Bipartisan talk

Bipartisanship is just plain talk in the Schweitzer Administration and at the Capitol thus far this winter. The governor couldn't care less what Republicans think. If he did, he would have taken an interest in SB152, the bill put forth by Senator Don Ryan and the Democrats defining a basic system of quality education.

When asked at a recent meeting with legislative leaders of both parties what he thought of the bill, the governor said he was unfamiliar and didn't have an education advisor for legislators to speak with about the bill.

If you read the bill, you will see that it doesn't define a basic education, rather it is an open-ended checkbook to the education lobby that will ultimately cost the taxpayers of Montana hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Interesting that the governor criticized lobbyists in his State of the State address, for "prowling the halls of the Capitol," then he and his party embraced one of the Capitol's largest lobbies-the education establishment-in ramming SB152 through the Senate in a marathon session late last week. He ignored the interests of the students, parents and taxpayers. We Republicans are representing those interests.

Republicans tried pointing out some of the pitfalls in SB152 during the senate debate, but were constantly rebuffed by the majority democrats. At the end of the debate the Democrats' leader said they had one thing in mind, pass the education lobby's bill at any cost by the l5th day of the session so they could claim that it's not just a new day in Montana, but in the senate as well.

Interesting that in a Jan. 21 editorial, the Billings Gazette noted that in his State of the State address, the governor called on the Legislature to solve the K-12 quality/funding problems this winter, but "offered no specific guidance for how lawmakers could accomplish that huge task."

Perhaps the most important piece of legislation to be considered this winter other than the state budget, SB152 received little, if any, input from the people who will ultimately foot the bill, and no direction from the governor.

This bill isn't about our children/students. And, this bill doesn't define a basic system of quality education. It defines a Pandora's box of goodies, including salaries and benefits, for the education establishment. Under this bill, any requirements of local and federal law become part of our statewide basic system. That puts local control in serious jeopardy across the state.

On the first day of the session I suggested to my colleagues that we cooperate this winter and do the peoples' work. I also said the word bipartisanship had been overly used during the last gubernatorial campaign and had lost most, if not all, of its meaning and that we would be better off trying to simply work together and scrap the bipartisanship rhetoric.

The actions recently in the Montana Senate and the governor's lack of interest in what Republicans have to say is further evidence that bipartisanship is just that, a word, and little else. Nevertheless, I am still hopeful that we can work together in Helena.