What’s fueling this year’s rash of budget shortfalls in many Montana schools?
Recent months have seen a rash of headlines across Montana regarding multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls in many of the state’s largest public school districts. The specter of cuts to staff and resources for students looms large, and local officials are leveraging the harsh financial outlook in their appeals for additional taxpayer support as voters begin casting…
Latest education Reporting
Judge bars OPI from enforcing school opening laws on public charters
A Lewis and Clark County District Court judge has barred state Superintendent Elsie Arntzen from subjecting new public charter schools to an additional suite of legal requirements district leaders say would delay their opening this fall.
Three-year-old sex education law draws a legal challenge
The ACLU of Montana has filed a lawsuit challenging a bill passed by the 2021 Legislature that requires 48-hour parental notification before any public school discussions of human sexuality.
Coalition sues education agency for ‘interfering’ with charter school openings.
The Montana Quality Education Coalition has filed a lawsuit against state Superintendent Elsie Arntzen — the latest development in an ongoing dispute between education leaders over implementation of a new public charter school law.
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MORE EDUCATION REPORTING
Superintendent Arntzen doubles down on lawmaker-criticized approach to new education laws
After a dispute with Montana lawmakers last week, state Superintendent Elsie Arntzen doubled down on her office’s approach to implementing several education laws passed in the 2023 session.
The land-grant legacy
On campus, MSU’s support of Native students involves cultural offerings, Native-specific education and tuition waivers. Off campus, tribal extension programs fuel cultural rejuvenation but sometimes struggle with funding.
Lawmakers chastise Superintendent Arntzen over alleged delays, inefficiencies at Montana’s K-12 education agency
Montana lawmakers formally expressed their disappointment with state Superintendent Elsie Arntzen’s unwillingness to appear before a legislative committee to resolve conflicts over the implementation of new education laws passed last session.
The rural workforce is changing. Colleges are scrambling to keep up.
Lack of affordable housing makes it almost impossible to recruit out-of-towners to rural communities like Ravalli County, and the in-town workforce is drying up. Montana and other states hope more flexible, skills-based education systems can root out, and then meet, specific and sometimes surprising education needs.
Beyond acknowledgments, land grant universities make up some impressive ground
A handful of Indigenous students and recent college graduates interviewed by ICT expressed frustration with the general lack of knowledge among peers and course curriculum about tribal lands upon which public institutions sit and prosper.
The money allocated to Montana’s new charter schools
MTFP tackled a very specific reader question: exactly how much state funding did the Legislature direct toward Montana’s new charter schools last session?
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MORE EDUCATION REPORTING
School leaders attribute budget crises to pandemic funding cliff, state funding frustrations
With public schools across Montana facing deep budget cuts this year, district officials from Missoula, Helena, Bozeman and Great Falls share their thoughts on the major factors driving financial challenges.
Contracts finalized for Montana’s new public charter schools
The Board of Public Education unanimously approved contracts with 19 new public charter schools, outlining an array of reporting requirements that will measure their academic and financial success and, eventually, whether they’re allowed to continue operating.
Five things to know about Montana’s school funding formulas
We published a lengthy visual explainer intended to help Montanans understand Montana’s complex school funding formulas. But at 3,000 words — not counting labels on the pictures — the piece is no cakewalk of a read. So we tried to boil down the five most important takeaways we took from the project as a separate…
Land, wealth and higher education
More than a century ago, the federal government granted the fledgling state of Montana land to support its new college infrastructure. Those tracts — still recognized as the aboriginal ground of Montana’s Indigenous peoples — continue to generate millions for MSU and other campuses.
How Montana pays for its public schools, in pictures
How exactly do public school districts across Montana fill their coffers? We take a picture-heavy look at the complex formula that channels cash toward classrooms from state and local sources.
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