BILLINGS — A bipartisan group including former Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester made its pitch Saturday for a ballot initiative to ban corporate spending in Montana elections. 

The proponents also included Jeff Mangan, a former Democrat-appointed commissioner of political practices; former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot; and former independent candidate for Congress Gary Buchanan. They spoke to a crowd of about 800 in the Lincoln Center downtown. Mangan said all traveled “on their own dime” to speak at the event. 

Organizers of the effort, dubbed The Montana Plan, said there is plenty of appetite for a ban, but getting it on the November ballot would take significant groundwork in a short timeframe. The event was hosted by the group Yellowstone Indivisible.

Efforts to put the ban before voters have faced some initial hurdles. In January, the Montana Supreme Court agreed with Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s findings that the proposed constitutional initiative affected multiple parts of the state Constitution and therefore couldn’t be condensed into a single voting measure. 

Plan architect Mangan quickly filed new language, which is now under review by the Legislative Services Division. The Attorney General’s office and the governor’s budget director must also complete reviews.

The timing of those reviews will determine just how much of a crunch organizers face in getting the measure on the ballot. Mangan said in an interview before the public forum that petitioners would have at most 12 weeks — but possibly as little as two weeks — to gather enough signatures to qualify it for the November general election ballot. The constitutional initiative would need approximately 60,000 signatures, with representation from at least 40 legislative districts, in order to qualify.

Mangan said the idea wasn’t to try out a new system for election spending in Montana but to restore the old one, which banned corporate cash and was in place until a U.S. Supreme Court ruling nullified it in 2010.

“We forgot,” Mangan said. “People think it must have been years and years and years— decades. No. It’s only been since 2010 that this has happened. We can get back to the system in Montana that we were proud of and that we had before.” 

The group repeatedly lamented how political spending has changed the dynamics between candidates and voters. 

“You might ask yourself, ‘Well why does money in politics keep people from having town hall meetings or meetings eyeball to eyeball?” Tester said. “‘They still need to do that.’ Well, they really don’t. And the reason is — is if you’ve got enough money, you can buy your advertisements, you can buy the interviews, you can buy what’s going to be said in a town hall meeting. And then as the candidate or person, you control the message entirely and you don’t have to field difficult questions because you don’t know what’s coming. By the way — which is part of what democracy’s about.”

Tester lost his Senate seat in 2024 to Republican Tim Sheehy in the most expensive race in state history, with more than $300 million spent, Montana Free Press previously reported. He served three terms. 

The Montana Plan would prohibit any incorporated entity operating in Montana from spending money to influence local, state or federal elections. It would apply to any group with a charter, including nonprofits, unions and for-profit companies, filed in the state. 

Originally proposed as a constitutional ballot initiative, plan organizers have since submitted a statutory ballot initiative as a backup. A statutory initiative would change only state laws and not the Constitution. It has a lower threshold to qualify for the ballot.

Supporters present The Montana Plan as a clever workaround to Citizens United, the watershed U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2010 that allowed for unlimited corporate spending in elections. While the court ruled that the government can’t block a corporation from exercising its right to free speech through political spending, the Montana Plan leaps backward to clarify that those rights don’t exist. 

Buchanan, who owns the investment advisory firm Buchanan Capital in Billings, acknowledged that larger corporations will fight the proposal. But he predicted much of the business community would support it, saying they “don’t like being asked for money all the time.” 

“If you’re a business … around campaign time, you get accosted by folks asking for money,” Buchanan said.  

Mangan cited the cryptocurrency, energy, technology and finance industries as examples of big political spenders that needed to be reined in. 

He said he expects opponents to argue the measure would hurt small businesses. 

“And quite honestly, ladies and gentlemen, that’s poppycock,” Mangan said, noting Montanans, spurred by the corrupting influence of the Copper Kings, banned corporate spending in elections in 1912. Citizens United nullified that ban in 2010. 

“You know what didn’t happen for those hundred years?” Mangan said. “Those corporations didn’t leave the state of Montana … They’re still here. So we already have a track record, even though they’ll be telling you something else.”

The Montana Plan has attracted national attention. New York lawmakers have introduced legislation modeled after it. Mangan said he has fielded calls from California, Colorado and other interested states. 

Racicot commended Mangan for his work developing The Montana Plan, calling it a “brilliant idea.”

“Frankly, if we get this done, it’s going to spill over and be an example for every other state in the nation,” Racicot said.

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In Billings, the closest thing the city has to public preschool is showing early signs of progress. 

KinderREADy, a free preschool offered by Billings Public Schools to qualifying students, is in its second year. This year, the district added a teacher, enrolled two dozen more students and started a waiting list. 

Veronica Hernandez’s daughter completed KinderREADy in the spring, after first trying an online program for preschool-age children. Hernandez said the switch to in-person schooling was “huge.”

