What a fool believes

Cartoon by John Moore.

As we come to the end of Elsie Arntzen’s tenure as Montana’s education leader — and I mean no disrespect that hasn’t already been done to that title — we are seeing the predictable conclusion of an 8-year train wreck.

A mediocre teacher and an even less spectacular lawmaker, Arntzen parlayed her anti-government schtick into a long-term government job, and now, even though she’s cycled through a revolving door of positions, she has her red-framed sights set on Congress.

If Montanans continue to support her political career, which has been defined by bad policy accompanied by an abundance of incomprehensible gibberish, it won’t be that they haven’t been warned. Consider this another of many warning signs.

Last week, Republican lawmakers (yes, members of her own party) repeatedly requested that she do the bare minimum of her constitutional duties and appear before them, like many other members of the executive branch. Lawmakers wanted her to answer for the Office of Public Instruction’s progress on bills they had passed. In other words, the lawmakers were doing their job: They wanted to see that the laws they passed were being implemented, because they were concerned about Arntzen’s progress.

Despite repeated requests to appear, Arntzen refused, but instead sent a poor attorney with the department to do her dirty work of antagonizing the people who were elected to provide a check on her.

Let’s pause there for a moment: She is a public servant, paid for by the taxpayers of the Treasure State, and she ordered a staff member, also at the public’s expense, to what she apparently couldn’t be bothered with. I guess the only positive is that Arntzen didn’t have to drive to meet the lawmakers, and therefore, the roads of Helena remained safer momentarily, and school bus drivers everywhere could breathe easier.

No wonder lawmakers issued a letter — a very public rebuke — saying she’s failed her constitutional duties.

Arntzen’s behavior is probably more predictable: She’s coming to the end of her term, and lawmakers want to see her homework, to put it into terms even she’d understand. With no dog in sight to blame for eating it, she’s left with nothing to show but a series of incomplete policies and questionable decisions. It’s a safe bet to believe this is nothing more than a stalling attempt to “play out the clock,” and the unfinished business, along with the huge staff turnover at OPI, will be the next person’s problem.

Lucky them.

But lawmakers have plenty of specific questions about things like charter schools and Indian Education For All. What Arntzen has done is provide nothing but a word salad of bombast that attempts to paper over what are genuine questions of performance. In a screed put out on Monday to assuage the growing public concern about her lackluster performance, Arntzen wrote:

“These schoolyard bullies are attacking me because I’m a constitutional conservative who has stood for good governance, protected girls’ sports and fought against the ‘woke’ agenda currently infiltrating our schools.”

The irony isn’t lost on those of us who follow the OPI that she’d use the word “woke,” when most of the time it appears that her administration of the office can best be described as “asleep.”

Arntzen is spending more time fighting lawmakers’ accusations and trying to explain her own erratic behavior than it would have taken to simply appear before them, answer their questions or even take her lumps.

Arntzen is correct that lawmakers pass a lot of legislation regarding public education — it is, after all, one of the Montana Legislature’s two constitutionally mandated duties. Some of those laws can be ambiguous or even contradictory, but even if we accept that those things are true, it still raises the question: Why didn’t she appear and answer those lawmakers’ inquiries?

But her tenure as Montana’s public education chief has been marked by frequent excuses of works in progress. The office is in a constant state of “working on it.” But lawmakers want to see what she’s accomplished, and fittingly, the best she can come up with is a mixture invective centering on schoolyard bullies and woke agendas.

The Arntzen years for Montana’s education system have been met with incredibly high turnover at the office, a war against “woke,” an advocacy for charter schools that would erode the already-strapped public education system, and dumbing down of teacher standards.

Given the long track record Montanans have had with Arntzen’s public service, including an OPI logo in which she’s awarded herself an A+, the public might just shrug its collective shoulders and look forward to the inevitable change the 2024 Election will bring.

But Arntzen has bigger dreams. Congressional dreams.

She is but one of many candidates vying to replace U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale in Montana’s eastern Congressional seat. And she is putting on a masterclass for voters who are considering her candidacy. When asked to speak to lawmakers about her work, she refused. Now she believes that kind of performance is worthy of a promotion.

Lawmakers have issued a letter that has said she is failing in her constitutionally mandated duties. It’s unlikely the action will go beyond that, because there’s not much time and Arntzen is a lame duck.

There’s that old saying that goes: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Well, Arntzen’s asking to fool us for a third time.

And that would just make everyone – Elsie and the voters – fools.

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