When I was 9 years old, I faced a critical juncture in my life. My father passed away, and like so many young people who are suddenly thrown into hardship, my future success was suddenly called into question. Like many of the students I teach who face these kinds of challenges, my fate depended on circumstances that seemed beyond my control.
In my case, it wasn’t luck that made the difference; it was the influence of people who made sure that I did not let economic hardship or family instability keep me from achieving my dreams: teachers in the public schools. Teachers who cared about the students that they taught, who spent countless hours in and out of the classroom, helping me see that my possibilities were not constrained by my family’s income or stability.
So it is with some dismay, but certainly no surprise, when I read thatSen. Roy Brown and members of the Montana Legislature talk about developing Montana’s resources while giving so little support to our most valuable resource: the students who will one day run our state, create new businesses and volunteer in our communities.
Minerals and timber, agriculture and oil are all important for Montana’s economy, but their value is constrained by market forces often beyond our control. Montana certainly relies on its resource economy, and we should be proud of the food and power we’ve provided the nation and world, but that’s not all we can be. Far too many of our state’s political leaders are more concerned about resource extraction than resource development.
We need to commit ourselves to developing the resource potential of our poorest students, who need stronger pre-school programs to prepare themselves for school, we need to develop the talent on our reservations so that a new generation of leaders can ensure the future of Montana’s first people, and we need to make sure that students in rural and high-poverty schools have access to the kind of technology that will ensure the kind of quality jobs that will let them stay in Montana. In short, we need to focus our energy on the one resource that is limitless, inexhaustible and not bound by market forces: human potential.
Rather than acknowledge funding shortfalls, conservative critics of education would like you believe that Montana is already spending too much on its education programs. Despite laudable increases in the past few years, the statistics demonstrate that Montana has failed to keep pace with the spending necessary for quality education.
The conservative American Legislative Council just issued some troubling statistics about education spending in Montana. According to their research, we rank dead last in the nation in compensation for education professionals, and 42nd in the rate of growth in education expenditures, from 1986-2005.
These figures demonstrate not only how much more remains to be done, but just how much damage 16 years of defunded education under the Stephens, Racicot and Martz administrations has done. It’s not enough for our political leadership to give lip service to increased education funding; it’s time for substantive, long-term commitments to education, to ensure that students have the resources they need to learn and that teachers have the resources they need to teach.
Critics of adequate education spending want you to believe that they support education, but their rhetoric and their actions demonstrate that they are deeply skeptical about the value of public schools. When you hear promises and vague commitments to education, ask yourself how long it took to convince these critics to fund Indian Education For All, all- day kindergarten and expanded programs for gifted students? We can’t let empty promises fail another generation of Montana students.
I’m proud to work in education, and proud of what Montana students and teachers have accomplished, under often difficult fiscal realities, but the success of our schools is no excuse for inadequately funding them.
When schools across the state are considering reducing staff, putting off weatherization programs and cutting back co-curricular activities for our students, is it really responsible to suggest that education funding should take a backseat to economic development?
The people of Montana have a choice to make. We can either look backwards to 1950, focusing on resource extraction that will primarily benefit multinational corporations, or we can look ahead to 2050, focusing on the best-educated, most creative people in the world, giving them the tools to create their own destinies because we had the sense to invest in them. Because of the teachers who saved me, I know what we can do, and because of the students I teach, I know what we must do.
Don Pogreba is an English teacher at Helena High School and candidate for governor.
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