Montana’s Educational Report Card
25 February 2010 | By Representative Michael More

As the exasperation of the American people with unresponsive political leaders continues to grow, tensions across the country mount in anticipation of the 2010 election cycle. Amid profound hopes for a sea change of representation, it seems a great many of us still fail to grasp the hidden source of raw political power and the reason why -- try as we may to pull back the curtain on our entrenched bureaucracy -- the true efforts of those who work to subvert Constitutional governance are rarely seen.  Fortunately, however, an occasional misstep serves to provide far more clarity to the intentions of our counterparts than any action that a humble call to patriotism could successfully illustrate.  Such is the case with December’s 2009 legislative report card from the Montana Education Association and teachers union (MEA-MFT).  

In their own words, “MEA-MFT is 18,000 members living and working in Montana communities across the state. Our members are K-12 teachers and classified staff, faculty at all of Montana’s public institutions of higher education, state and county employees, Head Start teachers, and private healthcare professionals.” Perhaps more revealing is the statement that, “MEA-MFT is the largest affiliate in the Montana AFL-CIO. Our members have a stake in nearly every aspect of the legislative process.” By their own admission, then, MEA-MFT seeks to consolidate power through its affiliation with the health care industry and the broader influence of the AFL-CIO such that it may work to protect its own interests in the legislative process.   

The question thus arises, just what are those interests? And how are they best protected?  Are Constitutional principles and the enumerated powers that the Constitution rightfully identifies sufficient? Or is something more than that required to determine positive outcomes for the Teachers Association, the health care providers affiliated with it, and the AFL-CIO?

As they themselves explain, “the MEA-MFT voting record tells all”. That being the case, let us look at it more closely.

In an effort to reflect its ‘true educational nature’, the MEA-MFT scored each and every one of the 150 legislators (100 representatives and 50 senators; 77 Republicans and 73 Democrats) with a grade ranging from A to F. Amazingly, while 74 legislators, received grades of a “B” or higher, all of them (with one exception, Bill Glaser, of Huntley) were Democrats. Conversely, while the 76 remaining senators and representatives received lesser grades, only seven of them received “C”s, with the remaining 69 receiving “D”s and “F”s.  All of the 73 Democrats’ grades were acceptable in the eyes of the MEA-MFT, while only nine Republicans were deemed the same, with all the others receiving a failing mark or on the verge of doing so.

Here this author must pause and refrain from taking a broadside shot at one of our two predominant political parties for what might seem to be perpetual pandering to those in the education system as a possible explanation for some gross political nepotism. But, as difficult as it may be for the average voter to see at present, political parties are made of individuals who may act independently if they so choose. The question then becomes why do they fail to do so? Why are our representatives more beholding to particular ideologies than to their considerably diverse constituencies? Could it be that the mainstream press, the media, and the education system itself too frequently hinders us from thinking for ourselves, and prefers, instead, that our opinions be spoon-fed from their hands? (For more on this subject, please visit my website, www.moreformontana.com and see the article, “The End of Representative Government?”)

Returning to the goal at hand, let us analyze the positions that the Teachers Association took with regard to three particular bills put forth in 2009 and consider the statements which serve to defend those positions.

Senator Dave Wanzenried’s bill, “SB 251 – Classified school employee unemployment”is our first example.  Here is the MEA-MFT commentary: “Unlike other seasonal workers in Montana, school district classified employees are NOT eligible to collect unemployment insurance benefits during months of actual unemployment. Many of these employees desperately need these benefits to support themselves and their families. MEA-MFT has attempted to correct this situation for years.” (This bill died in committee.)

Taken on its face, this position statement is nearly laughable to the point of hysterics, but when the consequence of what the MEA-MFT is suggesting is taken into consideration it should make every tax-payer in the state seethe with loathing – including any and every honest teacher! Could it truly be the case that the Teachers Association believes that school district employees should have their coveted months of summer vacation, in which they are “unemployed”-- the most glorious months of the entire year no less -- paid for by all their working, tax-paying neighbors through unemployment?!?! If these people so “desperately need these benefits to support themselves and their families”, they should go out and find some temporary work just like any other struggling American.  And if they cannot do so, perhaps they should consider a position that offers employment twelve months out of the year.