“Her personality opened up. She was talking more. She was more curious about books. She wanted to read,” Hernandez said. “She wanted to tell me about all of the letters she was learning, and every day, it was just something new.” 

Hernandez is a paraprofessional in the school district. She works one-on-one with elementary students who need extra help outside of regular classes. She said many kids aren’t fully prepared when they enter kindergarten. 

But after completing KinderREADy, her daughter made the transition easily. 

“The benefits of the program are massive,” she said.

Billings started the KinderREADy program in 2024, after the Montana Legislature authorized and funded the literacy programs in 2023. The district now serves roughly 150 students at four elementary schools: Orchard, Bench, McKinley and Miles. 

Sessions last two hours and forty-five minutes and are offered Monday through Friday in either the morning or the afternoon. All are taught by certified teachers. 

Mallory Hexum, a former kindergarten teacher for Billings Public Schools, now teaches the KinderREADy program at Orchard Elementary. 

Hexum said that most preschools teach important skills, such as cooperation, communication and managing emotions. The advantage of KinderREADy, she said, is that kids also learn to be part of a school community in a big building with older students. 

“So they’re used to walking in line. They’re used to coming in the school by themselves, sitting at the carpet, going to specialists, going to the cafeteria. They practice all of those skills before they even get to kindergarten,” Hexum said. 

KinderREADy is not what many think of as “public preschool,” also called universal pre-K, since it is not open to all students. It and other pre-K classroom programs across Montana are designed to help students who are at risk for not reading proficiently by third grade. Districts select their own screening tests, and students must score sufficiently low on them to be admitted. 

However, of the 211 children screened in Billings this year, just five did not qualify for KinderREADy, according to data provided by Billings Public Schools. There is no income criteria for eligibility. 

Lawmakers stated that programs like KinderREADy and other pre-K interventions were needed to help address the problem of falling third-grade reading scores. In 2023, when the legislation was passed, more than half of Montana’s third-graders were reading below grade level, Rob Watson told the House Education committee at the bill’s first hearing. Watson is the executive director of the School Administrators of Montana. 

Watson said that’s significant because third grade is when students pivot from learning how to read to using reading as a learning tool. Problems then can increase the likelihood that students will need remedial help later on or decide to drop out. 

Universal public preschool, popular among progressives, gets pushback from some conservatives who say it is too costly and leaves no room for parental choice.

But the concept is gaining support. In 2014, 54% of Americans supported universal public preschool, while in 2022, the support increased to 71%, according to annual surveys conducted by the journal Education Next. 

In Montana, lawmakers took care to distinguish the newly created Early Literacy Targeted Interventions — the umbrella of programs that encompasses KinderREADy — from universal public preschool.  

The legislation provided school districts with three options for Early Literacy Targeted Interventions. There are classroom-based programs like KinderREADy in Billings, which are funded on a per-pupil basis. There are also home-based computer courses and a Jumpstart summer school option, both available until kids reach third grade. Billings Public Schools offers all three types of programs. 

Pre-K classroom programs across Montana showed promise in their first year. Out of the 2,025 students across the state who participated, 57% learned enough in the program to no longer be eligible for it. 

The home-based programs are experiencing a surge in use: Last year, 129 Montana children were enrolled. This year, 738 are, according to McKenna Gregg, communications director and policy advisor for the Office of Public Instruction. 

Jumpstart programs, too, are expanding. In the program’s first year, 20 districts offered them. The next summer, 35 did, Gregg said. 

Education observers generally agree that schools have gotten more academically rigorous than in decades past, in part due to increased standardized testing. Traci Piltz, administrator of the Billings KinderREADy program, said she has seen the trend during her two decades of working in schools. 

She said KinderREADy helps by giving kids a smooth, year-long transition into kindergarten. The curriculum comes from the same company as the curriculum used in the district’s kindergarten classes, she said. 

In addition to teaching kids the basics they’ll need to succeed in kindergarten, KinderREADy aims to get kids excited about school. 

“What I tell families is that [KinderREADy] gives students a really positive first experience with schools,” said Hexum, the Orchard teacher. “That they like to come to school, they have fun. I focus on having a growth mindset and that we can do hard things, but then we also have time every single day to learn through play.”

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When Leissmar Bracho talks about her first year as a refugee in the United States, she sounds happy. She made friends, graduated from high school and earned a scholarship to Montana State University Billings. After fleeing Venezuela and living for years in limbo in Peru, she finally has a clear path. 

Bracho, 19, said her senior year at the Billings Multilingual Academy helped her bridge the gap between her education back home and her future in the U.S. 

“You can do anything you want, or you can study anything you want,” was the message Bracho took from her year at the new school. “The English wasn’t a barrier for you to … fulfill those dreams or goals that you had in mind,” she said. 

