PARENT POWER!

Montana

U.S.
Rank

#43
Overall PPI Score:
60.9%
PPI Grade Key:
← Back to Montana state overview
A
B
C
D
F

Score:

50%

Grade:

F

Rank:

#47

There is no charter law in this state.

Fast Facts:
Charter Law Analysis:
Learn More:
Fast Facts:

Law enacted: 2015

Number of programs: 1

Statewide Participation: 25

Types of programs: Tax Credit Scholarship

Choice Laws & Analysis:

Tax-Credit Scholarship
Student Scholarship Organization Tax Credit
On May 12, 2021 Governor Greg Gianforte signed HB279 into law that significantly expands the Student Scholarship Organization Tax Credit program first enacted in 2015. Donors will now get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit up to $200,000, which had previously been only a $150 dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Montana will credit up to $1 million in donations this year, and that limit will double in 2022.

Learn More:

EdChoice Analysis on Montana

Federation for Children Choice Program Information

2019 ALEC Report Card on American Education

Score:

62%

Grade:

D

Rank:

#51

Does not require content knowledge tests in elementary and middle candidates; student growth data is not required to be included in teacher evaluations.

TRAINING AND RECRUITMENT: 62%
General Teacher Preparation 62%
Elementary Teacher Preparation 58%
Secondary Teacher Preparation 70%
Special Education Teacher Preparation 55%
Alternate Routes 65%  

STAFFING AND SUPPORT: 60%
Hiring 65%
Retaining Effective Teachers 55%

TEACHER EVALUATION: 56%

TEACHER COMPENSATION: 68%

Learn More:

National Council for Teacher Quality State Teacher Policy Database

Score:

50%

Grade:

F

Rank:

#47

There is no charter law in this state.

Fast Facts:
Charter Law Analysis:
Learn More:
Fast Facts:

Law enacted: 2015

Number of programs: 1

Statewide Participation: 25

Types of programs: Tax Credit Scholarship

Choice Laws & Analysis:

Tax-Credit Scholarship
Student Scholarship Organization Tax Credit
On May 12, 2021 Governor Greg Gianforte signed HB279 into law that significantly expands the Student Scholarship Organization Tax Credit program first enacted in 2015. Donors will now get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit up to $200,000, which had previously been only a $150 dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Montana will credit up to $1 million in donations this year, and that limit will double in 2022.

Learn More:

EdChoice Analysis on Montana

Federation for Children Choice Program Information

2019 ALEC Report Card on American Education

Score:

62%

Grade:

D

Rank:

#51

Does not require content knowledge tests in elementary and middle candidates; student growth data is not required to be included in teacher evaluations.

TRAINING AND RECRUITMENT: 62%
General Teacher Preparation 62%
Elementary Teacher Preparation 58%
Secondary Teacher Preparation 70%
Special Education Teacher Preparation 55%
Alternate Routes 65%  

STAFFING AND SUPPORT: 60%
Hiring 65%
Retaining Effective Teachers 55%

TEACHER EVALUATION: 56%

TEACHER COMPENSATION: 68%

Learn More:

National Council for Teacher Quality State Teacher Policy Database

Digital Learning:

Score:

78%

Grade:

C

Rank:

#18

Montana has implemented measures to make sure that students have access to high speed internet, but the state is still struggling with connectivity gaps in rural areas. 

Montana has Content Standards for Technology that provide benchmarks that indicate where students’ digital literacy skills should be at the end of grades 4, 8, and 12.

The state’s Teacher Learning Hub is a robust online learning platform free for educators to earn units to renew their license and increase their digital literacy skills. The state has digital learning resources on their website, which include tools such as: Montana EdReady, Google Classroom, Microsoft Team for Educators, FlipGrid, and EdPuzzle.

Montana Digital Academy is a state virtual school that opened in 2010 for middle and high school students. MTDA was created as a partnership with the University of Montana, and has more than 7,000 students enrolled in online courses as a supplemental program. The school offers 183 courses ranging from Original Credit, Credit Recovery, Dual Credit, and middle school courses. In 2019 MDTA added two new Dual Credit courses, Contemporary Math and Elementary College Spanish I. 

Bandwidth: 100% of students in Montana can access the Internet at speeds of 100 kbps per student, and many students are connected at higher speeds.

Personalized Learning:

Montana demonstrates their support for personalized learning through funding. 

