(logo whooshes) - [Joe] Coming up on a special edition of Impact.

The passage of two school choice laws will bring charter schools to Montana's public education system at the start of next school year.

It's a chance for existing districts to leverage new resources.

- Great Falls Public Schools has amazing teachers and I think that it's just a really exciting opportunity to be able to try something new.

- [Joe] And for school choice advocates to try and break clean from the current system.

- With all the democracy that we say we have around school boards, I say it's not working.

- [Joe] How Montana's education community is trying to strike the right balance is just ahead on Impact.

(dramatic music) - [Announcer] Production of Impact is made possible with support from the Otto Bremer Trust.

Investing in people, places, and opportunities in our region.

Online at ottobremmer.org.

The Greater Montana Foundation.

Encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

And viewers like you who are friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you.

(logo whooshes) - Welcome to Impact, where we continue to bring you in-depth reporting on issues important across Montana.

I'm Joe Lesar.

After years of heated debate, Montana's public education landscape is set to change with two new laws paving the way for charter schools.

Those are K-12 schools allowed extra freedoms to innovate and families can choose to sign up regardless of where they live.

The two laws each create a different type of charter school.

Montana PBS's, AJ Williams and Stan Parker take a closer look at those differences in what local school districts have planned for this fall.

(logo whooshes) - [Nicole] Got it?

(glass clinking) - [Paul] Let me see that.

- [AJ] It's breakfast time at the Lamelin home in Great Falls and 7-year-old Emma helps make the pancakes.

- Just watch your elbow, all right?

- [Emma] I'll get this.

- You wanna scoop it?

- Yeah.

- Go ahead and scoop it.

I'll do this.

- [AJ] Paul and Nicole have three kids in the public school system here.

Emma is their youngest and when she starts third grade this fall, her parents will get a choice they didn't have with her older sisters, signing up for a charter school run by Great Falls Public Schools.

- I think it's exciting that parents in Montana are gonna have a choice in their children's education.

That's still a public choice.

That's still public education.

We're still sticking to the curriculum that we know and love with public education, and I think that it's just a really exciting opportunity to be able to try something new.

- First thing we really love is the teachers and also the leadership.

So we really have valued each of the principals, the teachers that we've all encountered.

- [AJ] The Great Falls CORE Elementary School is one of 19 public charter schools recently approved, all run by existing school districts.

Some brand new, others current programs getting a charter designation each with a special focus or approach.

- So the idea of the course book came along because we are experiencing a teacher shortage.

Already this school year we had six or seven classrooms that we couldn't have filled when the school year started, and so that resulted in some of our student teachers actually getting hired on the spot.

- [AJ] CORE will be a laboratory school, a place where college students can earn a teaching degree in three years while student teaching the whole time.

It's a partnership with the University of Montana Western and Emma's current principal, Jennifer Martyn, will be at the helm.

- Good morning!

- It's my birthday.

- Happy birthday!

They are getting their coursework during the day and then they get to go back into the classrooms right away and really implement and try some of the strategies that they've been studying with their mentor teacher who's also their college professor in the classroom.

- [AJ] This wave of public charters is ushered in by a new law passed during the 2023 session, House Bill 549 sponsored by Representative Fred Anderson.

- The way this one was formulated is to really empower students and parents, but also to honor local control and local school board, and the constitutional mandates in the state of Montana.

- [AJ] Yet for parents' rights and school choice advocates who organized at the legislature last session, charters helmed by existing school districts were not the change they had in mind.

- I think the biggest problems that it's just more of the same.

- [AJ] Charter schools were a hot topic last session.

(gavel thumping) and Trish Schreiber was at the center.

- Thank you, committee.

My name is Trish Schreiber.

I am here representing myself.

I'm a special educator- - An educational therapist with a private practice background, she opposed House Bill 549 and was the driving force behind House Bill 562, a competing law to bring charter schools to Montana.

- A community choice goal in Montana fits the national definition of a charter school.

We want our state to be a place where families want to live.

Education options are a significant piece of that picture.

- [AJ] Both bills answered a growing demand for more choice in education.

They ended up passing and getting signed by the governor, but each fell on opposite sides of a clear ideological divide.

That divide marked largely by whether you have faith in the current system.

- I have witnessed the dedication and hard work that my fellow trustees do for the education of our kids.

- [AJ] Or want freedom from it.

- It's so important that these charters have independence and autonomy, - [AJ] Whether burning a rule book sounds appealing.

- At the end of the day, we gotta focus on the needs of the student, not an ever-growing bureaucracy that administers our school system.

