mtpolitics.net

Interview With Glenn Ferren, Part I

(As has been the practice, this post will stay on top for three days, so that hopefully everyone will get a chance to read it.)

Glenn Ferren is running for governor as an independent. The grandson of sharecroppers, he grew up in a low income household in Arkansas, graduating from Searcy High School in 1974. He lived in Miles City from 1991-2001, and recently moved to Helena. He has worked in various positions ranging from farm laborer to Unix System administrator. He and his wife, Robin, have four children: Benjamin, 21; Anna, 22; Daniel, 21 and Joshua, 21.

Glenn’s platform is: “Returning Montana government to the people and ethics to government. Government of the people, by the people, for the people…the people come first.” His first project as governor would be: “Returning Montana’s energy resources to Montana’s citizens, reversing “energy deregulation.”

I asked Glenn:

What are some immediate overhauls that you would like to see to higher education in Montana?

Glenn’s reply:

It is my belief that one of the principal responsibilities of both State and Federal government is to ensure an educated citizen. To put it simply, the continued existence of our Democracy depends on education for our citizens.

Montana must reduce the students’ cost for higher education. Energy should be devoted to increasing coop arrangements between students and business in this State, including the state’s biggest employers; local, county, state, and federal government agencies. Employers have to increase salaries for employees and employee/worker programs designed to forgive student debt must be increased.

There is an inequity between the cost of higher education and salaries for workers in Montana, saddled with high loan debt, a social work major for example can only find work at $20K per year. How long does it take to pay off the $20K in student loans to get that degree?, when you are trying to live on $20K per year (and that’s not $20k take home pay either).

One of the biggest employers in Montana, state government, offers wages for technical skills such as oracle programming that cannot retain the skilled worker, he or she will leave those jobs at first opportunity, for employment which will probably pay at least 2X what they get in the Montana paycheck. I’ve seen a Federal government coop student work for (4) years while earning a computer science degree, then be offered $20K per year by that government agency, and ultimately accept the $40K+ starting salary offered by a business outside Montana.

Montana has to train students for the jobs in Montana and we have to hire Montanans for those jobs; we are importing foreign workers to fill nursing positions for example, and we may even be paying foreign contractors to perform state government jobs. We need to find alternatives to paying the costs of state workers living in Arizona and their travel to/from Montana for meetings for example. Montana should be focusing on education programs to provide trained workers needed in the medical fields such as pharmacy and fast-tracking those programs, Montana should be moving to create skilled workers in alternate energy fields.

I would like to see a program in our Montana National Guard as an option for high school graduates; non-combat duty, duty to be performed in Montana and with technical skills and self-defense/fitness training, upon completion of duty with an option to continue in available National Guard or other military full-time positions and/or receive state paid community college classes or a paid vocational technical school program, with a requirement for that debt forgiveness being completion of the college or votech enrollment with a better than average grade or an industry certification. The State program might even be a zero interest student loan, if a paid enrollment equal to service performed is not acceptable to the people of Montana.

There is a lot of money already being spent on education. We have to look at who is getting the money… is it fair for administrators to pull down six figure incomes and get wage increases, while the costs to the student continues to rise? What is a fair salary and what is too much? Are we running our school systems efficiently? Could a more efficient use of K-12 school system funds free up some money for higher education in this state? Are we paying infrastructure costs that can be reduced, neighborhood schools consolidated to reduce the cost to maintain; from, say 3 local neighborhood grade schools to 1? We need to ask tough questions and look at the whole education system in this state.

Do you think that a voucher system would be useful in
“raising the bar” for our schools?

No. I don’t see any way a voucher system can “raise the bar”, it’s just not logical to say, we’re going to give you less money, so now you’ll just have to do a better job. Vouchers are an eliteist attempt at creating a favored class and the “voucher system” is a use of our tax dollars to achieve that purpose. We would benefit more, as a society, if those parents advocating vouchers would spend more time and effort to fix the problems they perceive with the public
school system, rather than bailing out.

I am opposed to a voucher system. Public money should not be spent on private and religious schools. Funding should not be taken from our public school system to support private or religious schools. If a parent wants to send his or her child to a private or religious school, they should be willing to
bear the cost personally.

Also, we should look at Federal mandates, and demand Federal funding for those mandates…”leave no child behind” means that the Federal government should provide the states the funds necessary to achieve that programs goals and requirements. Nationally, a trillion dollars of military expenditures in the past couple of years, is money taken from America’s education funding and affects every state.