OpEds Digger Never Published | Friends Of Public Ed

The Op Eds VT Digger
Never Published

On December 28th Greg Hughes submitted an opinion piece to VT Digger. He was responding to the Zoie Saunders Q&A published a week earlier. There was no response from VT Digger so on January 8th he followed up. Again nothing.

Not even a week later, Digger published an opinion piece from Zoie Saunders titled “It’s not all about taxes”. On 1/13 Jess DeCarolis submitted a response. Nothing from Digger.

I had a piece ready to go as well but decided to hold off on submitting to Digger because I didn’t want to compete with Greg and Jess for publication. A few more weeks went by and neither piece had appeared so I decided to submit mine titled ‘The Death of Public Education in Vermont’ on January 28th. No response.

We started wondering if something had changed at Digger. Previous submissions from all of us at Friends of Vermont Public Education had invariably been published. Our position and advocacy had not changed. This was weird.

Then on February 10th we got a clue. At the very end of an opinion piece from the director of career and technical education at Lyndon Institute we noticed this: "Disclosure: VTDigger Opinion Editor Tess Stimson is married to an employee of Lyndon Institute.” Interesting. We missed that on the previous submission in January from Brian Bloomfield, the head of school at Lyndon Institute.

Undeterred and convinced that Digger stands behind their values we continued to submit opinion pieces - another one on 3/20 responding to an opinion piece by Waterford VT parents and one on 3/24 titled ‘Beyond the Rhetoric’. Neither were published.

So, I decided to reach out to Tess Stimson, Geeta Anand (Editor in Chief) and Sky Barsch (CEO) to see if there was a reason why none of our pieces were published. You can see that full chain of emails below but the short answer is our pieces may not have been compelling enough and Tess is making room for voices that may not have regularly been published. I believe Digger is succeeding on that last piece. Since Tess took over as the opinion editor in mid January there have been three published submissions by employees of Lyndon Institute. I see no other published submissions from Lyndon Institute employees going back to 2018. Tess has assured us that her "spouse's employment is not relevant to my work or decision-making”.

Here are the submissions Digger never published:

Q&A with Zoie Saunders: A Closer Look

Beyond The Rhetoric

The Death of Public Education In Vermont

In Response to the Waterford Parents

Gaslight Governing

While Digger may be doing it’s best to share all opinions there are definitely some that don’t make it to publication. Keep that in mind when browsing the opinion section of Digger. Regardless of the topic, there are other Vermont voices out there that have not been chosen for publication.

Neil

On Fri, Mar 27, 2026 at 4:28 PM Neil Odell wrote:

Hello Sky, Geeta and Tess,

I’m reaching out to better understand why submissions from me and some of my colleagues from Friends of Vermont Public Education have not been published by VT Digger.

Over the years you have been a great statewide outlet, publishing various viewpoints from Vermonters all across our state. I’ve been the fortunate recipient of your generosity with multiple pieces having been published over the years. Recently however, we have been disappointed that none of our submissions have been selected for publication. A few examples:

On 12/28/25 Greg Huges submitted a response opinion piece to your article from Zoie Saunders. He followed up again on 1/8

On 1/28 I submitted a piece titled: The Death of Public Education in Vermont

On 3/20 I submitted a piece responding to an opinion submission from a group of parents in Waterford, VT.

On 3/24 Ken Fredette submitted a piece titled: Beyond the Rhetoric

If you are willing to share, we are interested in understanding the reasons for not selecting our recent submissions. While I understand you must recieve far more than you can accommodate our historical submission to publication ratio has been much higher.

Thanks for reporting on and for Vermont!

Neil Odell

On Mar 28, 2026, at 10:44 AM, Opinion Editor <opinion@vtdigger.org> wrote:

Hi, Neil - thank you for reaching out, and for your interest in, and support for, VTDigger. I assumed the role of Opinion Editor in the second week of January, and so I am not privy to historical decisions.

As you correctly point out, we receive a huge volume of submissions, and cannot accommodate them all. Regretfully, some excellent pieces do not find space.

I aim to publish a wide range of commentaries from as many voices as possible, especially those who may not have previously been heard. This may mean the frequency of some regular contributors will decrease.

In general terms, I select the most compelling submissions - recognising that this is subjective, of course - and sometimes there is stiff competition, especially when there are multiple pieces on the same topic.

I hope this gives you a little clarity, and I want to assure you that we very much appreciate your sustained support of VTDigger.

Best wishes,

Tess Stimson

Opinion Editor

Opinion desk, VTDigger

(802) 793-2168

P.O. Box 1374 | Montpelier, VT 05601

On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 11:39 AM Neil Odell wrote:

Tess, ( and Geeta & Sky),

Thanks very much for the reply. We’re sharpening our pencils for more compelling submissions in the future.

We definitely appreciate and support your efforts to publish a wide range of commentaries from as many voices as possible and we believe that Digger has historically done that extraordinarily well. I also agree that democracy depends on good journalism and feel that Digger has played an important role in informing lawmakers in the golden dome on a variety of issues and perspectives. It’s interesting to note that since the beginning of the year there have been 17 published opinion pieces on education, 7 of which (41%) have addressed private and independent schools and all of those focused on the areas surrounding St. Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon Institute.

As the opinion editor of Digger and the spouse of a Lyndon Institute employee I know you are well aware of our position. Prior to your arrival we even clarfied it in the Opinion section of Digger. I also understand that our position presents a different perspective than the three pieces penned by Lyndon Institute employees that have been published since the beginning of the year. We hope that has not been the disqualifying factor in our submissions.

We look forward to a balanced set of opinions in Digger on how our state has chosen to allow for tuitioning and school choice and how that impacts the education reform discussions currently underway in Montpelier. Assuming none of our recent submissions were compelling enough, we are hopeful that one of our future pieces passes muster and is selected for publication.

Regards,

Neil Odell

On Mar 30, 2026, at 12:41 PM, Opinion Editor <opinion@vtdigger.org> wrote:

Hi there - it's good to see that our opinion pages are getting such detailed analysis and attention, for which many thanks!

As you note, VTDigger is committed to publishing a wide range of diverse opinions, especially from historically underrepresented voices and communities, including the Northeast Kingdom.

I'm sure you will have noticed in your deep dive that the three pieces written by employees of Lyndon Institute covered three very different topics — equity, CTE programs, and teen mental health. The issue of school status — independent or public — was not germane. There have been many published commentaries in the past on the topic of school choice, and I am sure we will return to it at some point in the future, but other aspects of the education debate also deserve attention.

You are correct when you note that my spouse's employment is not relevant to my work or decision-making.

Best regards,