Latest news with #MontanaFederationofPublicEmployees
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Montana Federation of Public Employees members rally at Capitol
Amanda Curtis, president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees, describes successes of the union at the 2025 Montana Legislature, urges more union members to run for office. (Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan) 'Union busting bills' and a school voucher bill that threatened to siphon $100 million from public schools were on the table earlier this session, said Amanda Curtis, president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees. And back in February, the state pay play wasn't scheduled for a hearing in the Senate yet, she said. But despite snowstorms and single digit temperatures, union members showed up to engage with lawmakers, Curtis said. 'Because we broke bread and had thoughtful, one-on-one conversations with legislators of both parties, we won,' Curtis told a few dozen rally-goers. She said union members helped push off unfriendly bills and pulled the pay plan forward.. At a rally Friday at the Capitol with, at most, 18 days left in the session, Curtis praised the work union members had done, including 22 MFPE members who serve in the Montana Legislature. The MFPE is the largest union in the state with more than 20,000 members. Rep. Eric Matthews, D-Bozeman, said the legislature has passed the pay plan, and it's a fair one. Matthews, a teacher, said the STARS Act, a comprehensive bill addressing starting teacher pay, still needs to pass, but it's a positive proposal. The Student and Teacher Advancement for Results and Success Act, House Bill 252, passed the House 88-9 and is making its way through the Senate. 'We still have to get the STARS Act out, which will definitely help the education system across Montana,' Matthews said. Rep. Denise Baum, D-Billings, said Montana's pensions are healthy, and they need to resist attacks. She said 73% of public employees report they would be more likely to leave their work if their pensions are cut. Baum, a recently retired detective with the Billings Police Department, also urged Gov. Greg Gianforte to sign Senate Bill 7, which she said helps correct a wrong from last session. The bill revises the retirement criteria for some law enforcement officers. Instead of being eligible after 20 years of service and at the age of 50, it allows an officer to tap their retirement after reaching just one of the criteria. The bill passed the legislature and is headed to Gianforte's desk. A spokesperson for the Governor's Office did not respond to an email for comment about the governor's planned action. Rep. Jill Cohenour, D-Helena, praised increases in the pay plan, including a minimum $10,400 for employees working for the state of Montana and the university system over the course of three years, 'raises exceeding anything that has been there in the past two decades.' 'Hear me when I say that public employees in Montana deserve the pay plans that we have negotiated,' Cohenour said. 'We deserve so much more. 'We are the people that Montanans go to when they need help starting a business, when they're trying to find a job, when they're trying to get back on their feet, when their roads need plowed, and when they're experiencing a health crisis. We make families successful in communities across Montana.' At the rally, Curtis also encouraged other union members to run for office in the future, even though '22 member legislators may be unheard of.' 'We need reinforcements in 2027, and it doesn't matter what party you identify with,' Curtis said. 'If you believe that public service is a public good, if you believe that we must support public employees, if you believe that working people should have a voice and protections at work, we need you in this Capitol building.'
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill would fund school meals for families who can't pay
School lunch illustration by Getty Images. Rep. Melissa Romano still remembers a fourth grader who started acting out in her classroom about a decade ago. At the time, Romano, D-Helena, said her school district used to have teachers put slips of paper in students' mailboxes that served as their lunch bills. One day, the little boy showed her a bunch of the slips crumpled at the bottom of his backpack, and he started crying — 'for fourth grade boys to cry, that takes quite a bit,' Romano said. 'He said, 'I want to go home. I can't be here in school because my parents can't pay these bills,'' Romano recalled. The boy had two other siblings, the bill had reached $343, and Romano walked to the school office to pay it before the family got sent to collections — a practice in her district at the time. This week, Romano told the House Education Committee the situation inspired her interest in nutrition for children. She said House Bill 551 would fill an important gap, ensuring children have enough to eat at school. Some children qualify for free meals at school. Others qualify for discounts, so breakfast and lunch cost them around 30 cents or 40 cents each, Romano said. But even with the discount, Romano said families still struggle to pay those bills, and it means children skip meals and go hungry. HB 551 would cover the cost of those meals with an estimated $600,000 a year, Romano said. In Montana, she said, one in six children live in a food insecure household. No one testified against the bill, but Romano said she has presented similar legislation before, and it hasn't been adopted. Proponents of the bill said undernourished children don't learn, and Kim Popham, with the Montana Federation of Public Employees, said the legislation would support another interest of committee members. 'In this committee, many of you often bring up the fact that our test scores are low, but let me remind you that if students don't have enough to eat, they cannot learn,' Popham said. Supporters also said in some districts, school administrators have to double as collections agents, and the phone calls about unpaid bills destroy the trust between schools and families. Tobin Novasio, superintendent of Hardin Public Schools, said he was one of the children Romano talked about, who skipped meals as a child. 'Oftentimes, I would tell my teachers I was going home for lunch but would just walk around the neighborhood, not eat,' Novasio said. With help in part from great teachers and role models — he pointed to a committee member, long-time educator Rep. Lee Deming, R-Laurel, as one — Novasio said he escaped poverty. However, he knows when families get a $40 or $50 bill for meals, it can be 'a huge amount.' Novasio said he doesn't want school administrators to have to call families and blur the line of the school's role — schools should support families, not be the enemy. 