The right-wing Republicans who control Montana’s house of representatives declared war on Montana’s education community by appointing Rick Jore, the Constitution Party state representative elect from Ronan, and one of the least progressive individuals ever elected to public office, to chair the house’s committee on education.
Let us be clear about Rick Jore. Contrary to a half-baked theory advanced by Helena based reporters, Jore will not be a swing vote in the next legislature. Jore is no more likely to caucus with the Democrats than he is to sodomize sheep in the Capitol rotunda at high noon.
Therefore, let us dispense with speculation that Jore was appointed chairman of the house education committee to prevent his defection to the Democrats. He’s as close to a crackpot on education as you’ll find in the legislature, and he was selected to chair the education committee to send Democrats, Governor Schweitzer, educators, and even the public, a simple messsage: “tax cuts, you bet; more spending for education, not even if hell freezes over.”
Mike Lange, the house Republican leader from Billings, confirmed that this is political payback: “I don’t recall the education community supporting the speaker, or myself either. They didn’t win. That’s the bottom line. If they want to control the committee, my recommendation to them is to be better at campaigning than they were. We owe them no explanation whatsoever.”
And just in case anyone wasn’t listening, Bozeman’s Scott Sales, the next speaker of the house, who says “my job is to show no quarter to the Democrats as they try to push their liberal agenda,” and his cronies appointed Jack Wells to chair the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. Jore and Wells usually score zero, or next to it, on the Montana Education Association’s scorecard.
Worse, Jore, an affable home schooler who opposes compulsory school attendance, opposes financial help for Montana’s schools if it originates outside of Montana. On his website, he says:
“I am not of the persuasion that the schools need more money. I believe that emphasis should be placed on accountability rather than more funding. The Federal government has no Constitutional authority to fund or interfere with education and I will oppose all federal funds appropriated for education.”
That claim is not found in the platform of Montana’s Republican Party. But by choosing Jore to chair the education committee, the Republican leadership has tacitly endorsed this beyond the bell curve notion and served notice that it has declared war on Montana’s system of public education.
If this brand of belligerent, in-your-face, mean spirited, toxic partisanship is the Republican approach to governing in Montana, it will be a miracle if the house passes any legislation that is in the public interest. It appears that the Republicans in Montana’s house of representatives learned nothing from the thumpin’ national Republicans received from the voters a month ago
Therefore, it’s time to remind Sales, and every other member of the legislature, that they were sent there by voters to work together to solve the problems that bedevil Montana, not to be a Pavlovian obstructionists or partisan bully boys who subordinate good government to jockeying for partisan advantage for the election of 2008.
If Sales and the Republicans do not stop behaving like political hacks on steroids, and start behaving like responsible legislators who work for the best interests of the people of their districts and the State of Montana — even if that means working with Democrats every now and then — they’ll find themselves in the minority when the legislature convenes in 2009.