GOP must explain vote against added funding for School for Deaf and Blind

On Thursday, March 19, Republican House members in the Montana Legislature failed to muster enough votes for a funding request of $62,000 for the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls. 

The funding is intended to raise the teachers’ pay at the institution above the current level, which is only 72 percent parity of Great Falls public schools. The sum requested isn’t much, but teaching the handicapped, including more than 500 outreach students, is very important. 

Conservatism minus the compassion word may result in callous and even negligent results. Next time you run into your House member from Kalispell, ask him why he failed to support such an essential service as one of many amendments to HB2. —Dave Fern, Whitefish