Montana lawmakers are showing strong agreement that the state’s public schools need more money to help them catch up with rising costs. MTPR’s Austin Amestoy joined news director Corin Cates-Carney with more on how they plan to close the gap.
Corin Cates-Carney You have reported a lot in the last year about school budgets and how they're struggling with the weight of inflation. Before we dive into what's being proposed, let's recap how we got here. How bad is the funding problem in public schools?
Austin Amestoy Well, you can kind of put a number on it core and that number is $92 million. That is how much the state has fallen behind inflation in recent years. According to analysts and state staffers, schools in Montana are paid for through a really complicated formula. The state pays for part of a school's budget. Local property taxes pay for most. And lawmakers have traditionally allowed the state's share of school budgets to grow by about 3% each year to account for inflation, a maximum of 3%. But inflation, as you may know, has been a lot more than 3% in many of the years since 2020. Montana School Boards Association calculated that the state share of school budgets is now $92 million behind where it should be. And right now, lawmakers are trying to decide the best way to climb out of that hole.
Corin Cates-Carney And are lawmakers unified on the best approach to do that?
Austin Amestoy It's interesting. There's a lot of unity on the broad strokes of how to get there, actually. But there is some partisan divides when you get to the fine details. Both parties are down to spend more state money on schools to help fill in that $92 million hole. But Republicans want schools to make changes that earn that money, while Democrats generally want the funding to go without strings attached.
Representative Melissa Romano, a Helena Democrat, tried to make that happen earlier this session. Actually, she tried to amend a bill that grows the state's share of school budgets by that traditional 3% cap to include substantially more money. Here's her justification for that approach. Speaking on the House floor.
Melissa Romano We've seen the impact of schools with this high inflation and budget shortfalls in our local newspapers with headlines about layoffs of teachers and staff of slashed school budgets. Loss of programing and classes, and overall less educational opportunities for students.
Austin Amestoy But that amendment died. Representative David Bedey of Hamilton, a high ranking Republican who works on education policy, said Governor Greg Gianforte had budgeted for a different approach to inflation pains.
David Bedey That will be addressed through legislation that not only addresses inflation but also addresses the crisis we have with starting teacher pay.
Corin Cates-Carney So there's a new problem there, starting teacher pay. That's on top of the problem of struggling school budgets. How are these combined into a piece of legislation?
Austin Amestoy Right. And this is what we've talked about a few times, the Stars Act. And this is what Democrats have a problem with. They say that the Stars Act is putting strings onto additional funding for schools. It offers about $55 million up to the state's schools if they raise pay for starting teachers to at least $41,000.
If Democrats had their way, that additional money would just be offered up to schools no strings attached. They say that's the best way to allow schools to use the money they need in the places they need it.
But, Republicans are really trying to kill two birds with one stone here. They say that by putting some of these strings on this funding, they'll raise starting teacher pay across the board in Montana, which the state has struggled with for years, while also helping to fill in that inflationary hole.
And the Stars Act has broad bipartisan support. Despite some of that criticism, it passed an initial vote in the House with more than 90% of voters in favor. And that's probably because the Stars Act is included in the governor's budget. That means he's pretty likely to sign it into law. And there was a lot of work done on this complicated bill long before the Legislature gaveled-in.
Schools are also pretty much universally in favor of this policy. They say it's going to go a long way in helping them catch up, but it's not necessarily a magic bullet that's going to erase the $92 million deficit.
Corin Cates-Carney So the Stars Act bill fills $55 million of the $92 million budget hole schools are facing. What else are lawmakers floating to solve this issue?
Austin Amestoy This is where we continue to see some bipartisan energy. One Democratic proposal gaining steam would give the state a built-in option to catch school funding up with inflation if costs rise by more than 3% for a couple of years running. That policy cleared a key vote in the House by a pretty healthy margin last week.
Another Democratic bill would increase how much the state reimburses schools for transportation costs by about $8 million. That hasn't been done in two decades, and supporters say it would help reduce local property taxes. That bill also passed its first committee vote unanimously.
Finally, I'm watching a bill that would route extra revenue from the state lottery into school accounts. Fiscal note on that bill says it could bring in as much as $19 million to schools. That bill is still early in the process, though it hasn't had its. First hearing. But I think important to note, it has a pretty healthy list of bipartisan lawmakers attached to it.
Corin Cates-Carney So, some bipartisan support in addressing the funding gap for public schools. However, the bipartisanship ends when talking about private school funding. Austin, thanks for your reporting.
Austin Amestoy Thanks Corin.
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Montana lawmakers generally agree public schools need more money to catch up with rising costs. But, they’re deeply divided on whether to extend state support to parents of private school students, and the donors who support them.
