The MT Lowdown is a weekly digest that showcases a more personal side of Montana Free Press’ high-quality reporting while keeping you up to speed on the biggest news impacting Montanans. Want to see the MT Lowdown in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.
For years, major school choice proposals floundered at the Montana Legislature, falling victim to opponents who worried they would divert limited funding from the state’s public schools. That changed last year, as the Republican-dominated 2023 Legislature passed proposals allowing charter schools and establishing publicly funded student savings accounts on narrow margins. School choice advocates have welcomed the shifting tides, among them Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, who signed a proclamation declaring this week as “Parental Choice in Education Week.”
This week also gave rise to the latest effort by public school leaders to roll the tides back out. Two organizations filed a legal challenge against Montana’s new education savings account law, arguing that it threatens the sustainability and equality of public education for students with disabilities in violation of the state Constitution. One of the plaintiffs, the Montana Quality Education Coalition, succeeded last fall in convincing a state court to partially block one of the state’s new charter school laws. Though filed half a year apart, the two lawsuits both hinge on the same concern: that diverting limited taxpayer dollars to private education efforts will limit educational opportunities for students who stay in public schools.
“Obviously the financial picture is important,” MQEC Executive Director Doug Reisig told MTFP this week while discussing the new lawsuit. “But that educational opportunity, the diminishing of the educational opportunity for the kids that are remaining in the public school with the redirection of those limited funds, is something we just can’t tolerate.”
Meanwhile, supporters of the policies frame the issue as one of educational freedom. For State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen and others backing the school choice movement, that belief is intertwined with the principle that taxpayer funds should follow a student wherever their educational needs can be met, be it the existing K-12 system or private tutorage.
“I’m a proponent of public education, but I’m also aware there are instances where needs could be met outside of the public school setting,” Rep. Sue Vinton, a Republican from Billings and the sponsor of both the challenged bills, told MTFP Friday. “I believe that families know what’s best for their children, and we need to tailor education to their individual needs.”
Members of the Montana Senate knew well last year that the questions raised by school choice policies were destined to wind up before a judge. In fact, in the closing days of the session, Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick encouraged fellow Republicans to pass the now-challenged charter school bill in order to “let the court decide whether it’s valid or not.” As the legal battles play out, the fate of Montana’s new policies will ultimately rest with a few phrases outlining the state’s constitutional guarantees: “equality of educational opportunity,” “the full educational potential of each person,” and the promise of a “free quality” system of public schools.
—Alex Sakariassen, Reporter
Temperature check 🌡️
We’re taking time this month for some periodic reflection on the work we’re doing with this weekly newsletter, thinking about what pieces of it are working well and which aspects, if any, could use adjusting. As part of that, we’ve put together a reader survey to give you the chance to weigh in.
Our main questions are the sorts of things editors and reporters have wondered about for time immemorial — chief among them whether we tend to write too long in this newsletter (or too short for those of you who like your news with more context). We’re also generally curious about which of our recurring sections are most beloved by our Lowdown readership and which ones perhaps aren’t.
You can find a link to the survey here:
As always, we’d also welcome any thoughts you want to share by replying to this email.
—Eric Dietrich, Deputy Editor
By the Numbers 🔢
Known number of homeless students enrolled in Montana public schools during the 2022-23 school year, according to data obtained from the Office of Public Instruction.
The total reflects homeless student counts reported by 88 of Montana’s 402 school districts, with homeless defined as a child who lacks “a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.” OPI’s data shows an additional 88 districts reported having five or fewer homeless students that year — the latest for which numbers were available — but did not include specific counts for those districts. Statewide enrollment across all Montana’s K-12 public schools in 2022-23 was 150,573 students.
As of Jan. 17, 2024, the Helena school district’s total count of homeless students sits at 371, according to Michele Zentz, the district’s homelessness liaison. Figures provided by Zentz indicate that number has more than doubled since 2021.
