The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved nearly $1.9 million in additional Public Assistance funding for the COVID-19 response in Montana. The assistance was approved by a major disaster declaration issued March 31, 2020.  FEMA has provided a total of $30.2 million for the Montana COVID-19 response to date.

The $1.9 million was provided to the Billings Clinic for COVID-19 associated costs, contracts, and facilities, which include work completed between March 17, 2020, and December 30, 2020.

This funding is authorized under the January 21, 2021, Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense & the Secretary of Homeland Security and Section 403 of the Robert T. Stafford Act.

For the COVID-19 response, FEMA has simplified the Public Assistance application and funding process to address the magnitude of this event and to allow local officials to receive eligible funding more quickly. These reimbursements play a critical role as state, local and tribal officials work tirelessly to assist their communities during this response.

Montana State University Billings announced that their Military and Veteran’s Success Center, opened in 2018, has hired  Shane Grantham as the interim director of the Center to aid in the continuation of veteran outreach on campus.

Grantham, a Billings-native, entered the U.S. Army after graduating high school and served for 20 years in active duty. Throughout his time in the military, Grantham mentored college-aged soldiers which is where he found his interest in guiding others. Following his retirement, he tried a few different career paths until landing a position for Veterans Upward Bound at MSUB where he regained his interest of mentorship through student interaction.

Delivering on his promise to hold the line on new state spending and provide Montanans with broad-based tax relief, Governor Greg Gianforte today signed into law a fiscally conservative, pro-jobs budget.

“This budget lays out the roadmap to our Montana comeback, and will help unlock our state’s full, outstanding potential,” Gov. Gianforte said. “After more than a decade of out-of-control spending in Helena, we’re committed to being better stewards of taxpayer money, and our responsible budget brings much-needed fiscal restraint to state government.”

First introduced by the governor on January 7, the budget cuts hardworking Montanans’ taxes by over $60 million per year, and cuts $145 million in spending.

The budget also fulfills many policy priorities outlined in the governor’s Montana Comeback Plan, including investing $1 million per year in trades education and $2.5 million per year in incentives to increase starting teacher pay.

Importantly, the budget makes a historic investment in combating the drug epidemic through the HEART Fund. The program invests $25 million per year, using marijuana tax revenues, a portion of the tobacco tax settlement, and a federal Medicaid match, in community substance abuse prevention and treatment programs.

By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

More children are likely to have increased access to educational options after state legislators across the U.S. advanced a slew of bills this year expanding school choice, according to several state-by-state surveys.

“This is a banner year for the educational choice movement. Hundreds of thousands of children nationwide will now have greater access to educational opportunities,” Jason Bedrick, director of policy at Ed Choice, a national nonprofit organization that promotes state-based educational choice programs, told The Center Square.

At least 50 school choice bills have been introduced in 30 states so far, designed to create or expand vouchers, tax-credit scholarships and education savings accounts, among other measures.

To date, 10 states have proposed five new programs and 10 states have expanded existing programs, Bedrick told The Center Square. They include the legislatures of Indiana and Nevada creating Educational Savings Accounts for the first time in their states, as well as Kentucky and Missouri creating tax-credit-funded Education Savings Accounts for the first time in their states.

Kentucky’s bill was the first school choice bill ever proposed in its legislature. And the majority of legislators passed the bill twice – first to make it to the governor’s desk, and second, to override the governor’s veto, creating the state’s first school choice program.

Arkansas’ legislature also created its state’s first tax scholarship program. In April, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed the bill designed to help low-income families.

Arkansas is now the 20th state in the nation to adopt a tax-credit scholarship program.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice also signed into law “the most expansive school choice program in the country, a nearly universal option for education savings accounts,” the Heritage Foundation also reports in its analysis of states’ legislation.

“The events of the last year have demonstrated to many families that public schools are not always the reliable institutions many thought they were,” the Heritage Foundation reports. “It also opened their eyes to just how powerful the teachers unions are,” and as a result, legislatures responded to parents requests by undertaking one of the biggest expansions of school choice in history.”

Critics, particularly teachers unions and their supporters, that school choice programs drain resources from public school systems.

Several states expanded their existing voucher programs this year, including Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and Maryland. Likewise, several states expanded their tax credit scholarship programs, including Florida, Indiana, Montana and South Dakota.

Notably absent on the list is Texas, whose Republican-controlled legislature has failed to advance school choice legislation.

Most of the Texas bills have been held up by the Calendar Committee Chairman, Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, who by not scheduling bills for committee assignments or votes ensures they never see the light of day.

Unlike Texas, “Even in California, hardly a school choice mecca, there is rumbling,” the Clarion Institute reports. “A revolutionary universal education savings account initiative is in the works for the November 2022 ballot. The ESA would give parents control of the money the state spends on educating their child. The funds would be spent on the school of their choice, and any money not spent would accumulate and could be used for college or vocational training.”

In March, a bill was read a second time in the California Assembly, AB 300, and referred to the Committee on Education. It would create a tax-credit funded Education Savings Account under an existing California education program to fund scholarships for private school tuition, online learning programs, tutoring, special needs therapies, transportation, textbooks, testing fees, and computer hardware and software.

And California State Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, proposed “Cal Grant K-12” earlier this year. The privately funded grant program would “help parents who have been forced to pay out-of-pocket expenses to keep up with their children’s remote learning.” According to Kiley’s office, the bill “incentivizes individuals and businesses to make donations that will provide eligible students scholarship funds they can use for approved expenses to help reduce pandemic-induced learning loss.”

A new study from the University of Arkansas suggests that the more a state provides parents with freedom to choose their child’s school, the better the state’s students’ score on the National Assessment of Education Outcomes.

Montana’s unemployment rate declined from 3.8% in March to 3.7% in April. The unemployment rate for the U.S. was 6.1% for the month.

“Montana’s economic recovery depends on getting Montanans back to work into good-paying jobs, allowing our businesses to fill open jobs and meet their growing customer demand,” Gov. Gianforte said. “By ending the pandemic-related federal unemployment bonus that discourages work and by launching a return-to-work bonus, more Montanans will reenter the workforce, and Montana’s economy will continue to rebound.”

Montana’s unemployment rate for April matches the pre-pandemic rate of 3.7% in February 2020. There are, however, 9,428 fewer Montanans in the labor force than there were in February 2020.

Montana’s total employment, which includes payroll, agricultural, and self-employed workers, grew by 1,799 in April. Employment gains were fueled by workers returning to the labor force, which added 1,437 workers in April as vaccines were made available to more Montanans. After March’s strong growth in payroll employment, Montana saw a small decline of 300 payroll jobs in April.

“The specter of inflation is concerning. It’s time for the federal government to turn off the spigot of spending trillions of dollars that drive up our national debt, a shameful burden our kids and grandkids will inherit,” Gov. Gianforte said. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 0.8% over the month in April for total a 12-month increase of 4.2%, the largest 12-month increase since September 2008. Prices of used cars and trucks rose 10% in April and accounted for a third of the increase. Prices mostly increased across the board. The index for all items less food and energy, referred to as core inflation, increased 0.9% in April.