As egregious a violation of distributive justice (the concept that society rightfully gives back to individuals according to that which they first put in) as SB - 251 may ultimately be, it is still not as odious to conservative thought as the MEA-MFT’s treatment of HR – 3, The State Sovereignty Resolution.The MEA voting record’s two-word description of this resolution in itself speaks volumes: “HR – 3, Secession Bill”.  However, indulging the MEA-MFT to reveal its broader perspective on HR-3, we find this statement, “HR-3 endorsed secession from the Union! Passed in Texas, a similar proposition led to secession rallies across the state. The Montana House only narrowly defeated HR 3 on a 50-50 party line tie vote.” They then rather maliciously add: “Why did anyone vote for this?”
Can it truly be the case that our own state Teachers Association, the AFL-CIO, and half of Montana’s state representatives, are so utterly ignorant of Constitutional principles that they would see such a resolution only through a lens of utter hostility to individual sovereignty -- both for the state and its citizens --that their comments ultimately reveal?!? Are they so eager to destroy the concept of self-determination and individual responsibility for one’s actions, the foundational basis for all of Western thought and governance, that their only alternative is to mock and ridicule those who continue to maintain its validity?

The answer to their question, “who would vote for this?” should be as obvious to every school child placed under their care as the nose on that child’s face. But the fact that sovereignty is rejected by these intellectual giants, who serve as bureaucratic union guard-dogs  for the true power-brokers at every level of state and federal government, is a stinging condemnation of our school system’s mismanagement and utter failure in the arena of civic instruction. This comes as no surprise, however, when any study of speculative science (i.e. philosophy or religion, not to mention their foundational basis in logic) is summarily rejected as a hackneyed violation of the separation of Church and state. Thus, we find ourselves faced with a grave contradiction in the public forum. For while maintaining itself under the guise of “education and public instruction,” the school system ostensibly professes a desire for stimulating diversity of thought, while simultaneously rejecting that same diversity when it runs counter to the program of indoctrination currently mandated by those in Helena and Washington.

The time is long past due when the control of the curriculum of individual schools be returned to the proper authority: to the parents of the children who are attending those schools. If this cannot be accomplished, given the MEA-MFT’s fervent opposition to such a radical concept, private schools must be encouraged and fostered before all independent and critical thinking skills are entirely eradicated from the public forum.

This tragic necessity is ultimately illustrated by a final example of sentiments offered in the “legislative voting record” on Senator Dan McGee’s bill, SB – 80, which sought to require the election of members of the State Board of Regents.  Here is what the MEA-MFT offers for public consumption in regard to this proposed legislation with comments that are, again, nearly ludicrous when put in context of the bigger picture they paint: “SB – 80 would have turned a nonpartisan policy-making board into a board charged with partisan politics. Montana’s constitutional framers thoughtfully sought to keep partisan political whims at arm’s length from educational decisions affecting Montana public university schools and students”.

Can this be real? How many conservatives currently serve on the Board of Regents? More importantly, how many ever will while this mentality of protecting one’s domain remains prevalent?

The blatant duplicity and hypocrisy that is evident here, and in every facet of the MEA-MFT’s so-called “legislative voting record”, should readily serve as a condemnation of a public school system that is radically out of control, unwilling to answer for its deficiencies, devoid of any objective analysis on the part of those to whom it has been entrusted (i.e. the public), and a sign of the broader culture of corruption now infecting American public life.   We have become a society almost entirely incapable of transcending our own personal interest for the sake of pursuit of the common good.  When that corruption becomes so entrenched that it pervades even the tax-payer funded school system, it can only be a short time before the final bell is struck, and the school teachers, the children, and all of us with them, need well be sent home in a condition of unutterable disgrace for some long-overdue remedial education – starting, may I suggest, with the Constitution.

In the meantime, we welcome you, Mr. Orwell, to our system of public indoctrination in the year 2010.

Michael More
Montana State Legislator (R)
70th District, Gallatin Gateway