Letters to the editor June 14

Every student deserves an opportunity

After 29 years teaching in Montana public schools, I know exactly what it looks like when a struggling student is rendered invisible by a one-size-fits-all model that often fails to recognize kids’ technical aptitude.

That’s why I am designing Great Adventure Academy, a diploma-based community choice charter school to empower juniors and seniors through project-based learning and paid internships in trades like construction and agriculture. With the addition of our trades teacher endorsement program, high school students can enter our career track to become a state-endorsed teacher — all while earning pay — without the debt of a four-year degree.

This means a student who used to feel invisible in a traditional classroom thrives as they lead a framing crew on a construction site, earn a paycheck and realize their own attributes and how to harness them.

Yet, while 47 states have access to charter schools to unlock student potential, Montana remains one that does not. Our community choice charter school law was approved three years ago, but remains hung up in litigation, putting our youth at a national disadvantage.

Not every student is college-bound, but every student deserves the opportunity to be successful. It is time to end the legal gridlock. 

Let’s give all our children the right to find their niche and thrive right here in Montana. 

— Mark Casazza, Eureka

Gianforte-Daines cabal

Primary season is over. Political parties selected their candidates — or did they? Much chicanery occurred leading up to the primaries, most notably the skulduggery and humbuggery of Montana Republican elites.  

The last-minute withdrawals of incumbents Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke immediately followed by prepared-in-advance campaign launches of their chosen successors, resembled actions taken by an authoritarian regime rather than a representative republic.

The Gov. Greg Gianforte-Daines cabal controls Montana Republican politics with an iron fist. Along with their elitist Republican accomplices, they believe they are the kingmakers for politicians who will carry on their agenda for the Treasure State.  

The most recent slate of so-called moderate, RINO, Solutions Caucus Republican candidates who won primary races from local precincts to the highest levels of state government should concern all true conservative Republicans.  

These are big-government Republicans who will tax and spend Montanan’s hard-earned money no differently than leftist progressive Democrats. Watch out — more property tax increases are on the way. Possibly a constitutional amendment to allow more taxation than currently allowed by the Montana Constitution.

To identify the Gianforte-Daines cabal preferred candidate list, look at campaign finance reports. Those to whom they contribute will do the cabal’s bidding in the Montana Legislature and the federal level. Further, an investigation into political action committees’ contributors combined with the candidates they support shows tens of millions of dollars from out of state is spent to influence our local elections. Are these out-of-state donors part of the Gianforte-Daines cabal?

Beware, D.C. insiders, Montana’s political elite and wealthy donors are stealthily executing a plan that is not necessarily in the best interest of Montanans.

Backroom deals, smoke-filled rooms, power, money and control. It’s time for Montanans to follow the money. It is there where the truth will be exposed.

Elitists, remember, elephants have long memories.

— Janet Walters, Bigfork

Oil companies don’t care

As former residents of the Arctic my wife and I were delighted to see the story on June 7 concerning Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In fact, biologists who manage the refuge say the immense porcupine caribou herd that roams this icy landscape represents “the world’s last self-regulating natural ecosystem.”

Initially my wife and I were exposed to the area as teachers, working with a group of Native American children in Alaska known as the Gwich’in. Our first assignment was in Arctic Village, contiguous with the Arctic Refuge, which houses the porcupine caribou herd — largest in all of North America. The tribe hunts the caribou and their presence provides needed sustenance.

The story mentioned the refuge and also explained that various oil companies want to purchase huge expanses of the refuge for oil exploration. What the story does not mention is that the sprawl of oil companies will so substantially reduce caribou numbers that their absence will precipitate hunger among Gwich’in inhabitants.

Melodrama? No, it has actually happened in years past — and could certainly happen again. But the oil companies just don’t give a damn.

— Bert Gildart, Bigfork