At a hastily called Capitol news conference, Schweitzer said the session will convene Dec. 14, and unveiled his proposal to spend an additional $64.5 million of state money on schools next year.
“Some are going to discuss it, some are going to cuss it,” he said of his proposal. “But the bottom line is, most people in Montana believe that we've got great schools, we've got great teachers, and these are the dollars that we need to sustain the system we have.”
The $64.5 million proposed by Schweitzer would be on top of another $64 million, two-year increase in state funds approved by the Legislature earlier this year.
Together, the two increases would represent an 8.5 percent jump in state funds for schools, beyond an inflationary increase already in state law.
Schweitzer's surprise action Monday morning interrupted and essentially trumped the work of the Quality Schools Interim Committee, a legislative panel holding its final meeting a floor below at the Capitol.
The panel had just rejected a draft overhaul of the state's school funding formula and was debating whether to talk about other plans, when it was announced that Schweitzer would hold a news conference in his conference room on the second floor of the Capitol.
After Schweitzer announced the session call, panel members went back downstairs, reconvened briefly and then adjourned for good.
“It's a good proposal as far as a solution, and I'm looking forward to getting going with a special session and getting it done,” said Rep. Monica Lindeen, D-Huntley and chairwoman of the committee.
Some Republicans on the committee, however, balked at the quick turn of events, saying it may be harder than the governor thinks to get his plan through the Legislature in a brief special session.
“It might be politically where the governor thinks he has to go, but it doesn't mean I have to go over the cliff with the rest of the lemmings,” said Rep. Bill Glaser, R-Billings, who said he may introduce his alternative school-funding plan.
Nonetheless, the Legislature will convene next Wednesday, bringing 150 lawmakers to Helena for what's expected to be a several-day session. It could last up to four days.
Schweitzer said the special session also will consider his proposal to dump $125 million into public-employee pension funds that are facing a potential long-term deficit of $1.46 billion.
Schweitzer's plan for the pension fund fix has been public knowledge for weeks. But the school-funding proposal outlined Monday by the governor is the first time since April that he's offered a detailed plan on the subject.
The administration's plan includes:
A $2,000-per-teacher increase in state funding for every school district, and another $2,000-per-teacher allowance for districts that have less than 41 students, costing $23 million. $10 million for Indian Education for All, a constitutionally required program that will infuse the teaching of Indian culture and history throughout public school curriculum in Montana. Another $4 million to help districts improve the performance of Indian students and “at-risk” students, who are usually poor or otherwise underprivileged. A one-time, $23 million expenditure to help with building maintenance and weatherization.Education leaders generally praised Schweitzer's decision to call a special session, and said his proposal is a good step toward addressing the Montana Supreme Court decision that declared current funding inadequate.
“On balance, I'm going to do what I can to see if we can't get this through the (special) session,” said Eric Feaver, president of MEA-MFT, the union representing schoolteachers and many other school employees.
Feaver also said he's glad to see the pension funds as part of the special session. If the governor had waited for the 2007 Legislature to take action on the pension funds, they might be in much worse financial shape by then.
Education leaders also had stood adamantly opposed to the complex, comprehensive school funding-formula rewrite drafted by the Quality Schools panel.
Panel member Sen. Don Ryan, D-Great Falls, made one last attempt to forward that proposal to the special session Monday morning, but the panel voted 7-1 against it.
Senate President Jon Tester, D-Big Sandy, said then the committee had no further authority to consider any short-term spending proposals and the panel's legal staff agreed.
Schweitzer said his plan picked the best parts of the committee's work.
“They recognized that in this crop they put together, there were too many weeds,” said Schweitzer, a farmer and rancher by trade. “We just went in, cut the weeds down, cleaned it up, put the wheat in the bin and have taken it to the elevator right now.”
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