- [AJ] Or you see the rules as lessons from the past.

- There's no need to take every single bit of work that this committee has ever done, that your predecessors have ever done and just basically nuke it.

- To understand those bills and the ideological divide, here are some definitions.

Charter schools are open to the public and tuition-free, and in that way they're similar to traditional public schools.

What makes charters different is they get flexibility from regulations and structures of the education system.

For that freedom, they're held accountable for student success and can get shut down if they fail.

Charter advocates say the freedom to innovate creates better outcomes for students.

While critics say charter schools can lack oversight, exacerbate social inequities and undermine conventional public schools.

Charter schools are also often associated with the lotteries that decide who gets in when the demand outstrips supply and it often does.

For school choice purists, the charters coming to Montana this fall don't neatly fit the charter mold because existing school boards are still in the driver's seat.

House Bill 562, the other bill, was the vehicle of preference for school choice advocates like Schreiber, who wanted to see a path for public funds to support schools entirely free of the current system.

The schools modeled in that bill are called Community Choice Schools.

- A Community Choice School in Montana fits the national definition of a charter school.

- [AJ] The basic model for both public charters and choice schools is similar.

A group wants to form a new school with a special mission or focus.

Think of it like chartering a bus to a specific place, but with public charters like Great Falls CORE School, local boards have priority in starting them.

For choice schools, it's all about independent groups starting those schools.

Another key difference and point of contention is who awards the charter contracts.

For choice schools, that power was given to the newly created Community Choice Schools Commission, a panel filled by appointments from elected officials and lawmakers from both parties.

The commission can also give local school boards the authority to authorize charters.

Schreiber was appointed by Governor Gianforte as chair of the commission.

- That's the job of the commission is we've been saying how do we figure out how to regulate freedom?

Which you could think of as a paradox or an oxymoron kind of depending on if you're a pessimist or an optimist.

- [AJ] That freedom she mentions is that choice schools are largely free from Montana's education law and can hire teachers without a Montana teaching credential.

A big contrast to the public charters starting this fall.

- But there is a way and a lot of the states have shown us how it can be done, how it can be done well and responsibly, and that's what we're hoping to create.

- [AJ] While districts across the state spin up new public charters, the future of Community Choice Schools is unclear.

That's because a group of teachers, parents, and nonprofits representing the public education system sued the state in an attempt to strike down House Bill 562 as unconstitutional.

The lawsuit is still pending, but back in September, Judge Christopher Abbott ordered no choice schools to be formed while the lawsuit proceeds.

However, he did permit the commission to get to work.

- He basically has, you know, he's allowed us to get up and running, raise money so that we can pay for our operations and do all of that, which is great because we'd have to be doing that anyway.

- Taxable land.

- [AJ] At issue is whether the choice school system obeys the state constitution, which gives elected school boards control over public schools and puts the Board of Public Education in charge of the whole thing.

Schreiber says, school boards get tripped up by politics and public elections, and that's why choice schools have boards chosen only by parents and staff.

- The core difficulty of our national top-down regulated public school system in every state is highlighted at the local level.

Unaligned school boards lead to infighting, power grabs, and intrusions.

As an education philanthropist when vetting an investment, the recipient board of the donation matters.

There's no safety with the philanthropic investment if the board will change within a year and the school goes off mission.

- [AJ] But when Judge Abbott issued his injunction last fall, he signaled that may be a tough sell.

He wrote, "Plaintiffs are likely to show in this litigation that in establishing choice schools, the state may not take oversight authority from the bodies constitutionally charged with supervising the public school system and give it instead to a body of the legislature's own creation."

- Montana has the best constitution in the country.

I'll stand by that statement.

And our constitution commits all of us to funding a public system of education for every single kid.

- [AJ] Amanda Curtis is the president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees, a labor union that includes public school teachers and for disclosure, some Montana PBS employees.

She argues Community Choice Schools are better described as private than public, in part because their boards don't have public elections.

- We are all paying the taxes that will fund these private Community Choice Schools, but none of us are allowed to elect the board that governs them unless our kids go there.

- [AJ] She's worried these changes could open the door for religious schools or private corporations to benefit from public funds at the expense of today's public schools.

And despite the lottery system used for admission, critics say schools of choice can still lead to inequalities through the more subtle ways of cherry picking students such as the chosen location, the school's branding or the services they offer.

- And it might not happen in the first six months, it might not happen with the first school that's built, but these private Community Choice Schools will eventually cause us to forsake our commitment to our public school system.

- [AJ] Schreiber doesn't see it that way.