—Alex Sakariassen, Reporter and JoVonne Wagner, Reporter
Reporter’s Notebook 📓
The University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research is traveling the state this week and next for its annual economic roadshow tour where PowerPoint-toting economists update audiences on the state of Montana’s economy — and where they expect it to go in the coming year.
Those sorts of events are always a bit tricky to cover as a reporter. They tend to be four-statistics-a-minute affairs as speakers bounce from slide to slide. And the most interesting tidbits are often so obscure that it’s an uphill battle to convince editors they deserve headline-level attention. (I mean… BREAKING NEWS: The number of cattle in Montana has declined, gradually, by about 15% over the last two decades.)
If there was a headline takeaway from this year’s economic update, which I caught at the Great Northern Hotel ballroom in Helena on Tuesday, it was that the institute’s longtime lead economist, Pat Barkey, expects the next year to be pretty boring economy-wise. He said he predicts Montana’s Gross Domestic Product, the statistical measure of the state’s aggregate economic output, will grow modestly at a rate of about 2% over the next year.
This, of course, is something of a relief after years of COVID-19 shutdowns, federal stimulus money and rampant inflation knocking Montanans back and forth like a canoe in a thunderstorm. Of course, as Barkey acknowledged, predicting the future is hard — and he doesn’t always get it right. Last year he predicted a recession, or negative GDP growth, while what actually materialized was slow and steady 2% growth.
A few other not-necessarily-headline-worthy factoids jumped out at me:
- Nationally, enrollment in RN and BS nursing programs saw a 17% drop between 2022 and 2023, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing — a trend that Barkey said likely points to staffing shortages remaining a headache for Montana health care institutions, rural ones in particular.
- Montana saw about 12.6 million tourists visit the state in 2023, according to figures from UM’s Institute for Tourism & Recreation Research. That’s a relatively modest 2.4% increase over 2018, the year the TV show Yellowstone premiered.
- Gallatin County, which includes Bozeman, is now approaching the aggregate income of Billings’ Yellowstone County, despite having 45,000 fewer people. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Gallatin County residents earned a combined $10.1 billion in 2022, versus $10.8 billion for Yellowstone County. On a per-capita basis, that’s the difference between $81,000 in income per person in Gallatin County and $64,000 per person in Yellowstone County. (This income measure includes earned wages as well as investment income and government payments.)
As for that cattle count decline, Montana State University Extension Specialist Joel Schumacher noted a big chunk of the drop came in the past three years as ranchers have slimmed down their herds in an effort to deal with drought.
As of this writing, BBER has held its annual update seminar in Helena, Great Falls and Missoula. Events are also slated for next week in Billings, Bozeman and Butte, and then for Kalispell, Lewistown and Havre later in February and March. More information on the seminars is available here.
— Eric Dietrich, Deputy Editor
Public Comment 🗣️
A proposal to pump wastewater from biofuel production into old oil and gas wells in Pondera County has been given an extended comment period.
If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants the permits for Jody Fields 34-1 and Jody Fields 34-2, Cut Bank-based Montalban Oil and Gas Operations will be authorized to pump up to 16 million barrels of wastewater into two wells on private property over a 10-year period.
The wastewater is produced by Montana Renewables, a Great Falls company that launched in 2021 and has since become the largest producer of sustainable aviation fuel in North America. Montana Renewables washes “feedstocks” — oil from plants like canola, camelina, and hemp as well as tallow and grease from animals — at its refinery before processing those materials into biodiesel and other biofuels. The resulting wastewater includes nitrogen, phosphorus, salts, calcium and other materials that the feedstocks have picked up along the way. Currently, the wastewater is trucked up to Shelby where it continues on by rail to injection wells in other states.
To reduce costs and transportation distances, Montana Renewables hopes to instead truck the wastewater to an area between Dupuyer and Valier and inject the wastewater into wells that have been previously used for the disposal of wastewater generated by oil and gas production.
