Let schools know how you feel

How do you plug a budget hole that is estimated to be at least a half-million dollars?

Kalispell Public Schools is asking everyone to weigh in on possible ways to address the school district’s financial pinch.

A questionnaire (available online or at Kalispell schools) includes a host of cost-saving or revenue-raising options that could alleviate the deficit the district faces in 2011-12. The actual shortfall won’t be known until the state Legislature decides how much money schools will receive, but school officials estimate the deficit will be at least $500,000.

There are plenty of money-saving suggestions to consider on the survey ranging from staff reductions to closing schools to trimming activities.

What’s notably absent from the survey is any consideration of pay freezes or pay cuts.

This is a curious oversight, since salaries and benefits for school employees make up 90 percent of the elementary school budget and 84 percent of the high school budget.

During this recession, many local businesses have not only had to reduce their staffs but also slash pay and/or working hours for many employees. Why isn’t that an option the schools want the public to consider?

To take the survey online, go to http://sd5.k12.mt.us. People need to make their views known by Sunday.

GOV. BRIAN Schweitzer made it abundantly clear this week that when it comes to wolves, the Endangered Species Act has lost the patience, support and consent of the state.

The ESA is a law that should have some degree of “buy-in” from the people who shoulder the greatest burdens to protect a listed species, and for more than a decade, the state of Montana has been on-board with the effort to recover and delist wolves. But delisting has been derailed by court decisions twice, and Schweitzer and most political leaders in Western states have decided that enough is enough.

Schweitzer informed the secretary of interior this week that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens will not investigate or prosecute ranchers who kill wolves that are threatening livestock, and that FWP personnel will kill entire packs that kill livestock, regardless of where it happens in the state.

He also intends to cull wolves in the Bitterroot Valley where elk populations have been adversely impacted by the predators.

These are bold moves, similar to steps taken by Idaho’s governor. Congress, meanwhile, is considering a variety of measures that would remove wolves from protection under the  ESA, and they appear to have broad bipartisan support.

This is what happens when there is no buy-in, and laws simply don’t reflect the broad will of the people, particularly when they have made a good-faith effort to comply with the law. The environmental conflict industry that has fueled litigation to prevent wolf delisting should have seen it coming.