Montana Editorial Roundup

Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Feb. 5, on protecting Montana’s children:

The state Legislature is a procrastinating institution. Most of the session is spent messing with the little, easy, sometimes stupid things. Then when the final days come around - and they can’t be put off any longer - lawmakers tackle the big stuff in a flurry of hasty horse-trading.

But lawmakers have something on their plate now that is far too important to be included in their normal course of sausage making. And that’s the exploding number of child abuse and neglect cases that are crippling the agency dealing with them and clogging the state’s court system.

A series of Chronicle reports published last week told of a Montana grandmother’s heart-wrenching struggle to get her granddaughter out of what she knew to be an abusive home. That struggle ended with the death of the child. And she has not been the only one. A review released in December found that, over the previous 18 months, 14 other children had died within a year of reports they were in abusive situations. And the deaths are a stark indication of just how many children could be suffering intensely in abusive family situations.

As of last summer, the number of children in the state’s foster care program stood at 3,226 - a number that had more than doubled over the previous eight years. Over the previous year, the Department of Health and Human Services had fielded some 18,000 reports of child abuse and neglect and abuse and investigated 9,000 cases. And number of cases reaching the courts increased by 125 percent between 2010 and 2015.

In the midst all this, the number of social workers dealing with the cases has actually declined, due to legislative action, job burnout and high turnover. And those still on the job are carrying caseloads that far exceed national standards.

This is more than a problem. It’s an emergency.

Driving much of the soaring rise is methamphetamine addictions. That’s a crisis in and of itself, and it obviously calls for aggressive law enforcement. But the kids caught in the crossfire can’t wait.

Lawmakers are being asked to approve the creation of a 17-member Child Abuse and Neglect Review Commission to study the issue. Commissions and studies are fine when the issue is alternative energy or infrastructure needs. But when children are dying, the urgency rises by orders of magnitude.

Gov. Steve Bullock is asking lawmakers to increase Child and Family Services budget by $16 million. That request should be approved on its own immediately and sent to the governor so the hiring of needed case workers can start as soon as possible.

Procrastination is not an option on this one.

Editorial: https://bit.ly/2lm1kMB

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The Billings Gazette, Feb. 3, on the superintendent of public instruction:

Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen seems to have borrowed a ham-handed technique from Washington, D.C.

As public educators and leaders from around the state were gathered in Great Falls, grilling her with questions which she struggled to answer, Arntzen tried to shift blame away from her, placing it on the state’s media.

Keep in mind, she had roiled conference attendees at the Montana Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals when, after being asked a question about publicly funding preschool, Arntzen replied that she would not impede it. Educators scoffed at the superintendent repeatedly using the word “impede” when it came to public education programming. Why, they wondered, would an education leader even contemplate impeding? Why not helping or empowering?

During the question-and-answer period, Arntzen was also criticized for her plans to abandon the statewide Graduation Matters program which had been championed by her predecessor, Democrat Denise Juneau.

Instead of giving a straightforward defense of her position, Arntzen instead blamed the media saying, “All I can tell you is you say one word in the press and it turns into a firestorm,” according to The Great Falls Tribune.

No, Elsie. It wasn’t just a word.

Instead, Arntzen removed the program from the website and said it was being phased out.

Quite a bit more than just a word.

In Great Falls during a span of five years, the Graduation Matters program helped cut the number of high school drop-outs in half, from 210 to 101. Last year with continued focused effort, the program helped bring the number to less than 100.

Impressive results. And, while the drop in dropouts is certainly due to the hard work of teachers and administrators, the benefit of community collaboration and focus cannot be underestimated.

Similar Graduation Matters groups existed throughout the state, including in Billings, which aimed at tackling the complex, multi-faceted problem of high school dropouts. (Disclosure: Editor Darrell Ehrlick served on Billings group.)

Here’s why it’s shocking - if not appalling - that a Republican would seek to end the program: Graduation Matters brought private leaders, public educators together with state and private resources to tackle graduation. How many times have we heard leaders, especially those who claim conservative values, talk about how solutions must be found pairing the public education community together with leaders in the private and business sectors?

