"Education choice represents a fundamental shift toward recognizing student diversity and parental agency while maintaining our collective commitment to ensuring every child receives a quality education."
Montana's public education system has a problem: increased school funding has not translated into better outcomes for students.
"If parents have meaningful options other than the single, public school to which they are geographically zoned, then they can hold schools accountable."
"Most taxpayers agree that paying for young citizens’ education constitutes a common good worthy of public funding. Where we tend to disagree as a society is when we ask: who should provide the publicly funded education?"
Statements from Frontier Institute and Co-Signers
"Montanans should be grateful, though ever vigilant, that the Shippy story is not likely to be relived here in the Treasure State."
"School Choice is pro-student, pro-family, and pro-teacher."
"Policy should improve the lives of citizens by increasing and upholding the individual’s freedom and dignity. The system should not be superior to the individual."
"The challenge facing Montanans in the coming year is not simply about whether or not to raise property taxes. Instead, Montanans should be asking a more basic question – is the current system of public education working for public school students?"
In his 2016 book, The End of Average, Todd Rose recounts a story from the 1950’s when the U.S. Air Force faced a major challenge. Pilots were struggling to control their planes leading to serious accidents and fatalities. Initial suspicions were that the jets were too advanced or that pilot training was insufficient, but the...
"Simply following the rules should not absolve the system of its accountability for properly and fully educating students, and currently that is what we have: an upside-down reality of compliance to rules rather than performance outcomes for students."
On June 6, 2023, Education Week published an article titled, “Charter Schools are Outperforming Traditional Public Schools: 6 Takeaways from a New Study.” Reporter Libby Stanford writes, A new study shows that charter school students are now outpacing their peers in traditional public schools in math and reading achievement, cementing a long-term trend of positive...