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The greatest public asset in the State of Montana is at risk
No community settings in Montana more scrupulously attend to civil liberties than Montana University System campuses. So I was disturbed by comments last week supporting House Bill 517, proposing a constitutional referendum to let the legislature, not the regents, set the parameters for campus policies affecting constitutional freedoms. Students told tales of woe ranging from […]
And a child shall lead them: Youth make powerful point at the Montana Legislature
One day, Isaiah tells us, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” No wild animals mended their ways in a recent hearing on Senate Bill 235, a […]
And still we dream
Something about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last speech always reminds me of the last page of “The Great Gatsby.” Like Gatsby, King had come a long way, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. “We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” he told an overflowing Memphis crowd, “but […]
Educators should set the standards for teachers and leave politics to the politicians
It was a heady milestone when the Montana legislature established the Certification Standards and Practices Advisory Council (CSPAC) in 1987. Finally! The teaching profession would have a seat at the government tables that shape it. If proposals to change teacher licensing were advanced, practicing educators on CSPAC would be consulted. If colleges preparing teachers contemplated […]
The dark dawn of a new day: The dismantling of our public schools by design
Call it kismet. I’d just finished reading about Montana superintendents’ frantic efforts to hire public schoolteachers before the school year begins when an op-ed from another newspaper appeared on my screen. In it, two Republican legislators rejoiced over the “new dawn” their recent legislation created, the “opportunity” for Montana kids to leave public schools and […]
Land of the free?
“What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July?” abolitionist Frederick Douglass famously asked 170 years ago. It’s a question that begs revisiting this year. Sure, we’re celebrating the day when 56 men declared that all men were created equal. But let’s be frank. “Men” really meant men and “all” didn’t really mean all. “All […]
Arntzen’s dangerously hard-to-follow logic
Sheesh. When it comes to the current hullaballoo over minimum school standards, our Superintendent of Public Instruction is impossible to follow. Before I count the ways, a little background on school accreditation: Montana’s Constitution assigns the control of public schools to local school boards. In order to ensure the quality and equality of opportunity the […]
The Emily enigma: Let a 19-year-old have another year, or save taxpayers’ funds
“There are more things in heaven and earth,” Hamlet told his science-minded friend Horatio, “than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Someone should tell the community of Billings the same thing about changing School Board Policy 2050. Policy 2050 establishes a clear line: Students who turn 19 before September 10 of the coming school year […]
The equity con game being sold by Montana’s leaders
Many years ago I taught high school English. The curriculum was heavy on literature, ranging from “Beowulf” to “Black Elk Speaks” and capped every year with a Shakespearean tragedy. And every year, another tragedy unfolded: Kids with poor reading skills washed out. We didn’t have reading specialists who could help them. We didn’t have math […]
Anger has spread across Montana like a disease
At a city commission meeting, a citizen approached the podium. In remarks dripping with vitriol and peppered with profanity, he impugned the characters of two city staff members, disparaged the lengthy service of one city commissioner, and bemoaned the fate of his fellow citizens, whom he dismissed as “dumb bastards” getting taken by “The Man.” […]
The proud and mournful duty of honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice
Some 76 ½ years ago, my grandmother followed the news accounts of the Battle of Iwo Jima warily. She knew from the newspapers that the first day of the invasion alone ended in 2,312 casualties, a figure that made even President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gasp. She knew, too, that Mount Surabachi had been captured on […]
Standing with Alan Turing and Emma Malonelord
If you were to credit a single individual with defeating Hitler, it wouldn’t be a statesman or a general. It would be a British mathematician – Alan Turing. Turing figured out how to beat Enigma, the machine that used more than 150 trillion possibilities to change German military codes every eight hours. Turing’s breakthrough gave […]