Montana

Montana has prioritized three issues for public education: school safety and security,¹ providing opportunities for rural students,² and recruiting and retaining qualified teachers.³ Two bills, SB 92⁴ and HB 192,⁵ provided additional state funding for schools. HB 387⁶ was designed to provide students with advanced opportunities through dual-enrollment and career and technical education apprenticeship programs. All three bills passed through the bipartisan legislature this term.

Issues, trends, and priorities affecting p-12 and higher education funding

Democratic Governor Steve Bullock is finishing his final term. Currently, seven individuals have declared candidacy for the 2020 Election. One candidate, Casey Schreiner, is proposing tuition-free education at two-year state institutions in exchange for recipients agreeing to work full-time in Montana for four years (two years for military veterans) following graduation.⁷ Despite the upcoming election, where new candidates will be providing their specific visions for education, the following trends shaped P-12 education during the 2018-2019 school year.

School Safety and Security

State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen's office promised that school safety would be the top priority in the P-12 public education system,⁸ and in May 2019, Governor Bullock signed SB 92, which allowed schools to offer a new tax specifically for school safety, use existing funding streams for safety upgrades, provide active shooter training, and support professional development using restorative justice, a system focusing on allowing students to repair harm instead of punitive discipline.⁹ Additionally, cyber security has become a priority. Congressman Greg Gianfote has stated that "it's often too expensive for rural school districts to hire data security experts," noting that alternative methods must be explored.¹⁰

Rural Schools

Rural schools continue to be understaffed with educators, in danger of security risks, and in need of additional funding. Dennis Parman of the Montana Rural School Association states, "The further a school district is from what I call the big seven-Bozeman, Billings, Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Kalispell, Missoula-the more difficult it becomes for them" to recruit teachers.¹¹ Teachers are responsible for multiple grades and subject areas, and some small districts have fewer than 10 teachers for students in grades K-12, which has led to inconsistency in both programming and curriculum delivery.¹² Montana has taken two actions to reduce these challenges. First, Senator Jon Tester has introduced the Rural and Native Educator Support Training Act, specifically offering loan forgiveness and pay raises for teachers to work in rural and reservation schools.¹³ Second, Montana State University recently created a one-year online master's degree program specifically for creating certified teachers to serve in rural areas.¹⁴

recent changes to the funding formula for P-12 education

Montana operates biennially for budgeting and school funding. The 2019 Legislative Session discussed specific budget items for both higher education and P-12 education. The primary bill that passed was HB 159, a $77 million funding package for Montana Public Schools, which allowed for a 0.91% funding increase in 2019-2020, and a 1.83% funding increase for 2020-2021. This will increase local county property taxes across the state by $5 million, and allows school districts to add permissive property tax levies if they choose.¹⁵

Forces diverting funds from traditional public school districts

During the 2019 Legislative Session, no bills designed to divert funds from public education were passed.¹⁶ Two prior bills from 2017, HB 423, designed to create special education savings accounts, and HB 423, designated to establish public charter schools, were not revised or reintroduced, despite their narrow defeat in the previous session.

P-12 per pupil expenditure

Beginning in FY2019, Montana will follow the Every Student Succeeds Act to allow all districts to individually report Per-Pupil Expenditures. As this is a change in reporting, the data regarding per-pupil expenditure will not be available until February 2020.¹⁷ However, HB 159, which passed on February 27, 2019, established the following base student allocation beginning FY2020. For a high school district or a K-12 district high school program, a maximum rate of $7,201 per student for...