- Well, being one of the citizens who worked on the bill draft and got it passed into law and now who's on the commission, I 100% do not wanna dismantle public education because Community Choice Schools are public.

- [AJ] Whether choice schools are public or private is a debate that gets into the weeds.

However, in another preview of his thinking, Judge Abbott wrote in his order, "That choice schools are likely public schools as contemplated by the Montana Constitution."

- We're trying to save public education and add a reform that is only done by choice and requires an enormous amount of community support in order to succeed.

- [AJ] As far as the need for reform, a common refrain for Schreiber is look at the report card.

- If we only have 47% of our fourth and eighth graders who are minimally proficient in reading and 37% minimally proficient in math, how is all of that adding up to accountability?

- [AJ] Despite most students falling below proficiency, Montana does tend to do better on tests than the national average, but Schreiber argues that if you take student demographics into account, Montana should be doing far better.

The numbers do show an alarming achievement gap for Montana's native youth.

- Education for the American Indian students in Montana is in a state of crisis.

These are our future leaders that we so badly need on our reservations to really bring us out of poverty are not able to pass basic standards.

- [AJ] Connie Filesteel was born and raised in the Fort Belknap Indian community and then gained experience as an educator in the Phoenix area.

- My daughter attended a charter Montessori school in Arizona and that was another impetus of why I left Montana.

- [AJ] Montessori classrooms are known for self-directed student exploration, hands-on learning, peer coaching, and multi-age classrooms.

- I really contribute her successes to her early access to those opportunities in Arizona and to her Montessori education.

- [AJ] When they moved back to Montana, Filesteel saw her daughter struggle to get a quality education in the public school.

She tried to make the system work for her daughter but couldn't get traction.

That's why she's hoping the court's green light Community Choice Schools so she can start a Montessori elementary school on Fort Belknap Reservation that's infused with language and culture revitalization.

- The Aaniiih and Nakoda Montessori Academy is aimed to bring back and revitalize and bring back our identity to our people, to our children, and to teach them who they are as Aaniiih and Nakoda, while also teaching them to be successful in math, science, reading, and integrating that culture throughout the curriculum, - [AJ] Filesteel is in the planning phase now, raising money and trying to boost language skills among tribal adults.

She and two other hopeful school founders also intervened in the House Bill 562, the Community Choice Bill lawsuit to defend it.

- I have no desire to go through the red tape, the bureaucracy, the politics that our local education agencies, our public schools are riddled with and all of those politics, all of those red tape are also contributing to our students being unsuccessful within public schools today.

- [AJ] Experiences with local school systems of course vary depending on the time, place, and resources parents have at hand.

For example, about 30 years ago in Helena, parents got a Montessori program into Helena Public Schools that's still going strong today.

- There was a group of parents that said, "Hey, we want this for our kids in the public education system."

And the district was like, okay.

And so the parent group fundraised and paid for teacher training and paid for materials.

So, and it's grown.

- [AJ] Katy Wright has been teaching Montessori for more than a decade.

- Okay, so you're gonna learn the names of found, of different animals.

I love the multi-age.

I loop with my kids for three years, so I haven't, they come in as first graders and leave as third graders and that, I mean, we can just pick up where we left off every school year.

- [AJ] Wright is also linked to both new charter bills.

The Helena Montessori is becoming a charter school under House Bill 549 with the hopes that the funding will help expand it.

- We have about a hundred families every year that apply for 36 spots.

So there's big community demand for this program and a lot of teachers that wanna start working in a multi-age, skill mastery type of program.

- [AJ] She was also appointed to the Community Choice Schools Commission by the house minority leader, Democrat Kim Abbott.

- We all know that moving schools a lot is not good for kids.

So what can we build in to our conditions of excellence that protects kids from having to move a lot?

I think that my name was brought up as a potential appointees because I teach within a choice environment already within the existing district landscape.

And I think that we wanted to bring that voice in your adding and this one you're just gonna, how is that gonna play into this broadening public education ecosystem?

It's been a steep learning curve but I've spent the last whatever, four or five months doing a deep dive into charter in other states, the good and the bad, and my interest now is bringing the education establishment to the table with the people who are writing the choice laws like 562 and the ESA laws.

We cannot be divisive in this education environment.

We have to come together and make sure that we have common accountability, common purposes, common outcomes, and that we do the best thing for kids and teachers.

- [AJ] The divisive rhetoric around education has been hard to miss, especially since the pandemic.

The culture war issues form a vocal thread of some parents in the school choice movement.

Trish Schreiber says that's not what's motivating her, but does say that school choice gives parents options that match their values.

