Montana Education Excellence

“Anyone who is considering their education,” he said, “should understand at the Higher Education Center they are under the auspices and programming of the University of Montana.”

“There are 200 million Muslims in Indonesia who are not promoting violence. We’re seeking a better foothold in spreading the facts about Indonesia.”

"It’s kind of a gift deed to the community," Bird said, "so we’re involving as many community members as possible on the project." Bird said the aim of creating a cultural center for the Tribe is one that has been in the works for several years, but this time he believes it will become a reality since so many community members and organizations are involved.

The number of school districts in Montana that met annual progress on federal education requirements increased slightly in 2007, but the real progress was among individual schools, Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch said.

For the past five years, the University of Montana has had the distinct honor of teaching various small groups of international dignitaries and educators about the American education system.

"When we excavate a dinosaur, we’re trying to preserve a story," Peterson said. "We already have a pretty good idea of what dinosaurs looked like. But the way the bones are in the ground may tell us something about how they lived and died. Currently, we lose a lot of that story in excavation."

"People bring peace. And one of the most important things we can do to bring peace is to educate all children."

The Big Sky Institute is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to creating, applying, and communicating science-based knowledge to promote a deeper understanding of environmental systems, both in their own right and in relationship to the human communities that depend upon them.

“In some ways, the foundation has been the marketing for public schools,” Lewis said. “But we know there is a lot to do on their own.”

Montana now ranks first in the nation for its level of civic engagement.