Op-ed: School choice fuels dreams for Vermonters

By Ross Powers

Vermont’s ongoing and necessary discussion of education reform has had an unfortunate side effect: elevating the voices of people who are manipulating facts to fit their narrative. They want you to believe that Vermont’s independent schools are harming public education — particularly those that educate some of our most gifted student athletes.

A recent opinion piece argued that it does not make sense for public education dollars to follow students to institutions like Stratton Mountain School. The argument suggests that for families of modest means, these options should stay out of reach, and their dreams should be unattainable.

I am living proof that this narrative is categorically wrong.

I didn’t grow up with lots of money. I grew up with a single mom who worked in food services at Bromley Mountain. I like to say that Bromley was my babysitter. I spent my childhood on its trails, eventually trading skis for a snowboard when the mountain allowed it and falling in love with the sport. I had the passion but certainly not the funds to pursue the training that would lift me to the top of my sport at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.

When I was ready for high school, Stratton Mountain School was launching its snowboarding program. It was the perfect local place to pursue my professional snowboarding dreams, but on paper, it should have been impossible.

I lived in South Londonderry, however — a small community nestled between snowy slopes that doesn’t operate a public high school. That allowed me to apply the tuition dollars my town would have spent on me elsewhere to my education at SMS. Public tuition made the impossible manageable for my family. Without that support from my town and the state, I never would have walked through those doors.

I made the U.S. National Team during my freshman year at SMS. The school provided flexibility to travel for competition while keeping me on track academically. It provided a community that supported my specific ambitions in ways a traditional school couldn’t. That support system launched a career that took me around the world and to the top of the Olympic podium.

Critics look at schools like SMS and see exclusivity. I look at them and see a pathway for local kids to stay in Vermont and reach their full potential.

This isn’t just my story. Vermont rightly prides itself on its winter sports heritage and outsized presence at the Winter Olympics. Look at fellow Vermonters who have won Olympic medals like Kelly Clark (Mount Snow Academy), Hannah Teter (Okemo Mountain School), Alex Deibold (SMS), Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Mt. Mansfield Academy) and others. We all represented the United States — and Vermont — on the biggest stage, helping deliver immeasurable economic benefits to the state we love. Many of us came from local Vermont communities and relied on the public tuition system to access the training we needed without having to leave Vermont.

Our system is providing rural kids these diverse educational opportunities extremely cost-effectively. The numbers tell the truth. According to the latest Agency of Education data, the town of Stratton, where I now live and work, is projected to spend $11,572 per pupil in FY26. That’s below the state average of $13,947, and far below the state’s highest-spending district, Norwich, which spends $18,295. We are delivering exceptional education and launching careers without burdening taxpayers.

Restricting school choice doesn’t impact wealthy out-of-staters who can pay tuition; it hurts the local Vermont families, like mine when I was young, who need a leg up to bridge the gap. Restricting choice means telling Vermont kids from rural towns that unless their parents are rich, their specific talents — whether in skiing, snowboarding, the arts, or STEM — don’t deserve to be nurtured.

School choice in Vermont allows families to find the environment where a child will thrive. For some, that is a traditional public school. For others, it might be an institution like Long Trail School, Burr & Burton Academy, or a ski academy. Why shouldn’t public tuition support a child’s success, regardless of the building it happens in?

My journey has come full circle. I have traveled the world and chose to come home to Vermont. I am back at Stratton Mountain School coaching the next generation of athletes. I am a proud Vermonter, contributing to my community and the state’s economy. And I am proud that in a small way, my dreams have helped highlight Vermont on the map as a small state with a prodigious history of winter sports success.

I often wonder where I would be if the system had been different, if the state had decided that a food service worker’s son didn’t belong at an independent school like SMS. I likely wouldn’t have the gold medal, but more importantly, I might not have built my life here in the Green Mountains. We should be proud that Vermont offers these opportunities to kids from all backgrounds.

Let’s not deny today’s students their dreams, or their home.

Ross Powers is an American Olympic gold medalist and world champion snowboarder from South Londonderry. He is director of the snowboarding program at the Stratton Mountain School.