Talking education in the interim

As part of my work as a member of the Senate Interim Education Committee, I was in Helena a couple of days these past two weeks participating in meetings. One discussion was how to get quality based CTE — career and technical education — and dual education credits to rural schools at a cost the state of Montana can afford.

The thought is to give rural schools this opportunity through usage of virtual systems. One such program is a CNA — certified nurse assistant — class, which is currently being run out of Miles Community College. While this is an innovative approach, it may be difficult to teach some skills or areas that warrant more hands-on application.

Proficiency education is being discussed as a direction to lean in, which puts more emphasis on applied work as opposed to time a student spends in a seat.

Lastly, lead in various school water systems continues to be an issue, for which remediation costs are cutting into school budgets.

The Office of Public Instruction reported to our committee and introduced us to both this and last year’s Teacher of the Year. They are Bill Stockton of Arlee High School and Kristi Borge from Polaris Elementary School.

OPI just changed over to a new licensure system to help to fix the backlog of unprocessed teacher licenses. But, as I understand it, this is not a quick fix as there are still 600 or so licenses still hanging. Finally, OPI reported that line-item school budgets are located on their website and publicly accessible.

One thing I would like to pass on is the new Apply Montana Portal at http://applymontana.mus.edu . This link makes it easy for high school students and adult learners to pursue higher education in Montana. It is free to apply and contains information on many in-state programs, careers and secondary school information. It looks like a great system for anyone who may be undecided on their next steps in life.

Gov. Greg Gianforte attended our meeting and talked at length about funding the CTE and dual credit programs. The point is put people to work in Montana and earning a living wage. Also, the teacher and nurse shortage continues to be a problem throughout the state, especially in rural areas.

I do want to thank the people in my district for the continued support. As always, stay safe.

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People can email Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, at [email protected] .