Billings Public Schools opened the charter school in the fall of 2024 for English learners. 

News of the opening sparked an outcry from some who accused the district of “harboring illegals,” among other anti-immigrant rhetoric, according to Billings Public Schools Superintendent Erwin Garcia. 

He stressed that federal law prohibits the district from collecting information about students’ legal status or denying them access to public education.

The school uses a mix of computer coursework and teachers trained to teach in English to nonnative speakers. Students spend part of the day at their “home school” within the district and part at the multilingual academy, located at the Lincoln Center. 

Last year, it served 20 middle school and 20 high school students whose first languages ranged from Mandarin to Swahili to Tagalog. Elementary school students who are learning English remain in their regular classes, since younger children absorb language more easily. 

Not all English learners in the district who are eligible by age attend the new school. Those with the highest linguistic ability can remain in regular schools. The district has served nonnative English speakers for years, primarily through high school language coaches, Garcia said. 

But the population has grown exponentially due to increasing global migration and political crises in places like Bracho’s home country of Venezuela, where violent crime and food and medicine shortages have driven millions out of the country. 

In 2024, Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains opened a refugee resettlement office in Billings, joining Missoula as the only Montana cities approved by the U.S. State Department for refugee resettlement. 

To give students the educational support they need, federal law requires schools to identify and test English learners.

During the 2015-2016 school year, Billings Public Schools had 25 English-learning students, according to the district’s application for approval of the new school to the Montana Board of Public Education. 

By the fall of 2023, the district had 348. 

Citing this growing group of students in need, Billings Public Schools submitted plans for the academy to the state education board in 2023, after the Montana Legislature authorized public charter schools. 

The creation of the Billings Multilingual Academy was among several major changes made after the newly hired Garcia took the job in 2023. He also oversaw the controversial closure of an elementary school and the opening of two new charter schools in its place. 

Garcia said teachers at the multilingual academy aim to help students understand American culture and navigate the local school system so they can participate in community life. Garcia said he understands some of the students’ challenges. Growing up in Colombia, he came to the U.S. at age 23. 

“What happens when a child doesn’t speak the language, especially when their level of proficiency is so low, beginning and intermediate levels, is that they come to a period called the ‘silent period,’” Garcia said. “[…And] the student shies away from interacting with others because of shame, the feeling of being different, not being able to access content. Now it starts making a significant impact on the student’s self-esteem, self-efficacy. And it’s pretty damaging.”

Students who are old enough can get a job cleaning or stocking items at a grocery store and feel effective and capable even without fluent English, Garcia said. Work becomes a more attractive option than school, he said, and many drop out.

Garcia said he’s received pushback from community members concerned that public resources are being used to help people who are in the U.S. illegally. Garcia said he continues to defend the opening of the new school.

“But again, I am unapologetic,” he said. “Because these are our students.” 

After the school’s first year of operation, officials have made some tweaks they hope will improve the program, including having students spend more time in their “home schools,” or designated regular schools within the district. The district also hired a math teacher after struggling to find one last year. 

The school is funded in part by the per-pupil allotment the state provides to school districts. The district must come up with the rest from elsewhere in its budget, because the Billings Multilingual Academy doesn’t have enough students to meet the state threshold for additional funding. The new school shares some staff and resources with the two other charter schools opened last year— one for credit recovery and the other for college coursework.

Garcia lauded the work of the teachers at the Billings Multilingual Academy in managing classrooms with a broad range of English proficiency and cultural norms. 

He said the district will assess the school’s success using measures such as graduation rates and improvement in English language test scores. 

The school saw a 50% graduation rate in its first year, although Garcia cautioned that the statistic can be misleading. Out of four seniors, two graduated and the other two phased into the district’s adult education classes to work toward high school equivalency diplomas. 

Results from the first year of English testing are not yet available because the test is given in the winter. 

Nancy Van Maren, a board member for the multilingual academy, commended the teachers and staff for taking on the logistics of running a school for English learners. 

“I think it’s an incredibly complicated endeavor, because of language, because of where they’re at learning-wise, education-wise, different school systems, the transferability of records, and all the social things involved in teaching kids for whom English is not their native language, and who can talk to each other and you won’t necessarily understand it as the teacher,” Van Maren said. “It poses a number of challenges.” 

Van Maren said the organization and staffing needed to transport kids between their home schools and the multilingual academy was another example of the unique challenges the school faces. 

Van Maren is the executive director of Nations to Neighbors Montana, which offers after-school and summer programs for refugees and other children, among other services. Through that work, she met Bracho, one of the two students to graduate from Billings Multilingual Academy in the spring.

Bracho started classes at Montana State University Billings earlier this month. She plans to study business and marketing after taking a vocational assessment at the multilingual academy that helped identify her career interests. 

