Local charter school advocates intervene in lawsuit

As litigation continues to hold Montana’s recently passed charter school bill in limbo, a pair of local Native American leaders have intervened in the case to voice their support for the bill, detailing their plans for advancing language and cultural studies for Native American students they argue isn’t possible without the new law.

House Bill 562 allows for the establishment of “community choice” schools with the approval of a local authorized school board or an autonomous state commission, schools that would be eligible to receive public funding. The law was partially blocked from implementation in early September by the Lewis and Clark County District Court judge hearing the case.

Since then, Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy D-Box Elder, and longtime educator Connie Filesteel, a resident of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, have both filed motions to intervene and add their support and testimony in favor of HB 562.

Windy Boy, a longtime advocate for charter schools, said his goal is to help Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation establish a dual language immersion school teaching English, Chippewa and Cree, something he said isn’t possible under the current laws.

Charter schools could be established in Montana before bills like HB 562, and another bill, HB 549 that essentially codified the regulations on charter schools already in place, were passed, as long as they were approved by the Montana Board of Public Education. The Office of Public Education has said that immersion schools, under the Indian Language Immersion Program, that receive public money can and have been set up before any of this past year’s legislation.

Windy Boy said the current laws are so restrictive that charter schools like Bridger Charter Academy in Bozeman might as well be normal public schools.

“When you’re going to do something, go full monte, go the full nine yards,” he said.

When asked why his immersion school couldn’t have been set up under previous laws Windy Boy said those laws have too much bureaucracy.

Under the Cultural Integrity Commitment Act, which Windy Boy introduced and which was passed in 2015, schools can receive money from the state for language immersion programs as long as they provide instruction in their chosen Native language for at least 50 percent of the the day, and that it is done under the purview of a language instructor who is proficient in the language and holds a Class 7 teaching license.

Windy Boy said he’s had trouble getting any schools interested in offering such a program, saying that school superintendents fear losing students, and therefore funding, to such a program.

“It’s all a matter of money,” he said.

He said his area is losing Cree speakers at an alarming rate, to the point that the language’s extinction on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation is on the horizon and, if they want to save it, they need the flexibility to integrate Native language into education at every level, but the current laws and rules are too restrictive to do that while still receiving public funds.

Windy Boy said language and cultural education are a priority for Native American students in his area and without full immersion they aren’t going to be able to learn properly.

He also said that he thinks charter schools are going to help students improve their general performance as well, which is badly needed considering how low Rock Boy’s test scores are.

He said traditional public schools are clearly insufficient, being overly restrictive and micromanaged.

Windy Boy, the sole Democrat in the Montana Legislature to vote for HB 562, also took issue with the concerns expressed by many of his colleagues, particularly that this bill was a foot in the door to divert public funds away from public schools, which are already underfunded as it is.

“People say it’s taking public money to fund private schools. That’s an old argument that’s been around for years. How the heck are we going to know if something works unless we try it,” he said. “ … Goddamn it, show me something that works for my community and I’ll try it.”

These sentiments were also expressed by another bill proponent Connie Filesteel, a 20-year educator who said she has worked on practically every reservation in the state and is setting up a Montessori immersion academy in her area focusing on English, Aaniiih and Nakoda.

Filesteel said public dollars should be able to follow children to their school of choice and she said she doesn’t view this as diversion of public funds from public schools.

She said the school she is setting up is currently private and donor/grant funded, and public money would make the institution more sustainable.

She echoed many of Windy Boy’s sentiments regarding cultural and language education, saying students, at best, have only 30 to 60 minutes of cultural and language education a day under the current model.

“That’s not going to help us revive our identity, our language, our cultural practices, our ways, who we are,” she said.

Filesteel said language is fundamental to understanding their people’s way of life and for it to survive they need to integrate it throughout their education.

When asked why her school couldn’t have been set up under previous laws, which allow for public immersion school programs, she said she would respond by print deadline this morning, but this morning said she wasn’t able to.

She said public schools are very resistant to change and put up buffers between parents and their children’s education, something she’s experienced first-hand and has no intention of going through again in attempts to establish her own institution.

In the last quarter century, she said, there’s been practically no positive movement in the performance of Native American students across the U.S., so it’s clear that they need higher quality education than what is provided at public schools currently.

“It’s a crisis,” she said. “We need options.”

Both Filesteel and Windy Boy are being represented in this case by Dale Schowengerdt, a former solicitor general under Republican Attorney General Tim Fox, who now practices with Landmark Law in Great Falls.

Schowengerdt said these interventions make the case for the bill more concrete and he believes they demonstrate the necessity of these “community choice” schools, an alternative to traditional public schools that aren’t always equipped to address the needs of certain populations, like tribal nations or special needs students.

“These schools fill a niche that isn’t being filled,” he said.

He said it’s difficult to make predictions about how litigation is going to play out at this stage, but these interventions improve their chances.