Native American students thriving in Missoula County Public Schools - Missoulian article from November 25th, 2012

Click on link below to read a Missoulian article written by Betsy Cohen and published on November 25th, 2012 reporting on Native American students in Missoula schools.

Native American students thriving in Missoula County Public Schools

In most articles reporting on Missoula County Public Schools the Missoulian is not including the cost of the programs and where the funding for each of the programs is coming from.

As a family that has been negatively effected by school closures, this is important to us.  During the school closures, the trustees are always pitting programs against school buildings.

The public needs to know the financial picture of each program before the program is implemented in addition to the ongoing costs. The district ALSO needs to know this.

This information needs to be available on the district website.
I have asked for information on the costs of the International Baccalaureate program. I have been given some of the preliminary costs, however it is time consuming to have to ask every month or so. For this reason I  have also requested that the finances for this program be placed on the district website.  The superintendent stated that this could not be done - so much for the transparency he talked about on a radio program.

I am not saying I am against this program.  Although I am steadfastly against the IB program. What I'm saying is the taxpayers and citizens deserve to know what they are paying for; how OUR money is being spent.

Please, Betsy Cohen, follow up on a report on the costs of this program, from where the funding is coming, in addition to the costs of the IB program and from where that funding is coming.  I and others would like to know.

Later:  Responding to a comment on the Missoulian comment section after the article stating that the Montana constitution requires that schools add Native American studies to their curriculum - yes, it is in the Montana constitution which was re-written in 1972.  It would still be nice to know how much this program is costing the taxpayers. Transparency is key when spending citizen's money.