I explained in my response. Only someone who was trolling would ‘not understand’.

Vermont’s reputation as a liberal haven is a facade. I say this as a mixed woman of color who grew up here. Someone in this thread mentioned Kiah Morris’s experience, which you should look into as an example of life here. Personally, after reading coverage of how VT schools and the principals’ association mishandled racism and homophobia and transphobia occurring in schools, I had a moment when I told myself I would think realllyyyy hard about raising children in Vermont. You will need to be prepared to fight hard for your kids and expect your adult peers in your community to be overtly racist and to use schools and curricula to showcase their bigotry. I will say that it was exhausting to be a “token student” and I went to BHS, where there were more students of color than in other schools in the state. It was exhausting to exist in a school culture that isn’t trauma informed and to fight to be recognized as human. I made it, but I also realized that I made myself smaller so I’d be more appealing.

There’s a reason why this state is one of the least diverse states in the country.

Did it not happen or was it a "both sides" scenario? In either case, trying to play "both sides" on that kind of thing is a bit gauche.

From what I’m gathering, Burlington seems too far from Killington! So we have to go a little more south

You'll be fine if you go to socialist areas like Burlington. Just kidding but honestly Vermont doesn't seem too bad in terms of racism. But again 90% of the state is white so I'm not sure. NH has it a lot worse tho

Yeah our next door neighbor now has a Trump 2024 flag flying so we’re used to seeing them 😂 thanks so much for the insight!

Depends on what class you and your child are surrounded by if I’m going to be honest. Poor white people are poor white people everywhere.

Bethel no longer has a high school. It merged with South Royalton. Which could also be a good location for the family, although housing is likely impossible there.

If they want to go south a little they could look to be somewhere so the kids could go to BBA. Might as well get the best education they can.

Thank you- realistically they are probably looking at living in towns that are served by Rutland HS, West Rutland, Mill River HS, the HS in Bethel, Woodstock HS or Otter Valley HS in Brandon. Or they could opt to send their kids to Killington Mountain School or the private Catholic HS in Rutland. Rutland is the largest community near Killington, and many of the other towns surrounding Killington can feel isolated and lacking of amenities. As you continue to explore your options moving to Vt focus on those areas, otherwise your husband commute will be quite long.

I overlooked the Killington part somehow. Yeah, that would be a bad drive.

There's a reason world class skiers come to the north east for college, and it is indeed because this is where you learn to handle ice. The west is too soft and easy, with all that wimpy powder and such.

Rutland is the biggest town near Killington. It has a rough reputation but honestly it's a great town with a lot to offer.

As others have said, Vermont is very white and sadly racism and classism is prevalent, but I know many Vermonters who are actively trying to fight that, so at least there's that...

I can’t speak to the schools but I live in Proctor just outside Rutland and in the three years I’ve been here I’ve noticed a definite uptick in the number of POCs, particularly black folk. So I think it’s getting more diverse, but compared to Michigan, that’s not saying much.

I’m white, so I can’t speak to the experience of black folks here either but I can say that while I’ve run into a lot of unfamiliarity with people of color (and resulting ignorance) I haven’t heard much in the way of disrespect or contempt.

You will, however, see too many “Trump 2024” signs and a pretty hefty sprinkling of confederate flags. So it’s a pretty mixed bag.

Thanks so much!! I sent you a DM! It would be great to connect

That is good to know! Thank you so much for your insight.

Of course! Best of luck! It’s a beautiful little state and a great place to live and have kids. Something else worth mentioning is that this state is one of the few that I know that decides school funding at a state level, so the quality of a school is to a small extent more decoupled from the amount of property taxes that municipality collects.

It's Highgate. Most of Franklin county is hella racist and run by 4 or 5 families who have been there forever and are absurdly opposed to any sort of change because it takes away what little power they do have.

Thank you! He actually has a job lined up already. His friend is the executive chef at a ski resort and is hiring him to be a chef under him. The only reason we are moving is because it’s three times his salary.

I luckily work from home already so I can work from anywhere with internet.

Thanks a lot for your perspective and advice :)

A lot of the racism in Vermont is of the “I didn’t mean to do it so it’s like I didn’t do it” variety.

Kids get taught to accept diverse cultures and backgrounds but they’re also very sheltered so they say dumb shit all the time.

This past weekend I rode up a chairlift with a little kid (at ski school’s request) and the kid, who was being nice and trying to ask about my life, asked me if I had to learn a language to move to the US. Kiddo, why would you think I moved here, I was born in New England. He also told me he has never left Vermont, so…yeah.

Lots of folks are overlooking geography. Killington is in Rutland County, and is also near Woodstock and the Upper Valley. Everyone giving you advice about Chittenden county is not especially helpful; it would be about a 2 hour commute for your husband if you lived there. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to do that. I can’t answer the question you’ve asked, but you may want to narrow your focus to areas where it makes sense for your family to live.

I’m just not understanding the issue with my question I guess and that could be on me, but can you explain?

No I legit am not understanding you? I’m responding to other comments to gain clarity lol

Hi. I might be late to the game. Full disclosure I’m a white middle class beardy guy with an English accent, so as white as they come.

I for one would welcome you and your family to Vermont, I have zero tolerance for racism and neither does my friend group who stretch from downtown Burlington to the NEK. Does that mean there are not ass hats? No, sadly not, they are ubiquitous and to be found under any slime covered rock (sorry slime, you serve a vital purpose in the ecosystem, unlike racists).

If you do move here let me know and maybe you and your family can meet up with me and my wife and grab a bite to eat/coffee?

I think it’s kinda tricky around here. I’m white so take all of this with a grain of salt. Everyone in my circles would love to see this state become more racially diverse but it’s hard for a couple reasons: Firstly we’re basically tied with Maine for being the whitest state in the country. And while many people are well meaning/liberal they tend to be in cities and more egalitarian in theory than practice (mostly because they have so few interactions with people of color, and especially black people). Also this just means that finding any non-white community may be quite difficult. Secondly, outside of towns it can get pretty bad pretty quickly. A lot of maga, blue stripe flags, but also things like a school board preventing the students from being able to hang a blm flag or a pride flag officially. There is an ongoing aclu lawsuit against a school district for racial harassment (from memory there were students seig heil-img, and using racial epithets) My part of the state is also adjacent to NH which I think is decidedly worse in most of these respects. But our school district is notably more diverse and welcoming.

Also I’d be wary about Killington. May be able to make good money but, it’ll be pretty short term (ski season goes through may maybe?) I don’t know what summers look like there but I’d recommend finding out before it comes up. A lot of our support programs are fairly good, but it’s not the best place to find a job, especially not one with a good enough pay to afford to find housing around here. It’s a bad situation. In my town there’s like 1-2 rentals listed per month, because the majority of spots become short term rentals or are just overwhelmed by demand. If you’re trying to buy a property you’re competing with New Yorkers and Connecticuters who just have much more money than can be competed with mostly.