Quality Education

Recently, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the state legislature has not satisfied the state constitution by providing a quality education to all public school students.

The majority party legislative leadership has contended that they have satisfied this definition. Perhaps the problem is how the term quality education is defined.

The Juniors and Seniors, along with the Student Council of Lincoln County High School in Eureka, Montana, discussed what the term of quality education meant to them.

If the state legislature is truly concerned about providing the type of education that our children need and want, the type that the Montana Supreme Court says they need to provide, then what the students of LCHS say matters. Their definition could best be described as a comprehensive and cooperative mosaic.

Quality education includes the following factors: a school facility that is heated, structurally safe, user friendly, and has enough space to accommodate its students and faculty; a faculty that is certified, involved with their students on an individual basis, a faculty that receives competitive wages, has flexibility in their lesson methodology, challenges their students, and has a more individualized curriculum. The teachers that administration hires should be based on what is best for the students.

A quality education means students have updated texts and materials, access to extra-curricular activities, and receive recognition for academic, artistic, athletic and behavioral achievement.

Last of all, students and faculty need to be able to work and learn in a comfortable and violence-free environment with a small student teacher ratio.

The definition of a quality education is clearly more complicated and comprehensive than perhaps the state legislature was willing to admit.

To provide a quality education means that facility, faculty, updated materials, and a positive learning and working environment need to fit together as pieces to a puzzle. Without any one of these factors, and the educational experience of the students becomes something less than quality.

If what the students of Lincoln County High School say is indicative of the majority of Montana students, then the Montana State Legislature should take notice. The students at Eureka High School will definitely be watching.

David R. James

American History Teacher

Lincoln County High School

Eureka, Mont.