That’s exactly the model for Graduation Matters across the state. It took business leaders, like Bill Underriner who led the initiative and paired them with other community leaders like John Felton of RiverStone Health, Dennis Sulser formerly of Billings Public Schools and now with St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation and superintendent Terry Bouck.

What Arntzen has done in her very short administration is dissolve those bonds that gave rise to these powerful collaborations. But isn’t that the exact model she should be considering?

Yes, if her goal is to strengthen public education. But, we can’t help but wonder if this is an intentional dismantling of those programs which would strengthen public education, only to make it easier for privatization efforts and charter initiatives?

Preschool funding has shown great promise in other states - conservative states which have chosen to see such public funding as an investment in the workforce of the future which local businesses will need in order to compete.

Arntzen’s blame-the-media play was lame and hardly original. It tried to distract from the fact that Graduation Matters is indeed being phased out or relegated. Arntzen is simply upset that her actions have been made public.

However, the media also has an obligation not to let her off by passively accepting the blame. In this day of blaming the media, we cannot let the assertion pass.

When Graduation Matters was removed from the state’s website, we reported it.

When we followed up the next day, her spokesman insisted that phasing out doesn’t mean it is being phased out.

When criticized about her approach to education in Great Falls, the Tribune ran her words verbatim.

What, Elsie? What hasn’t been represented?

If there has been a firestorm during her brief tenure, we’d suggest Elsie’s the one holding the match.

Editorial: https://bit.ly/2llPn9W

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The Missoulian, Feb. 1, on Sharia law bill in the Legislature:

It was too much to hope that Montana’s legislators would refrain from introducing any irrelevant, hopelessly partisan, purely ideologically driven legislative proposals of the sort sometimes dismissively called “silly bills.”

From a bill to ban bicycles - along with pedestrians and wheelchairs - from all two-lane highways in the state to a bill prohibiting the use of food stamps to buy energy drinks, the Legislature is once again being forced to waste precious time and energy on utterly ridiculous and unnecessary measures.

But none take as much of the cake as Senate Bill 97, a proposal to stop foreign law from usurping our state courts. Not only is this bill trying to resolve a problem that doesn’t exist, it fosters a dangerous misunderstanding of the legal system in the United States, and is nothing more than thinly veiled bigotry toward people of the Islamic faith.

Because that’s really what this bill is about: encouraging Montanans to view Muslims as a threat. The people pushing this action are not worried about Russian or Chinese or Mexican laws taking precedence over the Montana Constitution. They are concerned solely with an Islamic religious code known as sharia law.

This was confirmed by those who spoke in support of the bill at the Senate Judiciary hearing last week; more than two dozen speakers reportedly shared worries that new immigrants and refugees would push for the acceptance of sharia law in Montana, in defiance of the state and U.S. constitutions.

“Sharia” is, in a nutshell, a set of guidelines for living in conformance with Islam. These rules are derived from several difference sources, including religious texts, and are applied in widely different ways by different individuals and nations. In some countries, they are interpreted strictly and carry the force of supreme law; in other Muslim-majority counties, they are afforded no official consideration at all; in many others, it is a mixture of the two.

In the United States, a good comparison might be to the “golden rule,” which isn’t in itself a legally enforcement rule but rather a moral code. Nowhere in America is sharia or any other “foreign” law the law of the land. Obviously, individual state constitutions and, of course, the United States Constitution are held supreme. However, certain religion-based contracts, such as marriage agreements, are sometimes taken into consideration in various courts of law. This does not mean such agreements supersede established secular law.

Kalispell Republican Sen. Keith Regier said he introduced the bill at the urging of constituents. Presumably, at least a portion of those who contacted Regier were motivated by Missoula’s recently re-activated role in welcoming refugees, some of whom are Muslim.

Regier missed an opportunity to reassure these concerned western Montanans that our new neighbors pose no credible threat to state statute. It would have been a much more productive use of his time to explain the facts of the matter to those who contacted him than to have legislation drafted and a hearing held on an issue that has no basis in reality.

If the Legislature does approve his proposed bill, Montana would be the 10th state to allow religious bigotry to override common sense. We are betting that the majority of legislators have more sense than that. Certainly Gov. Steve Bullock does, and would swiftly veto the measure.

