Quote for the Day…
When one door closes and another door opens, you are probably in prison. – Unknown
Today’s independent commentary deals with these people/issues:
- Saving Elsie
- Veterans’ Claims Backlog
- The Western Word Poll
SAVING ELSIE:
The Montana Free Press (MTFP) is reporting that a letter penned by two school board trustees and signed by 500 citizens praises Superintendent Elsie Arntzen for her stance on parental rights.
The MTFP press is also reporting:
The letter, penned by Missoula County Public Schools Trustee Michael Gehl and Smith Valley District 89 Trustee Jim Riley, commended Arntzen, a Republican, for aiding parents in “resisting superintendent agendas of forced masking and equity policies” and for bringing parental concerns about critical race theory to the attention of Attorney General Austin Knudsen. The letter, first publicized by the website Missoula County Tyranny, was signed by 21 Republican state lawmakers, five local school board trustees, and more than 500 citizens from across Montana. Two in-state parental rights groups — Stand Up Montana and Montana Parents’ Rights in Education — were also listed as signatories.
Arntzen was elected with over 310,000 votes in 2020. It’s not a surprise that she has some supporters who want to help her out.
You can read the complete report from MTFP HERE.
VETERANS’ CLAIMS BACKLOG:
I happened to read the press release from Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Jerry Moran (R-Kan.). They are introducing bipartisan legislation to tackle the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) claims backlog and provide veterans with timelier access to their earned benefits.
There have been claims backlogs for as long as I can remember. I have never applied for VA disability because I don’t want to deal with the bullshit from the “mightier than thou” claims people working in the VA.
While it would be nice if Tester and company would correct this terrible problem; he has been on that committee since Moby Dick was a minnow. I’ve seen nothing accomplished that will change the system.
Meanwhile, veterans suffer from bureaucracy.
You can read the Tester/Moran press release HERE.
THE WESTERN WORD POLL:
This week’s poll question asks, “Have you or will you receive the COVID-19 booster shot?” (Background)
Results will be posted Thursday.
The Western Word 
Educators are a soft target. They’re easy to beat up because they basically can’t fight back. They have to maintain their professionalism and take all the abuse from those who hate public education. But I think a line was crossed when Elsie’s religious militia supposedly jokingly advocated for the killing school superintendents. Decent, law abiding, moral, religious citizens do NOT advocate for the killing educators. Period. How is that even a joke? Where’s the humor in that?
The supers were absolutely right to respond to this threat. School shootings are not theoretical in this country. They happen all the time. And for Elsie to even associate with such haters makes her unfit for her job. It’s not rocket science as to why folks are leaving OPI. It’s a toxic work environment fostered by Elsie. That combined with her obvious incompetence is destroying a heretofore fine organization.
I’m glad the supers wrote their letter. They put the haters on notice that they won’t take any cheap shots in the future. They will do what they were hired to do, fight for high quality public education. And for that I admire them. But all this unrelated garbage is simply a national strategy to win elections. There will be plenty more coming. Elsie needs to be put on the defensive. And I think she now is. Hard to pass off mindless blather as leadership.
Good article. If you can’t trust the Baptists, who can you trust.
https://baptistnews.com/article/whos-behind-the-nationwide-attacks-on-local-school-boards-over-critical-race-theory/#.YboXgC1HYgo
Oh, I forgot to mention that the related articles at the end of this article are really good. Give them a read.
Unsurprising that school administrator complaints about a lack of resources for students, teachers and schools would be met with unrelated extremist rhetoric about something that’s not even taught in Montana K-12, Critical Race Theory. Also unsurprising that rabid anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers would stand foursquare against the concept for equity for all students and people, whether it is being taught in school or not.
The new letter did praise Elsie for “fighting for the rights of the parent to stay involved in their schools and stay involved with their children”. That seems to be working. A recent news story reports that CMR has had to close some facilities and is begging for parents to get more involved by coming to school to police the halls because their well-parented children are running wild and vandalizing the school as part of some TikTok challenge. Nice leadership Elsie. Encourage students to defy authority as a matter of course and apparently they will take that attitude to heart. Not to mention costing taxpayers money and diverting school resources from other areas.
https://www.krtv.com/news/great-falls-news/bathroom-situation-at-cmr-is-frustrating-students-and-parents
Interesting that the two authors of the letter have such confidence in Elsie Arntzen, yet they have pulled their own children out of public education. How can two “trustees” of public schools continue to serve institutions that they have no faith in? They are fools. And, by the way, so is Elsie.