Montana state superintendent calls legislature 'schoolyard bullies'

Last week, the bipartisan Education Interim Budget Committee voiced displeasure with Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen. The committee says she’s failed to satisfy the duties she was elected to fulfill.

“Being elected into this position brings great responsibility and folks should be held accountable to meet their responsibilities, that’s my point of view,” said State rep. David bedey (R) Hamilton at last week’s meeting.

On Monday, Arntzen released this op-ed statement saying it was closer to a kangaroo court and she was attacked for her conservative values. She said she released the statement to stand her ground on the matter.

“Were they a schoolyard bully? Most definitely they were and I decided to support our agency and myself,” Arntzen said.

OPI was criticized by the committee for how it’s implemented several pieces of legislation to the point of calling it obstruction.

Including laws that allow freedom when choosing schools, early literacy programs, public charter schools, Indian Education for All and more programs. During the meeting it was said that OPI was limiting how these new bills are being presented to schools.

“And we don’t know why it is being impeded. We would like to see these go forward because these are some great programs from some really good bills,” said State Rep. Dan Salomon (R) Ronan.

Arntzen said that OPI followed the words as they are written and said lawmakers should take ownership with how they write laws.

“In other words, if they meant it to be the color blue but they wrote the color red – I still determine that it’s the color red,” Artnzen said.

Arntzen is hosting a conversation on Wednesday breaking down how OPI is interpreting and implementing the laws.

Below is Arntzen’s full Op Ed:

Schoolyard Bullies in the Legislature

An Op Ed by Superintendent Elsie Arntzen

During the Education Interim Budget Committee meeting on March 12-13, 2024, the Chair and some members of the Committee tarnished the reputation of the entire legislature with their lack of decorum. These individuals turned simple legislative hearings into kangaroo courts with predetermined outcomes that had very little to do with the actual discussion at hand. These schoolyard bullies are attacking me because I’m a constitutional conservative who has stood for good governance, protected girls’ sports, and fought against the “woke” agenda currently infiltrating our schools. The false accusation that the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is not adequately implementing certain pieces of legislation is bizarre. In reality, these legislators are asking the OPI to ignore and rewrite the law for their convenience.

These legislators, fueled by the overreaching bureaucracy of school associations, asked the OPI to disregard the laws that they sponsored and voted for. All elected officials swear an oath to fulfill and uphold Montana’s Constitution. Only the legislature has law-writing authority. As a former legislator, I understand the level of importance of preserving and protecting this power for the legislature alone. The OPI, along with any state or federal agency, is tasked with implementing the law. Constitutionally, the OPI cannot and will not rewrite the law. Neither well-meaning convenience nor a twisted political agenda justifies setting bad precedents and breaking the separation of powers.

I would caution legislators not to take the easy way out by relinquishing their law-writing power to agencies. In other states, and nationally, agencies often overstep the limits of written law to reach a political end. Montanans do not want an administrative state, and neither do I.

Let’s be honest, when some of the detractors are individually drafting 70-plus pieces of legislation in a 90-day session, opportunities for clear and concise language will be missed. There is a process to resolve issues in poorly written legislation. The next session could bring clarification to ensure that the ultimate goals are reached. I welcome this if it is done through the proper process. What is not welcome is elected officials trampling our Constitution with a temper tantrum.

At the OPI, we are prioritizing our students, parents, and communities. The OPI led the nation in improving our state assessment system to better reflect the teaching and learning needs of our students. We implemented the teacher residency program and increased flexibility in teacher licensing rules to bring more qualified teachers into the classroom. The OPI also updated the accreditation process to engage parents, families, and communities. This is just a small portion of what the OPI employees do every day.

Montana children, parents, and communities want the legislature to focus on delivering results. Some in the legislature are acting more childish than the children we are supposed to be serving. I remember when we used to resolve legislative issues with real solutions, not name-calling and politically motivated stunts. Montanans deserve better.