News you can use

Lt. gov. touts Northern in visit

McLean speaks to the future of MT education

Lt. Gov. Angela McLean visited Montana State University-Northern Tuesday to tour the technical science facilities and talk about the future of Montana education.

McLean made a stop at Northern as part of her "Back to School Week" tour. After Northern, she is making her way to Flathead Community College.

"This is something that the governor did last year, and this week we are focusing on innovation in education across the state of Montana," McLean said. "This was a natural place to stop."

McLean's original plan was to come to the campus and visit former Dean of Technical Sciences Greg Kegel.

"When we planned it, he wasn't the chancellor," McLean said. "He was just the maestro of all things biodiesel. ... As a regent chair I had the great opportunity of working with Mr. Kegel closely, and it's really great work that he's done up here."

Kegel was named interim chancellor after Chancellor Jim Limbaugh abruptly resigned Thursday.

McLean went on to say that the technical education, and especially the diesel program at Northern, is important to the Montana University System. The diesel program's alliance with Torgerson's and other companies is what creates a streamline system for students to get their degree and get into a career.

She said that she thinks that there is a future for both the technical sciences at Northern, and the other colleges. She said she spoke with Provost William Rugg and that they spoke of a conversation that will come to the board of regents about reinstating programs in moratorium at Northern, such as high school education degrees.

"MSU-Northern is making that balance a priority," McLean said.

She said that she looks forward to seeing what the board of regents has to say about Northern's proposal and that this will decide if the university has a future in both the technical sciences, and programs outside it.

"There's probably already been a lot of conversation that there is support for instituting those programs," McLean said. "That said, MSU-Northern is situated very nicely to continue to be a leader in their extraordinary work that they've done with biodiesel."

Dual enrollment

One of the major issues spoken about during her tour is providing opportunities for dual enrollment to students. She said she, Gov. Steve Bullock and the commissioner of higher education launched a dual enrollment initiative in May to grow opportunities for teachers to give their students the option of gaining dual enrollment.

"So, what MSU-Northern has done is be able to reach out to the high school teachers here and make sure they can offer more dual enrollment opportunities, and we think that is important because it will provide an easy access point for the students up here at Northern," McLean said.

She said that for students around the state who want to get into the Montana University System, providing resources such as these will increase the affordability of attending college and also expedite the time it takes students after their high school graduation to get their degree.

"You get your students out. You get them out with the skills that we need and can demonstrate to use that they have them and they're going to get matched up (with employers)," she said.

She said that this is one of the most robust efforts to grow dual enrollment opportunities in Montana's history.

"The dual-enrollment piece is really something that, coming to this position from the board of regents chair, is something that is really exciting," McLean said.

She went on to say that the state of education in Montana is remarkable, as the state university system has more students enrolled in it than ever before. She said being able to freeze tuition after the last state legislation has improved the state of higher education.

A part of the reason higher education is doing well, she said, is because of the pipelines from kindergarten to post-secondary education. There are over 380 pathways between the two, she said.

"We're talking about making sure we train tomorrow's workforce today and those pathways are critical to that and MSU-Northern is really involved in creating a streamed pathway from K through 12 and the post-secondary arena," McLean said.

Early Edge

She said that she and the governor decided to begin a new program called "Early Edge," which will help make the school system more streamlined. "Early Edge" will provide school districts with the opportunity of state-funded pre-kindergarten education.

"Right now, Montana is one of eight states in the country that doesn't offer state-funded pre-K," McLean said. "So what's happening for those kiddos who arenÆt born into the right families is they can't afford for them to go and so when those kiddos to kindergarten, a lot of them who haven't had preschool can't catch up and so oftentimes, they play catch up in kindergarten, first grade, and then those gaps follow them. They follow them right up to graduation, right up through the workforce and we know we need to mitigate those gaps early on."

She said that "Early Edge" is an effort to eliminate these gaps and the initiative will be taken to Legislature in January.

"We're going to go to the Legislature and make a solid case for it," McLean said. "And I think we have a solid case."

She said that if legislators vote in favor of the initiative, the Office of Public Instruction would put forth standards for teacher licensure and for accreditation for pre-kindergarten programs. If a school district decides that pre-kindergarten is something they want to offer, they can partner with an already existing model, she said.

"For instance, Havre has a pre-K program that already exists. (The district) can go to that pre-K provider and say we would like to partner with you to provide pre-K education," she said.

If they met the standards set by OPI, then it would be a part of the Havre Public School District and be state-funded.

McLean said districts will not be required to start pre-kindergarten programs.

She said that she thinks around 45 percent of students who apply to Head Start actually get into it.

"That 55 percent doesn't get to go," she said. "And so we know that we have to provide something for that 55 percent and give them the opportunity for the head start that already exists."

She said that providing pre-kindergarten education to Montana children will bring the state up the ranks in terms of success. The majority of brain development happens before age 5, she said, and it is important to get children learning early.

"We're literally getting a headstart on Montana kids as a whole, but we are also globally getting a headstart," McLean said.

She said she anticipated the pick-up rate for new pre-kindergarten students to be 75 percent if the initiative is passed.

 

Reader Comments(0)