Education in Montana

[decembergirl]

Originally Posted by bigtrees

Last I heard is Montana schools are considered pretty good. At least that's what everyone moving to Montana says, they're moving there for good schools and a good place to raise the family. So I'd say that Montana schools aren't broken. Perhaps broke, but not broken.

Interesting, I have heard the opposite. From people who work in the educational systems even.

[bigtrees]

Originally Posted by decembergirl

Interesting, I have heard the opposite. From people who work in the educational systems even.

Please tell that to everyone that is trying to move their kids to Montana from the inner city schools in Seattle, California, New York, etc.

[Joe Doer]

Originally Posted by bigtrees

Please tell that to everyone that is trying to move their kids to Montana from the inner city schools in Seattle, California, New York, etc.

Even with the challenges in Montana schools they are better than schools in the inner cities and even suburbs. A few points:

• The inner city folks are NOT moving to Montana. Most from the heart of south central LA have never been outside of about a square mile around their homes. They have no means of getting out of there let alone a move to Montana.
• Even the good schools in CA can not provide a quality education to all because of ESL(English as a Second Language). The funds for ESL are in the same money pool as GATE(Gifted and Talented Education). The schools are using 100% of their resources for ESL leaving none for GATE.
• It is those in the suburbs who are more mobile and are moving to Montana, Idaho, Oregon, etc.
• Interesting fact: the State of CA spends over a billion dollars a year for medical expenses for illegal immigrants

[jimj]

I find it interesting how people percieve montana schools now days. When we first moved here years ago they were better than most but that has changed unfortunately for the worse. BTW, I'm saying this from a postition of actually having a child in the school system and several friends who are teachers not just from either going through it years ago or just living here.
While some schools (usually the grade schools) are much better than the higher ones in this state almost none of them deserve to be held up as an example of quality and I don't know if money is the only answer, like most public schools I think removing tenure protections and getting rid of the deadwood would be a good start and then paying the remaining good teachers a better (living) wage.
We could do much better and maybe we will if we ever clean house starting at the top.

[decembergirl]

From my understanding, there is not a lot of incentive for teachers within our system to better themselves as educators once they get in the door. I remember reading an article about a out of state teacher who had some kind of certification that she noticed was not promoted here. In fact, only a small handful of teachers in the entire state had it as well. Which struck her as odd since back where she was from, it was highly encouraged. And with it came better pay.

When I was at college with some girls who were going into education it was made known to them that Montana was one of the lower ranking states as far as pay for that profession (as are most professions here). Yes, Montana is a great place to live. Low crime, great scenery and lots of other positives. But the fact remains, you still have to be able to make a living here.