Radio Updates

Podcast: Play in new window

The text of this radio broadcast is below:

When you work at the capitol the first thing you learn is to be extremely flexible and roll with the punches. Everything is fluid, meetings change on a moment’s notice, and things rarely go according to plan. As a result, you savor those moments when plans do come together and victory is the order of the day. Today is one of those days.

It all began yesterday on the floor of the house when House Bill 239 came up for debate. If you recall that’s the bill to require parental permission prior to teaching sex education. We asked you to call the legislature and you did…IN DROVES. As a result, the bill passed 57 to 43, mainly along party lines with all democrats voting no along with Republicans Doc Moore of Missoula, Steve Gibson of Helena, Roger Hagan, and Brian Hoven of Great Falls; which is ironic because the Great Fall school district is one of those that’s been targeted for comprehensive sex education. The bill comes up for third reading today and we expect the margins to hold, then it’s off to the Senate.

While that victory was sweet, it was just the beginning. After the floor session, the House and Senate education committee convened and took executive action on four of our school choice bills. Those bills are modeled after programs that are working in other states and they’re designed to give struggling students options so that they stay in school. The first bill was up in Senate Ed and was our tax credit scholarship bill which allows corporations and individuals to deduct donations made to organizations that grant scholarships to allow kids to transfer from public to private schools. As a bonus, it also allows a deduction for donations targeted at public schools. We first introduced this bill four years ago and it’s been gaining momentum ever since. The next stop is the Senate floor where passage is anything but sure. But, what is for sure is that this and all school choice bills will be opposed by the teachers union every step of the way.

After the tax scholarship bill passed, I went down to the House education committee just in time to watch executive action on three more bills. The first was a simple $500 tax credit to offset private school tuition. It passed easily on a party line vote but not before every Democrat berated the bill.

The second bill was more interesting. It was a bill to allow a child with a disability who might not be receiving the help that they need in the public schools to take the money that normally would’ve been spent on them and going to the marketplace to find an option that works. The opponents argue that we have very good special ed programs in place in the public schools, so why would kids with disabilities need to go anywhere else? This seems logical but completely misses the point. It’s time to stop looking at the systems and the programs and begin looking at individual kids. If the system works perfectly for 9 out of 10 kids then that 10th child needs an alternative option.

The final bill of the day was perhaps the most controversial, the creation of public charter schools. Montana is one of only eight remaining states with no charter schools. They’ve been around for about 20 years, are among the top performing schools in the US, and best of all, if they don’t perform, they get shut down. The education lobby was in the room buttonholing legislators and urging them to vote no, but in the end, the bill passed 10 to 8 with all Republicans voting yes except for Ted Washburn of Bozeman who joined the Democrats in opposition. Now the focus shifts to the house and senate floors, and once again, we will need your help.

Podcast: Play in new window

This morning, I recorded a radio broadcast on House Bill 239 with an urgent call to contact Republican House Representatives today. Today at 1:00 PM the house will debate House Bill 239: a bill to require parental permission before public schools can teach sex education to kids as young as kindergarten.

We need to put 1000 emails and voice messages on the desks of all Republican House members by 1 o’clock today, and I know it’s possible because we’ve done this before. Here is how:

1. Identify 5 Republican House Members in your area here (use the map link if necessary)
2. Send an email to them here and/or
3. Call the switchboard at (406) 444-4800 to leave them voicemails, up to 5 legislators at a time.

The text of my radio broadcast is below:

As I have said over the years the main purpose of these broadcasts is to be educational and informative, but on some occasions there is a call to action. This is one of those days. Grab a pencil if you’ve got one handy: today at 1 o’clock the house will debate House Bill 239: a bill to require parental permission before public schools can teach sex education to kids as young as kindergarten.

Three years ago the Helena school district implemented a new curriculum that starts teaching sex ed in kindergarten and the plan is to take it statewide. We’ve already killed two bills the would’ve done that but the other side is not giving up. Couple that with the recent statement by the Montana education establishment that they plan to focus more on social values in the coming years and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

We need to put parents back in the driver seat and House Bill 239 does just that. It’s an opt in Bill that forces schools to get parental permission; the schools will argue that they already allow students to opt out, but the moms on the education committee in the last session took one look at that and said it won’t work. Notes from school get buried in kid’s backpacks and parents frequently get left in the dark. They changed the bill to an opt in bill so the responsibility falls on the schools, just as it does when they get permission for field trips, sporting events, or R-rated movies. It’s not a big deal, but to hear the schools and Planned Parenthood talk about it, you’d think the world is coming to an end.

Contrary to what they’re saying, the bill does not tell schools what to teach and it does not take away local control. It simply says that parents – not the school – will have the last say. In our opinion, that’s exactly how it should be. When the bill was introduced last session, it passed the House and Senate on party-line votes and was eventually vetoed by Gov. Schweitzer, even though 80% of Montanans say they want it. The votes will probably go party line again this session but we hope Gov. Bullock has more sense. Planned Parenthood has been working the moderate members of the Republican caucus hard. It’s time for us to shore up the votes.

We need to put 1000 emails and voice messages on the desks of all Republican House members by 1 o’clock today. I know it’s possible because we’ve done it before.

Please go to the Montana legislative website and click on the link to contact legislators. From there you can leave messages with one click of a button and an even easier way is to call the switchboard at 444-4800 and leave a message for five legislators at a time. Remember, we want to focus on the Republicans. Your message will be transcribed and placed on individual legislator’s desks. The key is to be brief; ask them to please vote yes on House Bill 239, parental permission for Sex Ed because parents should be allowed to be involved in their kid’s lives. If you send an email, that will also be placed on a legislator’s desk.

Let’s melt the phone lines down and show them that parents still care. When we asked you to call a few years ago the response was so heavy that one legislator pointed to his desk and said “I’ve received 700 messages in four hours – what’s so hard to understand? The people want this bill”. And it passed. We can do the same thing again today.