The Montana Advanced Opportunity Act gives funding to participating districts with the goal of “expanding personalized opportunities for students to accelerate their career and college readiness and reduce out-of-pocket costs for families; empowering students to actively engage in forming successful postsecondary pathways; providing expanded flexibility and advanced opportunity aid to districts in supporting each student’s pathway.”

The Transformational Learning Bill  serves as a vehicle for funding personalized learning programs in schools and districts, with the goal of fostering personalized learning through STEM curriculum, VR, AR, and other technologies.

Learn More:

Teacher Learning Hub

Montana Digital Academy

Montana Advanced Opportunity Act

Transformational Learning Bill

Announcements were made by Governor Steve Bullock, who first announced school closures on March 15th, which was extended on March 24th and April 10th. Montana required districts to provide distance learning for students, and threatened to revoke funding if they did not comply. As opposed to offering encouragement and motivation to districts, this approach was much more heavy-handed than other states. The state did work to ensure students had access to devices and the internet and also provided some basic resources to teachers for guidance on learning plans and special education and created a website.

The reopening guidelines seem to be much better at empowering districts as the initial communications have stated it is up to each district to decide when, and how, to reopen. Guidelines were released mid-summer and are being updated as needed.

The state government is allowing school districts to make their own decisions on return to school plans.

Fast Facts

4th Grade Math Proficiency:

38%

8th Grade Math Proficiency:

29%

12th Grade Math Proficiency:

24% (nat'l average)

4th Grade Reading Proficiency:

33%

8th Grade Reading Proficiency:

29%

12th Grade Reading Proficiency:

37% (nat'l average)

Graduation Rate:

87%

Average SAT Score:

1206/1600

Average ACT Score:

19.3/36

Public School Enrollment:

150,195

Percent Enrolled in Charter Schools:

0%

Average Student Funding:

$12,101.00
Digital Learning:

Score:

78%

Grade:

C

Rank:

#18

Montana has implemented measures to make sure that students have access to high speed internet, but the state is still struggling with connectivity gaps in rural areas. 

Montana has Content Standards for Technology that provide benchmarks that indicate where students’ digital literacy skills should be at the end of grades 4, 8, and 12.

The state’s Teacher Learning Hub is a robust online learning platform free for educators to earn units to renew their license and increase their digital literacy skills. The state has digital learning resources on their website, which include tools such as: Montana EdReady, Google Classroom, Microsoft Team for Educators, FlipGrid, and EdPuzzle.

Montana Digital Academy is a state virtual school that opened in 2010 for middle and high school students. MTDA was created as a partnership with the University of Montana, and has more than 7,000 students enrolled in online courses as a supplemental program. The school offers 183 courses ranging from Original Credit, Credit Recovery, Dual Credit, and middle school courses. In 2019 MDTA added two new Dual Credit courses, Contemporary Math and Elementary College Spanish I. 

Bandwidth: 100% of students in Montana can access the Internet at speeds of 100 kbps per student, and many students are connected at higher speeds.

Personalized Learning:

Montana demonstrates their support for personalized learning through funding. 

The Montana Advanced Opportunity Act gives funding to participating districts with the goal of “expanding personalized opportunities for students to accelerate their career and college readiness and reduce out-of-pocket costs for families; empowering students to actively engage in forming successful postsecondary pathways; providing expanded flexibility and advanced opportunity aid to districts in supporting each student’s pathway.”

The Transformational Learning Bill  serves as a vehicle for funding personalized learning programs in schools and districts, with the goal of fostering personalized learning through STEM curriculum, VR, AR, and other technologies.

Learn More:

Teacher Learning Hub

Montana Digital Academy

Montana Advanced Opportunity Act

Transformational Learning Bill

Announcements were made by Governor Steve Bullock, who first announced school closures on March 15th, which was extended on March 24th and April 10th. Montana required districts to provide distance learning for students, and threatened to revoke funding if they did not comply. As opposed to offering encouragement and motivation to districts, this approach was much more heavy-handed than other states. The state did work to ensure students had access to devices and the internet and also provided some basic resources to teachers for guidance on learning plans and special education and created a website.

The reopening guidelines seem to be much better at empowering districts as the initial communications have stated it is up to each district to decide when, and how, to reopen. Guidelines were released mid-summer and are being updated as needed.

The state government is allowing school districts to make their own decisions on return to school plans.

