MONTPELIER, VT - On Mar 13, 2025 the Vermont Senate voted to confirm Governor Scott’s appointee for Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders. VTGOP Chairman Paul Dame made the following comments:

“With a permanent Education Secretary in place along with a robust Education Reform plan put forward by the Governor, the table is set for the kind of change that Republicans campaigned on and we hope that this is a sign of future cooperation from Senate Democrats.

Today would not have been possible without the tens of thousands of Vermonters who voted last November for making such a dramatic change. Many times people vote, and feel like it doesn’t make a difference, but with the confirmation of Zoie Saunders as Education Secretary, we have one of the most concrete examples of how voters can change and even reverse the legislature’s course of action, as they did in the Vermont Senate. The same exact appointee was rejected last session by a Democrat Super Majority that was determined to thwart every single effort Governor Scott made to make progress on our broken education system. After the results of the November election, some of the worst Democrat obstructionists were replaced by Republicans who want to cooperate with the Governor, while other Democrats have changed their tune. The progress that was made today would have been impossible without Vermonters going to the polls last November and voting for change that included electing more Republican Senators who support Governor Scott and his agenda.”