- Right now we claim that our schools are neutral, but they're not neutral because people cannot be neutral.

Like people have biases and I think it's better and safer to be able to say it out loud and to be who you are and to wear it as a badge of honor.

And if people want to join you, they will.

And if they don't, they don't have to.

They're not forced to go there.

There's no coercion in the system.

- [AJ] Among conservative parents, there's been a growing interest in a model called a classical education, a throwback to a timeless vision of education as the founding fathers or Plato may have experienced.

- [Trish] The school my children attended for just one year before moving back to Montana focused on good character and being civic-minded.

Their vision was to quote, "Create culturally literate citizens who will impact their world for life, liberty, and justice."

This made my heart sing as a young mama of a kindergartner and a second grader.

- [AJ] Those values are central for Chip Lindenlaub, a retired air force and commercial pilot who's part of a group in Southwest Montana trying to form a classical academy as a Community Choice School.

- As I look around our country, I think we're star for leadership and critical thinking.

- [AJ] He wants to model it after his school In Idaho.

- [Narrator] TVCA is an excellent investment in the future.

Kids are learning what's good and beautiful and true.

(gentle instrumental music) - [AJ] Critics like Amanda Curtis worry that students attending these choice schools will sap resources from already cash-strapped districts.

- By pulling away kids and therefore their funding, the state portion of the public school funding that is with, that is assigned to every individual student, we are defunding our commitment to all of the other kids left in the public schools.

- [AJ] Lindenlaub says other states have made it work though.

- 44 other states have charter schools and in none of those states have the public, traditional public school has been decimated because a charter school came into their district.

The small school districts are protected.

If you're a class C area, then you can't open a Community Choice School without the permission of the local school board for that very reasons.

My hope is that a rising tide raises all ships and I truly believe that with a little competition, all the schools in the state of Montana will get better and that's our goal and that's what we hope happens.

- [AJ] Voices from inside the school system argue all that's needed for a rising tide is simply more resources.

- The only thing preventing Montana schools from creating exactly the specialized program that their community and the parents in that community want is money.

And so I just, I can't grasp why the legislature would be willing to siphon off money from our public school system or tax us more to pay for specialized programs in these private schools when they could just publicly fund the public school system so that every community can build these programs that they are wanting.

- [AJ] For districts like Great Falls, looking for the resources and flexibility to try something new, the public charter option with House Bill 549 is a welcome tool.

- This is the question in education, right?

How do we do more with less?

And how do we be creative to use what we have in order to benefit the whole.

Plan for the district.

- I was actually surprised that there were, I think, 26 applications to the state board of public ed for charters.

19 were approved ultimately.

And if you look at those, there's a myriad of innovative ideas that are coming from different communities, that they have a strong belief is gonna empower their students and move their students along.

- Do you like being MVP?

- [AJ] For families like the Lamelins, the fact that it's a charter school is beside the point.

- Charter wasn't something that I think we were seeking for our child.

It was just exciting to see something new happening in our community.

- Try another one, see.

- [Student] Hi, Caleb.

- Elementary school, we have this awesome responsibility and this opportunity to provide a foundation for learning for the rest of their lives.

- Our listening bodies, we show respect by eyes are?

- [Students] For watching.

- Ears are?

- [Students] Listening.

- Body is?

- Calm.

- If we do a good job, they're gonna have more choices in their life after they leave us.

- [AJ] For Impact, I'm AJ Williams.

- There's already two lawsuits connected to the new charter school laws.

In March, a group representing Montana's public education system accuse the head of the Office of Public Instruction, Elsie Arntzen, of impeding funding for these programs and sued her to get things moving for the lawsuit over Community Choice Schools that we discussed in the story.

There's no certain timeline for resolution.

Well, that does it for this episode of Impact.

Next time on the show, Montana's primary election is right around the corner.

We'll examine the highly watched race for Senator Jon Tester's seat as well as the crowded field running to replace Congressman Matt Rosendale.

Plus a state congressional race on the outskirts of Bozeman highlights division in the Montana GOP, where three conservative Republicans, all who've served in the state legislature, fight for the single nomination.

Well, for all of us here at Montana PBS, I'm Joe Lesar, and we thank you for watching.

(gentle dramatic music) (gentle dramatic music continues) (gentle dramatic music continues) - [Announcer] Production of Impact is made possible with support from.

The Otto Bremer Trust.

Investing in people, places, and opportunities in our region.

Online at ottobremmer.org.

The Greater Montana Foundation.

Encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

And viewers like you who are friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you.

(gentle dramatic music) (energetic piano music)