On March 16 in the Pioneer Valley town of Westhampton, about 200 students walked out of the public high school to protest proposed budget cuts. Two of the organizers were students Lucy McVey and Augustus Niswonger. On March 17, they emailed the Valley Post, “We planned to make the walkout both a call to action and a way to spread more facts and information to students. Over the past few weeks, I (McVey) have had many peers – some of whom I do not know -- come up to me and ask what us students can do to fight for our school, and these students were so grateful to have the opportunity to walk out.”

The rest of the email from McVey and Niswonger is at the end of this article.

On March 20, Microsoft's news web site reported that Elon Musk is getting close to being the first trillionaire. On March 19 in California, about 660 public school teachers in towns near the state capitol of Sacramento voted to end their strike, which started March 10. By striking, the teachers won smaller class sizes and other gains. They have a web page at:

www.facebook.com/NatomasTeachers

In 2024, the New York Time published a news article about Cambridge, Massachusetts resident Jonathan Kozol. The article said, “Now, at 87, he has published 'An End to Inequality,' his 15th book — and his last, he says. It is an unapologetic cri de coeur about the shortcomings of the schools that serve poor Black and Hispanic children, and thus, the moral failure of the nation to end the inequality he has documented for decades.... Educational opportunity is still apportioned mostly by parents’ ability to pay for housing in desirable ZIP codes.”

A “cri de coeur” is a French phrase that means a “cry from the heart.”

Here is a quote from Kozol's 1975 book “The Night Is Dark and I Am Far from Home”:

“What if the more that poor and working class kids talk and listen the more they discover that they were right to feel hostile and bitter and suspicious, all along? What if the more they read and understand, the more angry they grow, and ought to grow? What if rich people really do prefer to go to their holiday home in Vail or Key West than deal with the desperation and misery of their janitors and builders and employees? What if the college dean and high school principal honestly do prefer to go to seminars in conference rooms at five-star hotels and meetings with research branches of powerful corporations than deal with the fact that most working people can’t get higher education at all, or that public schools in poor neighborhoods are overcrowded and falling apart while ones in rich towns are fresh and clean and inspiring? What if this is not just sometimes, but frequently the case?”

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Bellows Falls, Vermont is 20 minutes by car from Brattleboro. On Amtrak, Bellows Falls is the first stop north of Brattleboro. Both places are in Windham county. Ron Lake was the police chief in Bellows Falls until he retired in 2020. The Vermont state government says that, in 2021, Lake forged his ex-girlfriend's signature when he was applying for a mortgage.

On March 17, 2026 Lane was in court in Brattleboro because of two felonies: “forgery uttering” and forgery. Windsor county State’s Attorney Ward Goodenough is the prosecutor. Goodenough did not immediately reply to an email from the Valley Post asking why this case is moving so slowly.

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Here is the rest of the quote from Pioneer Valley public high school students Lucy McVey and Augustus Niswonger: “Lots of students at Hampshire (regional high school) are troubled about the budget cuts—in particular, students were worried about band classes being cut. So, I wanted to use the walkout as an opportunity to educate peers on what’s at risk and how students can channel their worries into action. I also created a website for Hampshire students as a resource/information hub:

https://sites.google.com/student.hr-k12.org/fundourfuture/home

One of the points I would like to highlight that I spoke about both in the walkout and in the website is a school funding 'death spiral'. I compared our situation to other Western Massachusetts schools like Mohawk Regional who have faced 'death spiral' budget cuts and how these cuts are a perpetuating cycle that get worse each year."

"I emphasized that when a school system worsens, the whole community becomes less appealing to live in for parents who want their kids to have a strong education. I also discussed how school choice students would leave Hampshire. I love Hampshire Regional (high school) so much, and even though I am graduating this spring, I really want my younger peers to have access to the same educational opportunities that I took advantage of.”