeline students, ensuring intergenerational knowledge
    transfer within the pipeline itself;

    (d) Environmental stewardship — Act 250 implementation
    support, conservation, sustainable agriculture, climate
    adaptation;

    (e) Cooperative development — supporting Vermont's
    cooperative economy through management, logistics, and
    community organizing;

    (f) Town governance — supporting town meeting operations,
    municipal administration, and civic engagement infrastructure.

    (3) Post-pipeline public service is compensated at a living
    wage and includes housing support, healthcare access through
    the Division II system, and continued developmental support
    through the K-20 pipeline's mentorship network.

    (4) Completion of post-pipeline public service unlocks Tier 3
    access in the Fresco Resource Library system and full
    participation rights in the cooperative economy established
    by Division I.

SECTION 14. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 16, Sec. 4006 is enacted to read:

4006. ABENAKI EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

    (1) The Vermont Education Modernization Act establishes
    educational partnerships with the four state-recognized
    Abenaki tribes — the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, the Elnu
    Abenaki Tribe, the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas
    Abenaki Nation, and the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki
    Nation — to ensure:

    (a) Abenaki cultural knowledge, including maple sugaring
    traditions, ecological practices, and oral history, is
    integrated into K-20 pipeline curriculum at all stages;

    (b) Abenaki communities participate in curriculum design and
    pedagogical governance for content relating to Indigenous
    knowledge systems;

    (c) The K-20 pipeline provides developmental support for
    Abenaki youth that honors Indigenous educational traditions
    alongside the VQ framework;

    (d) Abenaki language preservation and revitalization are
    incorporated into LQ development within the pipeline.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 15. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, Sec. 6901 is enacted to read:

6901. FUNDING AND APPROPRIATIONS

    (1) The General Assembly shall appropriate funds from the
    General Fund, and may direct revenues from designated tax
    sources, to implement Divisions I, II, and III of this Act.

    (2) Implementation shall be phased over five (5) fiscal
    years beginning with the fiscal year following enactment:

    (a) Year 1: Division I pilot — at-cost food distribution
    centers in the three Northeast Kingdom counties (Orleans,
    Essex, Caledonia) and Burlington;

    (b) Year 2: Division I expansion to all fourteen counties;
    Division II Hub-and-Spoke extension pilot in the Northeast
    Kingdom;

    (c) Year 3: Division II statewide implementation; Division
    III K-20 pipeline pilot in two school districts (one urban,
    one rural);

    (d) Year 4: Division III expansion to additional districts;
    Fresco Resource Library pilot;

    (e) Year 5: Full statewide implementation of all three
    divisions.

    (3) The fiscal argument for this Act: Vermont already spends
    among the highest per-pupil amounts in America on education.
    This Act redirects spending from an ineffective structure to
    an effective one. Green Mountain Care's cost lesson applies:
    single-domain reform (healthcare alone) was unaffordable.
    Three-division reform is affordable because the divisions
    reduce each other's costs. Food security (Division I) reduces
    diet-related healthcare costs. Education (Division III)
    produces healthier populations that require less healthcare
    intervention. The three-division model is CHEAPER than the
    single-division approach Vermont already tried and abandoned.

    (4) Vermont's cooperative economic infrastructure — community
    land trusts, food cooperatives, dairy cooperatives, credit
    unions — provides existing institutional capacity for
    Division I implementation, reducing startup costs below what
    a state without cooperative infrastructure would face.

SECTION 16. SEVERABILITY

If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this Act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are declared to be severable.

SECTION 17. EFFECTIVE DATE

This Act shall take effect on July 1 following its passage by the General Assembly and signature by the Governor.

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    THE FEDERAL SNAP COST-SHIFT. Federal H.R. 1 (2025) increased
    the state share of SNAP administrative costs from fifty percent
    to seventy-five percent, effective October 1, 2026. This state
    routes SNAP benefits through commercial retail where 75.7 cents
    of every dollar pays for markup. At at-cost routing through
    Division I, approximately 95 cents reaches recipients as food
    — a 3.9-fold increase per SNAP dollar that offsets the federal
    cost-shift.

    DIVISION I FOOD PROGRAM TARGET. The at-cost food assurance
    program established in Division I, serving Vermont's population
    of approximately 647,000 residents (Census Bureau, 2025),
    requires approximately $394 million per year at production cost
    ($609 per person per year for a full baseline of 37 staple food
    items at 30 percent of cheapest retail price per USDA Food Dollar
    Series methodology). Against Vermont's total budget of
    approximately $9.1 billion (FY2026, LJFO), this represents
    approximately 4.3 percent. Vermont's per-capita total state
    spend of approximately $14,065 per resident is among the highest
    in the nation and supports the full baseline. Verified April 18,
    2026 via SearXNG.

