Supt Public Instruction Final

For immediate release Superintendent of Schools race NOTE TO EDITORS: These stories are produced by University of Montana journalism students under the supervision of Professor Dennis Swibold. They may be used without charge, provided editors retain the students’ bylines. Please contact Professor Swibold ([email protected]) with any questions. You can also find this story and other information on the upcoming election at www.montanaschoice2008.blogspot.com.)

Candidates Spar over Solutions for K-12 Schools By ERICA DOORNEK Community News Service UM School of Journalism • • • • •

Rising costs. Falling enrollments. No Child Left Behind. Full-day kindergarten. Competitive teacher salaries and recruitment.

These are just some of the issues facing the state’s next top public school administrator. Candidates Elaine Herman and Denise Juneau want Montanans to know that they’re up to the job. Despite their differences, the candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction do agree on one thing: Montana’s education system can do better. Their ideas for accomplishing that goal, however, rest on either side of a partisan divide. Herman, a Republican and a former teacher and financial adviser from Helena, ran unsuccessfully for the superintendent office in 2000. She says her main goal as leader of the Office of Public Instruction would be to steer education back to its fundamentals and to channel more resources into the classroom. “I believe that money is not the main issue in schools,” she says. “It doesn’t guarantee success. If we’re given the same amount of money as last year, we need to use it wisely.” Juneau, a Democrat from Helena, has classroom teaching experience and has headed up the Office of Public Instruction’s Indian Education Division since 2006. As superintendent, she says that she would work with the Legislature to gain approval for key programs. “In the past few years, the Legislature has worked at defining a ‘quality education,’ and now we need to work at measuring those components adequately,” she says. The federal No Child Left Behind Act, passed by Congress in 2001, remains a big worry for public schools struggling to show improvement as measured by mandatory tests. In the 2008 NCLB tests, over a quarter of Montana schools failed to meet proficiency standards in math and reading.

“(No Child) definitely has some problems,” Herman says. “We need to pinpoint what isn’t working, and if we can’t make it help the children, we need to put it aside.” She says the program’s chief problem is its overreliance on standardized testing. "If some schools can pass, why can't others? Because not every student was made to take the same test," she says. Juneau says the legislation has its good and bad parts. “The tests’ data collection can help identify achievement gaps, but it’s not fair for one test score to measure a school’s worth,” she says. Another problem facing Montana schools is recruiting and retaining educators in a state that ranks 45th nationally in teacher pay. Both candidates agree that more teachers could be recruited from Montana’s colleges, but they have different ideas on how to make that happen. Juneau says schools should implement “grow your own” teacher programs in small towns and offer distance education to keep teachers’ certificates up to date. Herman says the state’s teacher-recruiting efforts should focus on rural areas. “The crisis of teacher recruitment is only happening in rural schools,” says Herman, adding that a first-year teacher in a small school makes half the salary of those teachers in Montana’s bigger cities. “I’d like to see the state step in and assist rural teachers by buying them houses or giving bonuses.” Another subject that divides the candidates is the recent implementation of state funding for full-day kindergarten. Juneau praises the program. “Now we can address learning problems in early childhood before they slip through altogether—the benefits are fantastic,” she says. Herman argues that the deceptive legislation of full-day kindergarten ignores parents’ wishes and that young minds can only absorb “a few hours of academic instruction per day.” “Full-day kindergarten is really a substitute for day care,” Herman says. “I’m sure they’re doing an outstanding job, but do we really want to pay for it with public money?” Another issue is the Legislature’s decision two years ago to begin an “Indian Education for All” program, a constitutional requirement designed to provide all Montana students with an understanding of the state’s Native American heritage. Herman says she believes the program is unnecessary. “We’re already doing a good job with Native American history,” she says. Juneau, an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, otherwise known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, runs the division of OPI that promotes the Indian Education for All. She says the program is doing a good job of providing money, curriculum and teacher training on a subject of importance to all Montanans, not just Native Americans. “As we work on it, it should become a natural part of the classroom,” she says. Another split in ideology comes from the superintendent’s seat on the State Lands Board, which manages more than 5.1 million acres of state-owned lands. Herman wants to see Montana develop oil, gas, coal and timber from those lands. “The past 16 years, public lands haven’t been used to their full potential,” she says. Juneau takes a more hands-off approach, saying that land access and water use should be protected to ensure the public’s right of participation. “If we don’t conserve the land, we’re doing ourselves a disservice,” she says.

If elected, each candidate promises to offer an ambitious agenda. Herman vows to advocate more rural education via the Internet and create so-called charter schools, which receive public money but are freed from some state rules in return for making specific improvements. Juneau says her agenda would include researching dropout rates and poor test scores, beefing up school nutrition programs, expanding autism services and updating school facility maintenance. For a state whose education system earned an overall C-minus grade from Education Week newspaper last year, Juneau believes changes are in order. “In this upcoming (legislative) session, I hope to see a review of where we stand— whether or not an adequate education is being provided,” she says. Herman takes a more traditional tack “I promise I will get our state a good report card,” she says. Endorsements also illuminate differences between the candidates. Herman’s campaign has drawn support from the National Rifle Association; National Right to Work, a critic of compulsory unions; and the Montana Shooting Sports Association. Juneau has the backing of the state’s biggest teachers union, the Montana Education Association-Montana Federation of Teachers; the AFL-CIO; Montana Conservation Voters; and the Montana Public Employees Association. -30-