Montana

Teacher pay, school funding and math skills top on Montana lawmakers’ priority list

Published

1 year ago

January 14, 2025

Teacher pay, school funding and math skills top on Montana lawmakers’ priority list

Increasing teacher pay, finding ways to get more money to school districts and boosting students’ early math skills are on the agenda as Montana legislators plan to take up a broad range of proposals this year addressing the K-12 system’s most chronic challenges.

On the funding front, several House Republicans have already signaled plans to tackle one of the most pressing education issues in the state: teacher pay. Low starting salaries for early career educators are a driving factor in Montana’s ongoing teacher shortage, making it hard for many local districts to recruit and retain staff.

Montana Free Press wrote extensively last month about the still-evolving STARS Act, a proposal shepherded by Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, that aims to use Montana’s school funding formula as a vehicle to increase wages for early career educators.

In an adjacent move, Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, the incoming chair of the Legislature’s education budget subcommittee, has introduced a bill to diffuse the local funding burden on property taxpayers by levying that support countywide rather than from taxpayers in specific school districts.

Recent bill drafts also shed light on how House Democrats are approaching the issue of adequate K-12 education funding. One proposal calls for directing revenue from the state lottery straight to the Office of Public Instruction for distribution to public schools, while another seeks to increase per-pupil state payment rates for sixth graders to match rates for other middle-school grades.

In a virtual press call with state media last month, Rep. Connie Keogh, D-Missoula, acknowledged that enhancing funding for schools without overly burdening local taxpayers will be a “delicate balance” but said she’s confident lawmakers can work with other education leaders to achieve a solution.

“There’s plenty of money in the budget,” Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, said during the same call. “The budget is a matter of priorities. It expresses our values, and Democrats value public education.”

Outside the funding conversation, Democrats in both chambers have at turns drawn policy inspiration from conversations that played out during the legislative interim. Rep. Melissa Romano, D-Helena, vice chair of the House Education Committee, requested a bill to expand pre-kindergarten academic interventions to include early childhood numeracy.

The proposal builds off last session’s early childhood literacy bill, carried by Republican Rep. Brad Barker, of Roberts. It addresses concerns raised by state education leaders regarding declining student performance on statewide math assessments and increased demand for remedial math courses at in-state colleges and universities.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle last fall expressed interest in policy targeting early numeracy. The issue is also high on newly elected state Superintendent Susie Hedalen’s list of policy priorities for the coming months.

“As a former kindergarten teacher, we talked about ‘numbers sense’ a lot and having that understanding of mathematics, those basic foundations,” said Hedalen, a Republican who has worked as a Montana teacher and superintendent and was vice chair of the state Board of Public Education. “When the early literacy bill passed [in 2023] and we started these programs, everyone realized that math is also one of those key components to students being successful.”

Hedalen added that, in addition to early numeracy, the Legislature is poised to take up the issue of increased costs to local districts incurred as a result of recent guidance from the Board of Public Education. Last year, Hedalen and other board members unanimously adopted a resolution encouraging school districts to add a third year of math to their high school graduation requirements.

While existing math classes and offerings through the Montana Digital Academy should give most students ample opportunity to meet such a requirement, Hedalen said, she’s met with business leaders and the state Department of Labor and Industry to discuss crafting courses tailored to students pursuing trades-based education, an effort she’s hopeful will attract state funding.

In a recent interview with MTFP, Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell, echoed the prediction that early numeracy and teacher pay will be prominent on the Legislature’s education agenda. Fuller said he also anticipates policies dealing with school choice and the powers of public school boards will feature heavily before the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee, which he chairs this session.

Fuller noted that the Montana Constitution and its deference to local control will likely drive much of the debate around school boards. As for school choice, Republican lawmakers have already submitted proposals to expand eligibility for state-funded education savings accounts to all public school students and to grant a state commission tasked with overseeing publicly funded “community choice” schools the authority to seek state funding of its own. Both bills build on policies passed last session, which brought about some of the most significant advancements for the school choice movement in Montana in decades.

Other bill language and draft titles suggest the policy conversation will touch on classrooms more directly. One still-percolating Democratic request calls for the creation of a “teachers’ bill of rights,” while a Republican-led proposal aims to assert teachers’ authority to “maintain a positive classroom learning environment” and codify school protocols for the treatment of disruptive students.

Individual lawmakers are also pursuing bills to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments throughout public school buildings and to grant parents the explicit right to seek the deletion of their child’s educational data from OPI’s statewide K-12 data system, setting the stage for debates over the legal nuances of public education.

With a wide array of education proposals in the offing this session, Hedalen said she intends to play an active role in the Legislature’s debates and will have “no qualms” taking a firm stance on specific measures that may adversely impact students and educators — a marked contrast from the no-advocacy approach of her predecessor, Republican Elsie Arntzen. Based on her own policy priorities, Hedalen is poised to back any efforts to improve student safety, enhance student mental health support and bolster funding for school infrastructure. The tenor of conversations among state leaders over the past year and a half have Hedalen feeling optimistic about the Legislature’s appetite for supporting public education.

“We don’t expect to see as many education bills as last session, I think that was definitely a record,” Hedalen said. “People have done a lot of the work through the interim, so we’ll be able to make more movement and I think there’ll be less controversy this time.”

Much of that movement will likely happen through adjustments and additions to how Montana pays for the education of its youth. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have already expressed a shared interest in reexamining details of the state’s education funding formula, itself a deeply complex topic, and Montana School Boards Association Executive Director Lance Melton said several related proposals are taking shape to address local budget gaps driven by high inflation in recent years.

Melton noted a growing acknowledgment among legislators of the important role elected school boards play in crafting timely school policies that reflect their individual communities, and said he hopes lawmakers this session continue to embrace policies that promote strategic local action over those that seek a fast statewide fix to a complex challenge.

“We have some fast fixes out there, people that come in and say, ‘I think that we need to have the following uniform rule across the whole state,’” Melton said. “We gently remind people in those circumstances that we continue to believe that the best governance impacting our communities is the governance that’s exercised where you can change it.”

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Montana

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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8 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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Montana

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

Published

20 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.

“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.

It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.

(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”

But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.

“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.

Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.

“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.

The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.

“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.

While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.

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Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.

The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.

MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.

MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74

MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.

Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.

Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.

But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.

As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.

Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Montana Western 65, Carroll 56

After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.

Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.

The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.

Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.

Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.

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