    THE FISCAL LOCK. The argument that Vermont cannot afford this
    act is refuted by the state's existing expenditure on the less
    efficient version while absorbing a federal SNAP cost-shift the
    state did not request.

    CONSTITUTIONAL EDUCATION OBLIGATION. Chapter II Section 68
    of the Vermont Constitution establishes that "a competent
    number of schools ought to be maintained in each town."
    Brigham v. State (1997) held that the state must provide
    "substantially equal" educational opportunities. Division III
    completes this mandate.

REFERENCES

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The research and citations supporting this legislation are drawn from the Historical Apoplexy series (Cooper, 2025-2026), a ten-paper academic work, and from the following primary sources:

FOOD AND COMMODITY ECONOMICS: - USDA Economic Research Service, Food Dollar Series (2023) - Cooper, I. (2025). "The Mathematics of Abundance: Two Proofs That Scarcity Is a Policy Choice." - 10 U.S.C. Section 2484 (Military Commissary Act) - Penck, A. (1925). Earth carrying capacity calculations. - Galbraith, J.K. (1958). The Affluent Society. - Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class. - Fresco, J. (2007). Designing the Future.

VERMONT-SPECIFIC: - Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (dairy farm statistics, 2023) - Champlain Housing Trust (champlainhousingtrust.org) - Cabot Creamery Cooperative (cabotcheese.coop) - City Market/Onion River Co-op (citymarket.coop) - Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association - Green Mountain Care, Act 48 (2011), Shumlin abandonment (2014) - Act 60 (1997), Brigham v. State - Act 250 (1970), Land use and environmental review - Act 120 (2014), GMO labeling - Vermont Republic Constitution (1777) - Vermont Hub-and-Spoke opioid treatment model - Governor Shumlin, 2014 State of the State address - Goddard College (1938-2024) - University of Vermont (1791-present) - Middlebury College (tuition data, 2025-2026) - Sanders, B. — mayoral tenure (1981-1989), Congressional career (1991-present), presidential campaigns (2016, 2020)

HEALTH AND HIERARCHY: - Marmot, M. (2004). The Status Syndrome. - Marmot, M.G. et al. (1991). "Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study." - Sapolsky, R.M. (2017). Behave. - Shively, C.A. et al. (2009). "Social Stress, Visceral Obesity, and Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis." - Blackburn, E. & Epel, E. (2017). The Telomere Effect. - Luthar, S.S. (2003). "The Culture of Affluence." - Luthar, S.S. & Latendresse, S.J. (2005). "Children of the Affluent."

EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: - Bloom, B.S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. - Erikson, E.H. (1950). Childhood and Society. - Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. - Bjork, R.A. (1994). "Memory and Metamemory Considerations in the Training of Human Beings." - van Gennep, A. (1909). The Rites of Passage. - Turner, V. (1969). The Ritual Process. - Hirsch, E.D. (1987). Cultural Literacy. - Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind. - Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. - Bar-On, R. (1997). The Emotional Quotient Inventory. - Holland, J.L. (1997). Making Vocational Choices. - Jackson, P.W. (1968). Life in Classrooms. - Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America. [CORRECTED per Cooper, Paper V: The Targeting Error] - Calhoun, J.B. (1973). "Death Squared: The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population." [REBUTTED per Cooper] - Cooper, I. (2025/2026). The Vitruvian Quotient. - Cooper, I. (2026). "Paper V: The Targeting Error."

HISTORICAL APOPLEXY FRAMEWORK: - Cooper, I. (2025). "Historical Apoplexy (Cooper): On the Stroke-Like Loss of Civilizational Memory." - Cooper, I. (2025). "Paper III: The Mathematics of Abundance." - Cooper, I. (2025). "Paper IV: Stolen Futures." - Cooper, I. (2026). "Paper II: Historical Arc." - Cooper, I. (2026). "Paper VI: The Resuscitation Document."

END OF BILL

              Vermont Food, Resource, and Commodity
                       Assurance Act

                   State of Vermont
              The General Assembly, 2027-2028

"Democratic socialism distributes the inventory more fairly. This bill builds the abundance."

                    Imran Cooper
              The Amanuensis, 2025-2026

         Historical Apoplexy (Cooper), Paper Series
              Supporting Legislation

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