4th Grade Math Proficiency:

38%

8th Grade Math Proficiency:

29%

12th Grade Math Proficiency:

24% (nat’l average)

4th Grade Reading Proficiency:

33%

8th Grade Reading Proficiency:

29%

12th Grade Reading Proficiency:

37% (nat’l average)

Graduation Rate:

87%

Average SAT Score:

1206/1600

Average ACT Score:

19.3/36

Public School Enrollment:

150,195

Percent Enrolled in Charter Schools:

0%

Average Student Funding:

$12,101.00
Your governor:

Greg Gianforte (R)

First term began in 2021

Governor Gianforte’s election coupled with the re-election of a strong pro-parent Superintendent in 2020 made Montana ripe for action coming off of the Espinoza vs. Montana Department of Revenue Supreme Court case, and action they took. Still a long time quest for charter schools for many citizens remains a dream. 

State Legislature:

2021 has shown promising improvements for educational opportunity with the expansion of the state tax credit scholarship. The state nearly passed a charter school bill in 2017, but it was ultimately defeated.  More work is needed to truly make the Big Sky State an unlimited horizon.

Montana’s Blaine Amendment has been found unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in June, 2020. The state supreme court had originally found that a tax credit scholarship program that permitted parents to spend money at a parochial school was unconstitutional under the Religion and Equal Protection Clauses of the Montana and U.S. Constitutions. The parents sued and took their case to the Supreme Court, and the case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue vindicated the program and the parents.  

This case is the precedent that allows for all other state Blaine amendments to be scrutinized and potentially nullified.

Learn More:

Institute for Justice: Montana School Choice and State Constitution

It shouldn’t be easier to find the “Driver’s Ed” link than the “School Report Card” link, but it is in Montana!

School and district report cards are inaccessible and hard to find from Montana’s DOE homepage. It took many clicks and the process isn’t intuitive, reports are buried in various links. Report card data is not detailed or comprehensive. Unfortunately, educational options are not readily accessible either.

School Board Elections are not held during the General Election Cycle, which usually means lower voter turnout.

Your governor:

Greg Gianforte (R)

First term began in 2021

Governor Gianforte’s election coupled with the re-election of a strong pro-parent Superintendent in 2020 made Montana ripe for action coming off of the Espinoza vs. Montana Department of Revenue Supreme Court case, and action they took. Still a long time quest for charter schools for many citizens remains a dream. 

State Legislature:

2021 has shown promising improvements for educational opportunity with the expansion of the state tax credit scholarship. The state nearly passed a charter school bill in 2017, but it was ultimately defeated.  More work is needed to truly make the Big Sky State an unlimited horizon.

Montana’s Blaine Amendment has been found unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in June, 2020. The state supreme court had originally found that a tax credit scholarship program that permitted parents to spend money at a parochial school was unconstitutional under the Religion and Equal Protection Clauses of the Montana and U.S. Constitutions. The parents sued and took their case to the Supreme Court, and the case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue vindicated the program and the parents.  

This case is the precedent that allows for all other state Blaine amendments to be scrutinized and potentially nullified.

Learn More:

Institute for Justice: Montana School Choice and State Constitution

It shouldn’t be easier to find the “Driver’s Ed” link than the “School Report Card” link, but it is in Montana!

School and district report cards are inaccessible and hard to find from Montana’s DOE homepage. It took many clicks and the process isn’t intuitive, reports are buried in various links. Report card data is not detailed or comprehensive. Unfortunately, educational options are not readily accessible either.

School Board Elections are not held during the General Election Cycle, which usually means lower voter turnout.

Select Your State

Charter Schools

Charter schools are public schools, open by choice, free from most rules and regulations that hamper traditional public schools and held accountable for results.

Since 1991, when charter schools were first established in Minnesota, the principle has remained the same — increased operational autonomy in exchange for increased accountability for outcomes. This freedom to innovate allows academically excellent charter schools to flourish.

As of 2020, there were more than 7,300 charter schools across the country with more than 3.3 million students, with demand higher everywhere they are located. Forty-six states, including Washington, D.C. have charter school laws. West Virginia enacted the most recent law in 2019. All charter laws are not created equal, however, and in fact, many are so flawed that they allow for only minimal opportunity for parents. PPI draws from CER’s newest Charter School Law Rankings and Scorecard, produced in the summer of 2020. For the US as a whole, the glass is more empty than full when it comes to meaningful charter choices.

Since 1996, CER has researched, analyzed, and ranked charter school laws, taking the content of each law into consideration as well as how it impacts charter schools on the ground. This Parent Power Index looks at four main areas of each state’s law:

If it allows for multiple authorizers, and if applicants have the ability to appeal a denial; whether it allows for growth, particularly with no caps on number of schools or enrollment; if schools and teachers have freedom to innovate; and if there is equitable funding of schools, including for facilities and transportation.