'I don't ever want any student under my care to have that type of feeling of anxiety or to go without a meal,' Novasio said. Popham, with the Montana Federation of Public Employees, said she left the classroom just a couple of years ago as a biology teacher, and her students often referred to her as a 'science geek.' Once a month, on payday, she would buy healthy snacks at Costco because she knew students needed them, and she told the committee the science behind her approach. Organs need energy, energy comes from food, the brain is an organ, and it consumes about 20% of the energy humans take in, Popham said — and growing children need a lot more of that energy. Representatives from the Montana Quality Education Coalition, American Heart Association in Montana, the Blackfeet Nation, Fort Belknap Indian Community, Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy's Reservation, the Helena School District, and the Bigfork Food Bank were among proponents of the bill. In response to a question from Rep. Jamie Isaly, D-Livingston, about whether the unpaid meal accounts push schools into the red, Doug Reisig, with the Montana Quality Education Coalition, said yes. Reisig said some philanthropic people will volunteer to pay outstanding bills, and school districts do 'creative things' to try to collect the money. 'Turning to collections is probably the last straw,' Reisig said. 'I've had to do that as well, and you don't ever want to have to do that, but you try to make sure that when you end the year, that your food service program is not in arrears.' A former superintendent from Culbertson said that his district had ended up $10,000 or $15,000 in the hole because of unpaid meal accounts. Rep. Sherry Essmann, R-Billings, wanted to know the actual cost of a school meal, and Rep. Mark Thane, D-Missoula, a former superintendent, said elementary school lunch cost $3.00 in Missoula in 2025, and it cost $3.25 in middle and high schools. In response to questions from Essmann, Romano said the $600,000 annual price is an estimate, one she said she believes is on the high end, and any leftover dollars would return to the general fund. A handout from the Montana Food Bank Network said 21,000 students currently qualify for a reduced price meal in Montana, and the bill would make those meals free — which Rep. Pete Elverum, D-Helena, calculated meant that for about $28.50 per student, HB 551 would feed 21,000 children breakfast and lunch for an entire year The committee did not take immediate action on the bill. However, Romano said the $300 for that fourth grader she once taught was insurmountable, and removing that burden for the family was life changing. 'I think that this bill is far beyond an act of compassion,' Romano said. 'I think that it's really a commitment to ensuring that every child in Montana has the opportunity to reach their full potential.'
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Teachers rally, one significant education proposal dies, governor's bill gains support
More than 500 people attended a rally organized by the Montana Federation of Public Employees at the Capitol in 2025 to support teachers, law enforcement, and local government officials. (Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan) Nearly 500 people, including teachers, rallied at the Montana Capitol this week to speak up for education and public employees, and a couple of major education proposals met divergent fates in the Montana Legislature. A 'school choice' bill, House Bill 320 died Wednesday once a number of legislators changed their votes after the legislation cleared its first hurdle on the floor and survived the Appropriations committee with a one-vote margin. Friday, however, the House gave another thumbs up for the STARS Act — Student and Teacher Advancement for Results — a key proposal in Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte's budget. It will be on its way to the Senate. Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, is the lead sponsor of House Bill 252, which is aimed at increasing starter teacher pay, a persistent problem in Montana. The bill also includes academic incentives for students and ways high-cost school districts can support teachers with affordable housing. It has significant support across the political spectrum. Some supporters argue it doesn't do enough for veteran teachers, but Jones has said it targets a specific challenge in Montana, and money is limited. House Bill 320, which failed, would have created a program to help families with children in private schools and a tax credit for financial donors. The proposal was criticized as costly and lacking adequate oversight, especially given its high cost, earlier estimated to be as much as $12 million by 2029. It was praised as providing resources to families whose children don't fit the mold in public school and face rising prices. Sponsor and Rep. Lee Deming, R-Laurel, said he was disappointed in the outcome and had believed concerns from detractors had been addressed with amendments. 'There's 5,700 kids that somehow don't fit in our system right now,' Deming said. 'They're not going to get a dime. We spend $2 billion on everybody else, but we can't cut $8 million loose for those kids.' The rally Monday, organized by the Montana Federation of Public Employees, was a call on legislators to support teachers, but also other union workers, school staff, law enforcement officers, and city, county and state employees. MFPE President Amanda Curtis said the group's message was to respect public employees and fund public schools and public service — 'public good.' 'In these crazy, divided times, it is important to show up in the right spirit,' Curtis said in prepared remarks. 'Today, I'd like us to show up in a spirit of gratitude. Every single person in this building, whether they vote the right way or not, is in service to their community and our state.' HB 320 was among the bills the union had opposed for sending public resources to 'voucher schemes.' David Reese, an academic advisor in Montana State University's Department of Education, said state universities graduate enough students to fill open teaching positions, but Montana still comes up short because of pay. So teachers go elsewhere. Reese, in prepared remarks provided to the Daily Montanan, said he sees potential in the STARS Act, but also wants it to do more. 'Yes, let's boost starting teacher pay, but let's also improve their career-earnings outlook by supporting the experienced educators who have stuck with the profession through years of attacks and negative, real wage growth,' Reese said.
