Two Montana educators and a state lawmaker filed briefs in support of a new law seeking to create a system of public charter schools in the state.
Aaniiih Nation member and Fort Belknap Reservation resident Connie Filesteel said Montana’s public schools failed to provide her daughter a quality education. That’s why she said she’s working to establish a charter school under a new state law, and why she’s supporting the state as it defends that law in court.
Filesteel has worked in education for nearly two decades and said recent test scores for Native American students in Montana demonstrate a need for alternatives to traditional public schools. State data from 2021 show more than twice as many Native American students fell short of reading and math standards than non-Native students.
“Our children are bright, they’re capable, and if they had the right school to help them reach their full potential, we wouldn’t have those types of test scores,” Filesteel said in a phone interview.
Filesteel is one of three new intervenors in the suit. Former Miles City school principal Kasey Koehler and state Democratic Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy of Box Elder also filed briefs supporting the state.
Koehler wrote that he plans to open a charter school focused on teaching students with special needs. Windy Boy and Filesteel both said they intend to create schools with English and Native languages at the center of instruction. The two said existing Montana schools have shied away from the idea when approached in the past.
An attorney for the plaintiffs in the suit told MTPR the new arguments don’t address the constitutional issue they said the law raises. The policy would exempt public charter schools from many existing regulations K-12 schools must follow, such as employing only licensed teachers. Plaintiffs, who include a group of public school advocates, said that violates Montana’s Constitution.
The attorney representing Filesteel, Koehler and Windy Boy expects the suit to move relatively quickly through the legal process.
