Montana’s public education ranks 38th among the states with an overall grade of C-.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) tracks what state policies have succeeded or failed and annually issues a State Educational Report Card, including the following:
• State Academic Standards (how students that meet state standards also meet National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standards): Montana earned an A grade.
• Charter Schools: Montana, one of only eight states that do not allow charter schools, earned an F grade.
• Teacher Quality & Policies (teacher preparation, licensing, evaluation, compensation, dismissal procedures): Montana earned an F grade.
• Digital Learning (student eligibility, access, personalized learning): Montana earned an F grade.
Montana’s poor public education performance has nothing to do with the money spent on educating our students. Montana’s annual cost per student (in 2017) was $10,710, much more than the First-place state, Arizona ($7,737), the Second-place state, Florida ($9,060), and the Third-place state, Indiana ($9,256).
Without exception Education Savings Accounts (ESA’s) are less costly than the state’s average per-student funding. In 2017, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill that gave all public school students the option to use an ESA, which will result in an estimated taxpayer savings of $11.4 million over four years.
ESA’s allow parents to use the accounts to buy educational products and services for their child instead of sending him to a traditional or charter public school full-time. The accounts give parents other options to help their children when their district school is not a good fit for their child. Families can hire a personal tutor for their child, find a class online, pay for individual public school classes or extracurricular activities, pay private school tuition, or even save for college. The accounts allow parents to customize their children’s education and choose multiple learning options simultaneously. ESA’s are a learning solution that helps students access information and take advantage of a child’s ability to learn on his or her own schedule. Such features are just a few reasons the accounts are beneficial to students, parents, and taxpayers alike.
ESA’s put parents in control of their children’s education. However, teacher unions and other special interest groups have filed lawsuits in three states to block ESA’s but have lost on constitutional and procedural grounds in each case.
One of the many reasons I like Scott McLean, candidate for the Montana State Senate (mcleanforsenate.com), is his passion for educational innovation in Montana: “Education is best managed at the local level. We can assist in improving education by removing government barriers to innovation, accreditation, and credentialing that are keeping us stuck in an 18th century, brick-and-mortar education model.” — From Scott McLean’s website.
Dennis W. Hicks
Hamilton