Accolades are piling up for Baker High School teacher Linda Rost. 
   Rost, a decorated science teacher, was named Montana teacher of the year in September. Now she's a finalist for the national title. 
   The Council of Chief State School Officers, which oversees the most widely recognized National Teacher of the Year award, named Rost as one of four finalists Thursday. 
   The group cited her passion for rural education, advanced science projects for students, and continuing training for teachers — all of which featured a hands-on approach. 
"I think that students don't really understand what science is until they do science," Rost said. 
   She emphasized that a rural setting like Baker shouldn't hold students back from taking on ambitious projects or pursuing specialized studies. 
   "I don't want to be that teacher that's like 'oh, they're doing really cool things but we can't do that here because of this and this and this,'" she said. "A lot of what we do, we have to be resourceful and creative."
   Rost pointed to a microbiology project a student is working on that requires storage for cells at -80 degrees Celsius. A lab-style freezer would have cost tens of thousands of dollars, but a cold-storage tank for bull semen did the trick. 
   "I think that actually improves the program and improves the experience," she said. "(Students) have to be the experts."
   Projects like that are included in The Bringing Research into the Classroom project, linking students in Baker with Montana Tech researchers, which Rost spearheads for the school. 
She's also waded into education policy; she was part of a statewide committee that rewrote science teaching standards that were approved in 2016, and created a group in Baker to focus on K-12 collaboration in science, math and Indian Education For All. 
   More than 20 of her students have competed at national or international science competitions, including a first-placer at the 2012 National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, according to a press release about the finalists.
Rost worked in scientific labs researching soil, fire ecology, and invasive species before becoming a teacher. But she found the work isolating, and after moving to Montana, pursued a teaching job in Ekalaka. 
   At first, her qualification didn't fit, but she was hired on an emergency license — something that an increasing number of schools are turning to that's viewed as a band-aid solution. Rost earned her teaching certification through Northern Plains' transition to teaching program and is now pursuing a doctorate from Texas Tech.
She said that she hopes to use recognition as a national finalist to draw attention to rural teaching shortages and potential solutions, particularly grow-your-own programs that train people with roots in rural communities. 
"Those are the ones who are going to stay there," Rost said. "We need to recognize that this is really effective. ... They need to be funded and prioritized."
Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen applauded Rost in a press release. 
“Montana is blessed to have some of the highest quality educators in the nation, and Mrs. Rost is proof of that,” Arntzen said in the release. 
   Montana's most recent finalist for National Teacher of the Year was Bozeman High School's Paul Andersen in 2011. Richard Nelson from Kalispell earned the honor in 1956 and remains the only Montana teacher to win the national award, according to the Office of Public Instruction.  
   The 2020 award winner is expected to be named this spring.

https://wapo.st/36eHKJp 
Do you want your tax dollars to fund religious education? You shouldn’t.
By Rachel Laser
The Washington Post
Jan. 21, 2020

Rachel Laser is president and chief executive of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Imagine a country where your hard-earned tax dollars must fund private religious schools that require students to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or that expel students for being gay. Imagine that your state is forced to spend resources to help fund construction of a local house of worship of a faith you do not share, just because the state is also contributing to building a community center.

These scenarios are antithetical to the principles of religious freedom on which our nation was founded. And yet, this is the path we may be headed down as the U.S. Supreme Court gears up to hear oral arguments Wednesday in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.

The case arises out of a challenge to a Montana private-school voucher program. Because the Montana Constitution — like three-quarters of the states’ constitutions — specifically prohibits state dollars from funding religious education, the state limited its voucher program to secular schools. But some parents argued that if Montana funds private education at all, it must fund religious education. The Montana Supreme Court struck down the entire voucher program, resulting in all private schools being treated the same way: None of them get taxpayer dollars.

Now, however, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Montana’s earlier decision to fund some secular schools means that it must also fund religious schools — schools that teach religion, compel students to engage in religious activities and enforce religious codes of conduct. This case is not about what a state may do, but about what it must do. To hold that the U.S. Constitution requires taxpayers to fund religious education in this fashion would upset long-standing principles of religious freedom and separation of religion and government.

No taxpayer should be forced to fund religious education. This bedrock principle alone should convince you — and the court — to leave Montana’s constitution undisturbed. But if that’s not enough, consider the fact that a ruling in favor of the voucher program would also compel taxpayers to fund discrimination, religious and otherwise.

Private religious schools don’t adhere to the same nondiscrimination laws that public schools do. As a result, we have seen them turn students away because their families don’t share the school’s religious beliefs. They have barred admission because a student or parent is LGBTQ or a student has a disability. They have expelled students who engage in sex outside marriage. And some have fired teachers for being pregnant and unmarried, for undergoing in vitro fertilization or for advocating for the right to terminate a pregnancy. While not all private religious schools conduct themselves in this way, too many do, and taxpayers should not have to underwrite such discrimination.

Consider also that whatever the Supreme Court decides in the school-voucher arena may well reverberate in other contexts, opening the door to countless new avenues of taxpayer funding of both religion and discrimination. For example, would the government then be forced to fund Sunday school classes at a house of worship if it is funding a museum’s youth education program? If taxpayer dollars are paying for secular social service programs such as substance-abuse counseling or job-training programs, would they now have to pay for similar programs that require Jewish participants to practice Christianity?

Some claim that not funding private religious education when private secular education is funded amounts to religious discrimination. They have it backward. Prohibiting government funding of religion protects religious freedom. Religious institutions that accept government money open themselves up to government interference, risk internal divisions and jeopardize their ability to be self-supporting in the future. A diverse array of religions have been able to thrive in America because of — not despite — the separation of religion and government.

Those challenging the Montana Constitution are not seeking a level playing field. Instead, they are asking the state to fund their religious schools and continue to extend to them exemptions from laws that apply to public and even secular private schools. That is not equal treatment — it’s religious privilege.

The Montana Learning Center is accepting applications for summer employment.
 
The Montana Learning Center at Canyon Ferry Lake is hiring for staff to support our '2020 Summer Learning Camps for Kids!'

We offer competitive pay, room and board at the MLC during camps, a beautiful place to work and a great staff to work with. Montana teachers who work at camp can also earn up to 80 OPI Renewal Units.
 
Apply here:
https://forms.gle/hr4r6EupXpyh2GaG6
 
For more information on the MLC, see:
http://montanalearning.org/


Census – The following was sent by Eric Feaver:
 
The Montana complete census count campaign is looking for 14,000 applicants to fill 4,500 temporary, part-time, but good paying census enumerator positions. To date fewer than 6,000 folks have applied. 
 
So why not apply?  How can it hurt?  Our state needs your help.  We must count everyone across our state.  No exceptions.
 
Apply here -  2020census.gov/jobs
 
Curious about how much you might be paid?  Go here -https://2020census.gov/en/jobs/pay-and-locations.html?utm_campaign=20191203msc20s1ccrcrrs&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery&state=Montana&county=Yellowstone%20County
 
Spread the word.  If not you, then maybe someone you know.