Charter schools are the most analyzed public school reform in decades. Since 1996, CER has studied their impact, their environment, and their practice and made recommendations for how to improve each law. The Parent Power Index charter score is based on whether the law allows for freedom and flexibility that can ensure parents, teachers and the general public are able to build vibrant, successful charter schools without undue interference from flawed state regulators, with equitable funding and parents in the driver’s seat. More about how this works can be found in CER publications, most notably Charting a New Course and The Future of School.

In addition, past rankings document how states have grown or confined charter schools and what best practices should be followed. Finally CER has provided a model charter school law for policymakers that is the standard bearer for advocates who believe that parents, not systems, should drive education.

Choice Programs

Educational choice is best defined as the availability of a multitude of public programs that provide parents with the ability to include private and religious entities – schools, tutoring, and other organizations – in their choices. Those programs are enacted at the state level, allowing in a wide variety of ways that the funds allocated for education in a state either follow the student to the institution the parent chooses or, as in the case of tax credits, public funds are redistributed to support the choices parents make, rather than automatically going to government based school districts.

These options are often referred to as scholarship programs, vouchers, tax credits, education accounts and more.

The existence of a higher degree of educational choice in a community or state, particularly for lower income students, has been found to be a significant factor in improving education and ensuring all students have access to the best school that meets their individual needs. Where once private options were only available to the more advantaged, most choice programs today ensure that those without resources have the power to shape their student’s education and invest in their future.

PPI 2020 assesses the extent to which every state gives families better and more abundant educational options through various mechanisms. Choice programs are analyzed and evaluated on their potential to reach all children across a state and for the degree to which they can actually support the full choice of parents, as opposed to only providing a modest amount of financial support. Programs where a significant population of parents can obtain scholarships or vouchers to send their children to the school of their choice score higher than those that have limitations based on geography, income, and student eligibility constraints.

To determine scores, PPI relies on well-established organizations which study, advance and support such programs. The scores were developed with this lens, and on information and ratings from EdChoice’s School Choice in America Dashboard, American Legislative Exchange Council’s Report Card on American Education: 23rd Edition, and American Federation for Children’s School Choice Interactive Map.

Teacher Quality

Teacher Quality is an equally important facet of ensuring greater educational opportunity. There is a direct correlation between quality teachers and student achievement, and teachers have the power to foster highly effective learning environments and leave a lasting impact on the future of their students. State teacher policies are critical in ensuring that students have the opportunity to receive the best education possible. Without schools full of well-prepared teachers who are held accountable either directly to the parent or to taxpayers for student achievement, opportunity can be meaningless. Most states vary widely in the criteria used to train, hire, retain, evaluate, reward and advance teachers, and local rules also influence that criteria greatly, as do teachers unions. PPI looked again to the expert analysis of the National Council of Teacher Quality, and from several aspects of their work PPI extrapolated final teacher quality scores. (NCTQ does not grade each state.)

Relying solely on the rich data collected from the National Council on Teacher Quality, states are measured by across a wide range of policy categories: Training and Recruitment, Staffing and Support, Evaluation, and Compensation. The score is by no means comprehensive about teacher quality across every community and state, but it is based on the extent to which states rigorously expect, manage and measure different aspects of teacher training, hiring, evaluation and compensation. States score higher when they have strong, data-driven, performance-based accountability systems that ensure teachers are rewarded, retained, and advanced based on their effectiveness. Likewise, states that establish rigorous teacher preparation programs and offer alternative licensing programs earn higher scores.

For more information about the Teacher Quality landscape, please see the National Council on Teacher Quality’s detailed analysis in their State Teacher Policy Database.

Innovation

States are measured on their increasing commitment to and practice of innovative approaches to education that include digital learning models and pathways, full or in part, encouraging personalized learning through focus on competency and mastery – even on a pilot level – or by allowing flexibility in schools and school districts that want to do it. Personalized learning models value mastery of material over traditional subject matter time tests, and competency over end of course grades. While these practices are best decided locally, closest to the student, states can motivate, incentivize, fund, discourage or encourage.

To determine scores, the PPI drew heavily from ExcelinEd’s 2019 State Progress Toward Next Generation Learning, Aurora Institute’s 2020 Future-Focused State Policy Actions to Transform K-12 Education, and KnowledgeWorks’ 2019 State Policy Framework for Personalized Learning.