Bracho and her family arrived in Billings in the summer of 2024 after spending four years in Peru negotiating layers of vetting and background checks by the U.S. State Department. 

Life in Venezuela, their home country, had become increasingly difficult due to inflation and crime, but the family said it wasn’t until someone tried to kidnap Bracho and extort her parents that the family fled.

News that they were granted refugee status in the U.S. brought a wave of relief. 

Since then, the family has settled into life in Billings. Her parents, both civil engineers, work at Sam’s Club and take English classes through Billings Public Schools. Bracho’s younger sister attends Billings Multilingual Academy and West High. 

Bracho’s uncle has lived in Miami for two years but doesn’t speak much English and hasn’t received the type of help that Bracho’s family has, they said. 

Bracho’s father, Albrick, is grateful for all of the support, stressing the need to understand American history and culture to be part of the community. 

“We are here for the rest of the life, yes?” he said. 

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For the first time this year, anyone cruising around the state on an electric scooter will be doing so with the blessing of the Montana Legislature. 

Guidelines for the devices and other seatless rides, such as electric unicycles and skateboards, were written into law this spring with the passage of HB 588. The changes take effect Oct. 1. 

Rep. Neil Duram, R-Eureka, carried the bill after seeing a boy around town riding his “one-wheeled wonder,” which Duram described as a motorized unicycle equipped with a headlight and taillight. (Electric unicycles have only a wheel and foot platforms — no seat or post. Riders lean forward and backward to control the speed.) 

Despite following traffic laws, the boy was riding illegally, Duram said, since seatless devices like his hadn’t been authorized on public roadways. 

“I suspect your community has a kid just about like him,” Duram said. “This really is his transportation.”

Duram said the same applies to many people who have lost their driving privileges due to drunken driving. As the Eureka police chief and a former Montana Highway Patrol trooper, he’s seen it first-hand. 

Larry Flynn, deputy director at the Montana Department of Transportation, said that while HB 588 “brings us current” with the range of products available today, the technology is always evolving. 

“Even by next [legislative] session, you never know what might emerge that will need to be addressed separately,” Flynn said. 

No special license is required to ride an electric scooter or other seatless device. For mopeds and motorcycles, riders must obtain a motorcycle endorsement on their driver’s license. 

Under the new law, riders of motorized scooters or similar devices must obey all traffic laws and have white headlights and red taillights affixed to either the device or to the rider’s body or helmet. Riders younger than 18 years must wear a helmet. 

Motorized devices are not allowed on sidewalks unless the motor is off and they are being pedaled or pushed along. Riders must yield to pedestrians. Cities may enact their own sidewalk bans. 

The new law states that the power source for motorized seatless devices “may not be capable of propelling the device at a speed exceeding 30 miles an hour on a level surface.” 

Some products available today are faster than that, but it’s not clear how law enforcement will treat those devices. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment. 

Bozeman and Great Falls have both hosted scooter rental programs in recent years. 

Matt Danzer, a 15-year officer with the Bozeman Police Department, thinks scooters are generally a good alternative to drunken driving: A rider might hurt themselves or a pedestrian, “but nothing like the damage they could do in a car.” 

But there were downsides, Danzer said. Most people renting scooters didn’t bring helmets, so they rode without one. He also saw one of the devices thrown off a parking garage and another into a dumpster. 

“I think it’s a lot like riding a bicycle, you know,” Danzer said. “We have people who are going to ride responsibly and people who aren’t.” 

Ryan Landolfi, a cyclist in Missoula, is more skeptical. He watches riders of motorized devices dart back and forth between the bike lane and regular traffic. His friend, a firefighter, responded to a wreck in which the rider hit a pothole and broke an ankle. Electric unicycles, in particular, worry him.

“They’re going, like, 30 miles an hour,” Landolfi said. “Those look terrifying. I see them zipping down Russell [Street] every day. … It seems kind of crazy that those things are street-legal.”

Flynn, of the transportation department, said that predictable driving is key to safety when scooters and unicyclists mix with regular traffic. 

“I think where we have incidents is where people suddenly dart out into traffic or don’t follow the law or behave erratically,” he said. 

Flynn said if drivers remain alert, lawful and predictable, the state’s roadways will stay safe. 

“We want to stress that all vehicle drivers, whether it’s a car or e-bike or whatever it is … everyone has the responsibility to share the roadway,” Flynn said. 

In addition to safety concerns for the newly authorized rides, some see a problem with the feasibility of owning such devices. 

Dax Sursely, who owns Billings Powersports, said electric scooters are a “nightmare” to maintain, in part because there are so many different brands with different parts and designs. He doesn’t sell them in his shop, but he repairs them.  

“People are coming from other towns because nobody will work on them,” he said. 

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