Everyone in the U.S., regardless of religion, must abide by U.S. laws. Those who fear the erosion of fundamental rights should dedicate themselves to protecting them from real threats, not imagined ones. Legislators should not ride the waves of unfounded fear, but rather use every opportunity to educate their constituents.

Editorial: https://bit.ly/2libKBc

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Great Falls Tribune, Feb. 4, on energy development on public land:

Three decades ago under the Reagan administration, mineral and oil and gas leases were issued in the Badger-Two Medicine, a 130,000-acre area, bounded by Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. This portion of the Rocky Mountain Front is considered sacred by the Blackfeet Tribe and is part of a Traditional Cultural District.

For 30 years, members of the Blackfeet Tribe lived under the threat that this land they consider sacred would be industrialized, said Harry Barnes, chairman of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council.

That fear is waning in stages.

Congress legislatively withdrew the area from mineral development in 2006.

In March, the Bureau of Land Management signed a final decision to cancel a 30-year-old oil and gas exploration lease held by Solonex LLC. Solonex is continuing its legal challenge to overturn the Interior Department’s cancellation of the lease.

In November, the largest remaining leaseholder in the region - Devon Energy - chose to retire its 15 leases in return for sunk costs. Devon Energy will receive a $206,058 refund on its bid for the land, half of which will be paid by Montana and half by the U.S. Treasury Department. Most of the other companies with leases have since taken advantage of tax incentives set up by Congress to relinquish their claims

In January, the Bureau of Land Management canceled the final two oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area.

Former Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the federal government failed to consult with tribal leaders when it leased the land, which is now officially in the hands of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. She said if such procedures had been followed in other cases, such as at Standing Rock in North Dakota, there would be better cooperation between Native people and energy companies.

The lease Jewell referenced is for Energy Transfer Partners’ almost-finished $3.8 billion Dakota-Access pipeline. Members of the Standing Rock Tribe and its supporters spent months protesting the pipeline’s route to cross Lake Oahe, a Corps reservoir on the Missouri River in North Dakota and the major source of water for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The protest is based on fear that a pipeline breach could threaten the drinking water supply for reservation communities and that its path will disrupt culturally significant sites.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at the direction of the Obama administration, denied an easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline at Lake Oahe in January. President Trump issued an executive order to advance approval of that easement.

In November at the ceremony when Devon Energy’s leases in the Badger-Two Medicine were canceled, Devon Energy CEO David Hager said, “We’d like to see policies continue the responsible development of (oil). For Devon, cancellation of these leases at this time is simply the right thing to do.”

In January, when the last two Badger-Two Medicine oil leases were canceled, Montana Petroleum Association Executive Director Alan Olson said coalitions of environmental groups and tribes have placed pressure on agencies to block legally permitted oil and gas projects. The organization is hoping for a more predictable approach to development on federal lands under the Trump administration.

We support the cancellation of leases in the Badger-Two Medicine. While we acknowledge such development may be able to co-exist with a minimal impact to activities such as hunting, fishing and hiking that sportsmen and women enjoy on this public land, the land’s cultural significance to the Blackfeet Tribe is the reason for that support.

This is an important moment to review history, however. Jewell said a failure to consult with tribes 30 years ago led to the decades-long conflict that left a lot of energy developers with trapped resources.

Energy development and extraction is a critical contributor to the economy, as Montanans are sorely aware of during this legislative session. Lower energy prices mean there is not as much revenue to go around this year for things such as schools, infrastructure and other government services.

We support energy development on public land.

Vetting those public land projects should be inclusive and long enough to consider all risks and viewpoints. And historical and current events shine a big, bright spotlight on the need to change how Native American Tribes are included in that process. Again, we call on the federal government to exercise skilled diplomacy in these matters. Energy developers are well served to do the same thing with projects involving public land that is significant to tribes.

These events stress that we must work to create a predictable, stable energy permitting environment in this nation when it comes to energy projects on public land. Private industry can’t shoulder the risk of the current process where “final” decisions are unreliable.

The risk is great for communities, too. Fractures between opposing sides only widen when regularity decisions are changed under the influence of public opinion and administration turn over.

We must do better on the front end when it comes to this process.

Editorial: https://gftrib.com/2kka2uQ