In the race for Montana superintendent of public instruction, incumbent Democrat Denise Juneau is touting her record on declining dropout rates and rising student test scores as she tries to ward off Republican challenger Sandy Welch.
Welch, who lives in Martin City, is running on a platform that calls for more local school control and flexibility through less restrictive education regulations coming out of Helena.
Though the race may not garner the most recognition of Montana’s statewide contests, it carries far-reaching importance as it selects the person who will oversee the state’s entire public education system.
Juneau, who was invited to give a speech at the Democratic National Convention earlier this month, points to a number of statistics in making her case for reelection. In 2008, she defeated Republican Elaine Sollie Herman 51 to 44 percent to become the first American Indian woman in U.S. history to win a statewide election.
According to figures from Juneau’s office, students’ state test scores have increased by about 4 percentage points in reading and math proficiency during her tenure. In 2011, Montana eighth-graders had the country’s top scores in reading and science, and the second-highest scores in math, according to “The Nation’s Report Card.”
The Juneau administration also says dropout rates declined in Montana from 5.1 to 4.3 percent from the 2008-2009 school year to 2010-2011, while graduation rates increased from 80.7 to 82.2 percent. The superintendent credits the role of her Graduation Matters Montana initiative in those improved numbers.
“I surely want to continue to bring more communities and schools on,” Juneau said in an interview last week. “It’s a state-focused initiative, but each community develops their own plan to fit the context of their community.”
In emphasizing the flexibility she says individual communities have in developing their own plans, Juneau is providing a rebuttal to Welch’s assertions of overreaching state control. Welch argues that unnecessary and restrictive state mandates are hurting local schools’ ability to adapt to their students’ specific needs.
As an example, Welch said in a recent interview that the state requires hiring employees based on student numbers, rather than allowing local schools to decide if they need the additional hires. She says the state should be more focused on “student learning” in which it allows more freedom for individualized education plans at the local level.
“Accountability without flexibility is unfair,” Welch said.
With fewer restrictions, Welch says schools would be able explore possibilities such as hybrid classes and flipped teaching. Hybrid classes are a combination of online and in-class learning. Welch said an example of flipped education is when teachers record lectures for students to view as homework, which then frees up more in-class time for the teachers to work one on one with students.
“Class time becomes work time and teachers can modify assignments accordingly,” Welch said.
But Juneau counters that state regulations already allow for local flexibility, so long as districts meet certain standards. She points to examples to illustrate the range of localized education models, including Helena offering Montessori in elementary schools, rural schools adopting four-day weeks and a career center in Billings that she says has similarities to a charter school.
“We totally understand that this is a local-control state,” Juneau said. “What we do is set standards of excellence – these are minimum standards to provide a quality education. We set the standards and then the districts figure out how to meet those standards.”
Juneau is opposed to the “school choice” movement, which includes private school tax credits, education savings accounts and charter schools. Welch says, as superintendent of public schools, it is her not her place to advocate for non-public education models, though she says charter schools fall within the public realm since they “accept every student who comes to their door.”
“As long as we have a well-crafted charter school bill, that’s something I could support,” Welch said.
Welch believes her wide-ranging educational background would be an asset as superintendent. She worked as a high school math teacher in Fremont, Calif. and a middle-school assistant principal in Los Gatos, Calif. She then transitioned from overseeing the children of Silicon Valley corporate executives to students on the Flathead Indian Reservation as Ronan High School principal.
Welch has also worked as an education consultant.
“I’ve seen a lot of diversity,” she said.
The Republican is promising to be a strong advocate for natural resource development through her role as a state Land Board member. The Land Board consists of the state’s five statewide officeholders: governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor and superintendent of public instruction.
Welch earned the endorsement of the Montana Chamber of Commerce largely based on her resource development views. In her previous run for office, she lost to Jerry O’Neil in the 2010 House District 3 Republican primary. She served on the Senate staff during the last Montana legislative session.
Juneau, who also touts the private-public partnerships and grants her administration has completed, hopes for the opportunity to continue building on what she believes is a strong record of improving education in Montana.
“There are challenges, of course,” she said. “When we see the challenges and we see data that needs to be improved, we confront them head on and work with communities to make that data better.”