Helena, MT - The Billings Gazette is reporting this week that over half of Montana’s school districts received the wrong information about their preliminary budgets from Elsie Arntzen and the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) sending school districts into disarray. 

Preliminary budget discrepancies between school districts and OPI sent administrators into a panic this year – and not surprisingly, Arntzen’s office is taking zero accountability for her office’s administrative failures and is blaming “a new system of data submission”.

While OPI works on correcting their mistake and administrators are letting out a sigh of relief, concerns over the long-term effects of Arntzen’s incompetence while at OPI remain prevalent.

“Once again, we’re seeing Arntzen decimate the Office of Public Instruction and our administrators, educators, and students are suffering the consequences,” said Montana Democratic Party Executive Director Sheila Hogan. “Both Republican candidates running for State Superintendent of Schools worked for Arntzen and would take us down the same road. It’s time for a major change in direction and new leadership.”

This reporting comes just weeks after lawmakers chastised Arntzen for failing to meet her constitutional duties because of delays, inefficiencies, and poor communication from OPI.

“Now more than ever we have to put our kids first,” said Democratic candidate for State Superintendent of Schools Shannon O’Brien. “It is time to rebuild the Office of Public Instruction and start supporting our educators. This mismanagement has gone on long enough and our kids are paying the price.”