COVID-19 Response

When COVID-19 reached our shores in early 2020, states were forced to close their schools for in-person instruction. Whether and how to continue teaching and set expectations for continued learning outside of the classroom was a big debate. Many states and schools quickly pivoted to delivering education remotely, either through technology enabled tools or with low-tech paper packets and phone calls, or a combination of both. The response from schools and school districts varied widely, with some being willing to adapt and some actually discouraging both teaching and learning. CER tracked those responses (and continues to do so, given the fluidity of the situation). States that were encouraging, set expectations, and demanded that schools figure out whatever they could to keep moving students forward, tended to have more schools and districts that responded well and worked to deliver education regardless of challenges. Many states that had digital or virtual learning programs in place were able to make a more seamless shift. Innovative leaders at local and state levels rose to the occasion. But many states and localities dragged their feet and, in some cases, outright discouraged schooling to keep going, including forbidding teachers in some areas to be required to do any face to face teaching via technology.

States were evaluated based on reviewing their official notices and declarations, and by reviewing a broad array of surveys and data many groups have been maintaining. This score also factors in states’ prior commitments to expanding broadband and internet access and how they worked to provide devices to keep students learning and engaged.

What was, and is, a challenging and unprecedented time for schools, teachers, and parents was also an opportunity to look at states’ and schools’ abilities to adapt, be flexible, and innovate.

For more on Education Innovation, check out the CER ACTION Series:

  • Virtual Events & Videos
  • Key Data
  • Resources
  • Publications

Leadership

Improving education opportunity and innovation requires leaders who boldly and courageously push forward to create or expand successful programs that allow a wide variety of educational choice and individualized programs to thrive. Governors and state legislators are the most important entities in each state to pave the way, or deter, expanded parent power. Some leaders pay lip service to issues, while others wake up with a fire in their belly to ensure that they are doing what they can every day to push through conventional wisdom and demand 21st century schooling opportunities for all students.

Whether or not your governor is the bold, fire-in-the-belly kind, or a passive applauder of others’ efforts, is evaluated to help you push or prod or applaud. PPI looks at their positions AND actions on charter schools, choice programs, innovation, and commitment to increasing educational opportunities for all students at every level and summarizes it for you here. You have the power to elect leaders who prioritize parents and students!

Constitutional Issues

The ability for states to enact educational change can be significantly limited depending on certain provisions in state constitutions.

The most common clause that limits educational opportunity in most states are “Blaine Amendments” – named after 19th century Congressman James Blaine nearly 150 years ago. Historically, these provisions in 37 state constitutions were either interpreted to restrict educational choice programs that include private schools or have been a deterrent for many programs being considered, let alone enacted.

This issue received a great deal of press leading up to and following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 30, 2020 decision in the case of Espinoza vs Montana Department of Revenue, a case that dealt with Montana’s Blaine Amendment. That landmark decision found that the U.S. Constitution “forbids states from excluding religious schools as options for families participating in educational choice programs, including through Blaine Amendments.”

As a result, most states have a new path to enact programs that provide options for families, including religious schools. Their individual versions of Blaine Amendments can either be nullified with attorney generals’ opinions, with legislation or with both. Additional restrictions on expanded opportunity are often dedicated by what is called a Compelled Support Clause where dated constitutional language restricts public funding to government entities.

We look at each state’s particular constitutional issues, utilizing a number of sources, CER attorney analysis and the Institute for Justice’s research as our guide. Additional information about Espinoza and Blaine Amendments can be found here.

In addition, if states have other constitutional barriers to more opportunity, they are evaluated in this area.

Transparency

Transparency is a key element of providing great opportunities for students. Every parent needs and deserves full transparency of school-level data to allow them to make informed decisions and drive changes in how their students are educated. School report cards empower parents in their decision making by giving them access to meaningful and quality education data about a particular school or district. Report cards often provide information on student performance, student growth, attendance, graduation rates, demographics, teacher quality, school environment, assessments, and more. States that have greater transparency and accountability provide the public with data that is current, readily available, and easy to understand.

States are measured based on the transparency and accessibility of data for the average person looking to learn about their child’s school. States have more gas in the tank when school report cards are easily accessible from their state DOE homepage; report cards are comprehensive, user-friendly, and easy to understand; and information about educational options are readily available. Additionally, states score higher when they hold School Board Elections during the General Election cycle, as opposed to off-times of the year when turnout is low, because this tends to afford parents more power in their decision-making.