Page 28 - Flathead Beacon // 5.20.2015

28 | MAY 20, 2015 OPINION
LETTERS
INVESTING IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OUR KIDS’ FUTURE
The May 6 edition of the Beacon poignantly illustrates a serious issue facing the Flathead as well as the rest of Montana. Follow the progression through these four articles.
Article 1) speaks to the praises of a new tech startup in Whitefish. A pretty cool mobile app that drives corporate brand awareness inside of a game. A nice, feel good article about innovation occurring in the valley.
Article 2) speaks to the state government not continuing a federal program to provide private sector incentives aimed at building broadband infrastructure. The article stated the Federal Communications Commission ranked Montana as providing the least access to what the agency now considers standard broadband speeds. To be fair, the federal programs didn’t have enough oversight, which caused some tax dollars to be wasted, but they also did quite a bit of good. This is somewhat typical of most government programs. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work left to do in Montana.
Article 3) hits on the fact that the state’s public school system won’t meet federal guidelines of 95 percent common core participation this year. The shortfall is, in part, caused by computer-related issues. The article didn’t say it but those issues were a combination of an overly burdened hosted testing platform and dismal broadband infrastructure which cripples many rural schools’ ability to get to the host to take the tests. I’m not sure who decided that a hosted testing platform was a good idea, but clearly they didn’t understand there are still a number of Montana schools running on DSL circuits.
Article 4) states that Whitefish approved a mill levy for a variety of school maintenance and growth needs as did Somers and Lakeside, yet last year Kalispell didn’t pass a levy designed to support necessary information technology maintenance and IT growth needs. That was a huge mistake on the part of the voters, but to be fair the taxes inside Kalispell limits are already ridiculous. Having just moved from Whitefish to Kalispell, my new home’s value was a mere 17 percent higher in Kalispell, but my property taxes jumped 81 percent. At that rate, it’s hard to fathom what it will take to get mill levies passed in the future.
See the problem? Most people like talking about high-paying tech companies coming to Montana because
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it feels good to know that people can earn a higher quality of living. Truth is that we have to invest in the schools and the IT infrastructure that supports them or else Montana kids won’t be qualified to work for those higher paying tech firms.
At the core, the state needs to overhaul how it generates revenue for schools. The school trust land system was brilliant in its day, but it’s underserving our overcrowded educational system now. The federal E-Rate program helps schools offset certain operational and capital costs, but in cases like broadband, the program will only pay for fiber optic installation from the edge of the school property into the building. Most of the expense is getting to the edge of the school property in the first place.
At the county level, we have a huge portion of our population paying reduced county taxes but enjoying city services that includes the use of the high schools, emergency services, city roads, etc. Closing the gap between city and county taxes would be a painful local conversation to have, but it’s one that should occur for the sake of the kids. For if the school funding models don’t get fixed at the state and local levels, the world is surely going to pass by our kids.
Scott Countryman Kalispell
RESPONSIBLE REPUBLICANS COME THROUGH FOR MONTANANS
Thanks to a small group of Republican legislators who refused to be bullied and bribed by their own Republican leadership, Americans for Prosperity, ALEC and other out-of- state interests, three major pieces of legislation sponsored by responsible Republicans have now been signed into law. The Disclose Act, Medicaid expansion and the Tribal Water Compact will mean more transparent elections, more accessible health care including help for rural hospitals, and a more certain future for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, ranchers and developers in the Flathead. Montanans won big.
However, it could have been much bigger. Thirty-seven legislators, including 34 House members and three senators, refused to work with the other 113 Montana legislators and prevented Republican Sen. John Brenden’s infrastructure (and jobs) bill, SB 416, from passing. Unfortunately, they voted for their individual interests and not for the good of their constituents or fellow Montanans. They all have their excuses why they did not support SB 416, but they pale in comparison to all the jobs and needed projects throughout Montana that will not occur now due to their radicalpositions.
On our local level, Republican Rep.
Dan Salomon has been a solid statesman during this past legislative session. He has not taken the easy road, but has worked hard to balance his convictions, the needs of his constituents and Montanans in general. Whereas Republican Majority Whip Representative Greg Hertz, who was one of 34 out of 100 House members that killed the infrastructure bill, seems to have forgotten why he was sent to Helena. It was not to represent his party bosses or the extreme factions in the Republican Party, but the everyday citizens of Lake County and Montana. And then there is Sen. Janna Taylor ... what can I say?
Craig McClure Polson
LEGISLATURE STRENGTHENS JUSTICE IN MONTANA
Nearly every week we read in the news about a wrongfully convicted person, somewhere in the U.S., being released after decades in prison. Law enforcement and lawyers are aware that mistakes have been made in the past that contribute to innocent people being locked up. According to The National Registry of Exonerations, this has happened 1,588 times in the U.S. since 1989.
Duringthejust-concludedlegislative session in Montana a bipartisan coalition emerged to address justice in our state. With great majorities, liberals and conservatives joined together in support of legislation that will make our justice system more just, and less prone to error.
Six bills became law, sponsored and supported by senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle: Margie MacDonald, Terry Murphy (from the interim), Ellie Boldman Hill, Jennifer Eck, and Frank Garner. During the legislative session, partisanship was suspended in the name of justice.
These laws make the Board of Pardons and Parole more transparent and responsible (HB128, HB28). They give our governor the authority he needs to add balance to the system (HB43, HB19). We now have a stronger DNA statute, perhaps the best in the entire country, which will help establish guilt and innocence based on science instead of outdated forensics (HB516). And we now have an opportunity to employ best practices in eyewitness identification (HJ14).
The cause of justice has been helped in 2015 by the effort and common purpose of the Montana Legislature.
Dan Weinberg President of the Montana Innocence Project Whitefish
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CORRECTIONS
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