bennington and grand isle, 21% and wyndham, 23.three counties, addison, windsor, lost a court or of their students for 14 years and in essex, they are educating 42% fewer kids. these declines are eroding quality of opportunity for children and this is happening on our watch. these trends not only mean fewer in our workforce and schools, fewer customers and businesses, ratepayers for utilities, fewer available for volunteer fire departments and others who support the needs of our community, fewer to share the cost of state government, ongoing needs in areas like transportation, building maintenance, public safety and human services. and treat those impact, and protecting lakes and rivers which will cost vermonters nearly $1 billion over the next few years and we must keep the promises we made to state employees and teachers to pay pensions and healthcare costs. the debt we owe today is $4 billion. the annual payment to catch up continues to grow by tens of millions each year. let's be clear, a deal is a deal. each of these commitmen

in bennington and grand isle, it's declined by 21 percent; in windham: 23. three counties, addison, rutland and windsor, have lost a quarter of their students in 14 years. and in essex, they're educating 42 percent fewer kids. these declines are eroding quality and opportunity for our children. and this is happening on our watch. these trends not only mean fewer in our workforce and schools, but fewer customers at businesses, ratepayers for utilities, fewer available for our volunteer fire departments and others who support the needs of our communities. and fewer to share the costs of state government, with ongoing needs in areas like transportation, building maintenance, public safety and human services. but there are other needs as well. we have a moral obligation to protect our seniors and kids and treat those impacted by mental illness or addiction. we're committed to restoring and protecting our lakes and rivers, which will cost vermonters nearly $1 billion over the next 20 years. and we must keep the promises we made to our state employees and teachers

bennington memorial have seen the string by 12% and wings are 12 and caldonia, 14, and essex is down by 20%. this demographic reality is perhaps most apparent in our school. it's like the canary in the mine shaft and there are public schools when are now educating about 30,000 fewer k through 12 students than we were in 1997. that's an average loss of three students a day for over 20 years and that trend continues. there's not a single county that hasn't been affected. since 2004 which wasn't all that long ago, franklin county's enrollment has shrunk by 3.5% and is doing the best by far. memorial and orange counties have seen declines of 12%. enrollment has dropped by over 16 in kaledonia county and 17% in orleans and nearly 9 in washington. in bennington and grand isle has declined by 21% and addison, butler and windsor have lost a quarter of their students in 14 years, and in essex they're educating 42% fewer kids. these declines are for children and this is happening on our watch. these trends not only mean fewer of the workforce in school, but fewer customers and businesses, grea

ballet and tap and modern dance, and she fell in love with modern dance and ended up going to the bennington college school of dance at a summer prom in stowe, vermont, and studying under martha graham who was the grand dame of modern dance. when betty was 20, she went to new york and actually danced in martha graham's troupe. she didn't make the a-team, so to speak, because betty liked to socialize -- [laughter] she, everybody i interviewed and, mike, i'm sure you can attest to this, betty liked to have a good time. she always had a lot of boys wanting to go on dates with her, and she just enjoyed that. and martha graham said to her, betty, you -- if you really want to be a number one dancer, you're going to have to give up your social life. well, betty loved dance, but she wasn't willing to give her whole life to that. [laughter] so she ended up going back to grand rapids, teaching dance, and she also, to earn a living, she worked at a department store as a fashion coordinator there. and she loved fashion. she was beautiful. she was a model for the store, and that's how is she earned her l