Montana Education Excellence

A member of Montana’s Rural Education Association board, Tharp is frustrated watching state legislators bicker over funding formulas that favor large schools, adding as little money as possible to satisfy a lawsuit that determined the state was not paying enough for education.

Unlike their rural neighbors, Montana’s reservation schools are seeing their enrollments go up.

"We need to plan for the worst and hope for the best."

While public school enrollment statewide has fallen 12 percent in the last two decades, the rate of decline is at least twice as fast in the rural counties north and east of Great Falls.

“This is, first and foremost, fun for us,” Douglas said. “It’s a blast.”

Nearly every classroom, as well as the library and music room, is equipped with a Smart Board, an interactive whiteboard manufactured by Smart Technologies.

Montana State University Billings and School District 2 finally have a proposal for starting a dual-credit program that will include college courses taught at the high schools.

His work as a lead author of the 2007 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report – which presents strong evidence that humanity is artificially warming our world — recently brought him a share of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC committee and Al Gore.

"Not until I had the opportunity to see for myself what happens in her classroom was I able to see the lifelong impact she makes on her students. She is in a class of her own when it comes to master educators and is well deserving of this award."

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