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The Montana House advanced a couple of significant education proposals this week including a bill to increase starting teacher pay and one to support children in private school.
One bill passed with significant support, one by a hair.
But both bills garnered criticism from legislators during debate and will need to withstand scrutiny in appropriations and another vote on the floor to move to the Senate.
House Bill 252, to increase starting teacher pay, passed 93-7 with bipartisan support. House Bill 320, to provide support for “school choice,” passed 51-48.
Sponsored by Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, HB 252 provides incentives for academic achievement and offers other support for educators, such as tools districts can use for housing in areas of high cost, in addition to starting teacher pay.
The STARS Act, the Student and Teacher Advancement for Results and Success, is supported by the Governor’s Office, and Jones said it was designed with input from communities and education groups.
“It’s had a lot of collaboration across the state,” Jones said.
Previous legislation to try to boost starting teacher pay didn’t lead to desired results, and Rep. Jane Gillette, R-Three Forks, wanted to know if HB 252 would be different.
“Why would this bill help schools retain new teachers better than the one that we passed?” Gillette said.
Jones said the amount of money wasn’t enough to encourage districts to participate before, but the proof of concept worked. He said at least one district is already negotiating based on the bill, and it puts sufficient money into the program, $50 million as opposed to a couple million.
Rep. Luke Muszkiewicz, D-Helena, said he’s a former trustee and supports the bill, but he would be remiss in not pointing out its shortcomings.
He said many people feel it won’t help school districts retain more experienced teachers, who help mentor newer teachers, and school districts still face an inflation gap of $92.5 million.
“While the STARS Act represents a significant ongoing investment, it will not serve as the leap forward we would hope if it doesn’t at least close that inflation gap,” Muszkiewicz said.
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HB 320, Montana’s Academic Prosperity Program for Scholars, or MAPPS, is a program to help families afford to send their children to private schools, said sponsor Rep. Lee Deming, R-Laurel.
It offers donors and families a tax credit. Deming said the bill was amended in committee to set a $10 million aggregate ceiling limit for parents buying “qualified” education expenses, and the same ceiling for donations to the MAPPS account.
An escalator clause allows the ceilings to lift up to that point, but only if both sides hit 80% of their limits.
Before the bill was amended, critics said the credits in it and another existing education credit had the potential to cost the state $100 million in revenue within a decade, and cost remained a concern on the House floor.
The bill passed on second reading by one vote but drew bipartisan opposition. Legislators questioned cost and a lack of accountability.
Rep. Sherry Essmann, R-Billings, raised numerous concerns, including that a program manager wouldn’t get a job review for five years.
“How many of us had jobs where we could work … for five years before we got a job performance review? That is totally out of line,” Essmann said.
Deming countered that the bill provides for termination.
Essmann also said the types of things for which parents can claim a credit are broad, and they’re things parents of students who go to public schools cannot claim — “they just have to pay for them.”
Rep. Mark Thane, D-Missoula, also said he saw multiple problems with the bill, including that it could cost the state more money every year with the 20% escalator. A fiscal analysis estimates it’s projected to cost the state nearly $12 million by 2029.
“You can see that over time, this could be a runaway freight train in terms of cost,” Thane said.
Thane, a former superintendent, also said a savvy accountant could help a client avoid paying income taxes, for example, with a $200,000 donation that credits a corporation or individual with $65,000 during the span of three years.
“For the next three years, I can zero out the bottom line of my Montana state income tax return with this credit,” Thane said. “That means those individuals or those corporations will not contribute to any state initiatives or state programs during that three-year period.”
But in favor of the bill, Rep. Terry Falk, R-Kalispell, said he views the “value proposition” in the bill similar to the way he sees money that goes to fight crime or build roads — “I think school choice, universal school choice, is right there.”
Children who aren’t in public schools also save taxpayers costly infrastructure, he said, and he believes the time has come for the “school choice” legislation.
“School choice is a necessary, reasonable need in our American society,” Falk said.
Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, said families are wondering how to pay the bills with the economy. She said Montana is funding public education at a high rate, and legislators shouldn’t be afraid to do the same for families who want something different.
“They also want to have the opportunity to put their kids through private school,” Seekins-Crowe said.