The EPA was originally set to close comment on Jan. 24, but has since extended the comment period to Feb. 15. Comments can be submitted by email or phone.
—Amanda Eggert, Reporter
Campaign Trail 🗳️
Ryan Busse, the only Democratic candidate currently running for governor in Montana this year, held a press conference to discuss his legislative priorities on Tuesday, Jan. 23. While he covered topics including housing affordability, Medicaid expansion and government efficiency, he devoted much of his 40-or-so minutes to attacking incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Republican legislative supermajority, saying the governor is enabling “a dangerous brand of fascism and authoritarianism.”
READ MORE: Dem candidate Busse: Gianforte agenda is ‘fascism’
AND ALSO: Governor-hopeful Busse talks housing affordability
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Reporter
Wildlife Watch 🐺
Montanans are increasingly tolerant of wolves, according to newly released research from the University of Montana’s Human Dimensions Lab and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The study, first conducted in 2012 and repeated in 2017 and 2023, was designed to gauge Montana residents’ attitudes toward wolves and various aspects of wolf management. To conduct it, researchers sent a survey to 10,000 Montana residents who were separated into four categories: the general population, landowners with more than 160 acres of land, wolf hunting license holders, and deer and elk license holders.
A few takeaways from the 2023 survey:
- In 2023, 74% of the general population said they were “tolerant” or “very tolerant” of wolves, up from 50% in 2017 and 41% in 2012.
- A vast majority of deer and elk hunters (82%), landowners (86%) and wolf hunters and trappers (100%) report being “tolerant” or “very tolerant” of wolf hunting. That figure for the general population is 50%, down from 71% in 2012.
- More than two-thirds of landowners and hunters report being “very tolerant” or “tolerant” of trapping. Among the general population, that figure is 36%, a decline from 2017.
In a release about the study, FWP Chief of Conservation Policy Quentin Kujala referenced the “complicated view and values” people have toward wolves.
“It’s important for us and our partners at the University to continue research like this because how stakeholders feel about wildlife and its management is a critical awareness for FWP to have,” Kujala said.
—Amanda Eggert, Reporter
On Our Radar 
Amanda — This Flathead Beacon story about twin brothers who plan to turn their property into a little Viking village is every bit as intriguing as it sounds. And it comes with equally unique photography.
Alex — I’ve sprinkled my reading list with nearly a dozen novels by acclaimed mystery author Ross MacDonald over the past year. I just finished another one, “The Far Side of the Dollar,” this week. There’s something oddly relaxing about an evening spent lost in the exploits of a hard-boiled detective.
Arren — Oscar buzz in Montana is understandably focused on Lily Gladstone and her breathtaking, heartbreaking performance in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” But my money for the year’s best movie is on Justine Triet’s courtroom thriller “Anatomy of a Fall.”
Brad — This profile of Mike Lacey, the polarizing founder of both the Arizona-based New Times (now Village Voice Media) chain of alt-weeklies and the legally suspect Backpage classifieds empire, has been out for a few weeks now, but I just recently got around to reading it. (Lacey was my big boss in the early 1990s when I worked at a paper he owned in Houston, and profiler Tom Zoellner is a friend). I shouldn’t have waited. Zoellner does complicated justice to a complex guy who, in Backpage’s current legal embroilment with federal prosecutors, is head-butting the boundaries of the First Amendment all the way to the increasingly bitter end.
JoVonne — There’s an interesting story in The Pulp this week about an unsolved murder that happened over a year and a half ago in Clinton, Mont.. Jule Banville dove into reporting on the story, “What Happened to Delphine Farmer?,” which details the local crime.
Mara — January is challenging enough as it is without stressing too much about meal prep and (in my humble opinion) the outlandish costs of groceries. In this economy, Bon Appétit has me, and maybe you, covered.
Eric — It’s been a week. Here’s a cat losing a fight with a tortoise in the most adorable way imaginable.
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