Whereas: the Essex / Westford School District has some of the best public schools in the United States.

Whereas: Vermont's school funding formula under Acts 60, 68, and 130 already guarantees Vermonters' equal access to school funding, regardless of zip code, race, religion, ethnicity, or income.

Whereas: the Vermont Constitution prohibits public funding of religious instruction without adequate safeguards against use of public money for religious worship.

Activists have chosen language which disguises their true goals: to remove tax dollars from EWSD schools and spend it instead at private and religious schools outside the district.

We, the citizens of Essex, Essex Junction and Westford, Vermont reject these Orwellian calls for "school choice."

We, the citizens of Essex, Essex Junction and Westford, Vermont demand that our tax dollars are only used to fund Vermont public schools.

We, the citizens of Essex, Essex Junction, and Westford believe that if parents of students in this school district choose to send their children to private schools, they are free to do so. But they must do so with their own funds.