BILLINGS — Republican leaders in Montana are proposing legislation to strip education credits from teacher conferences they claim promote “extreme leftist ideology,” but the state’s largest union is pushing back against what they call misrepresentation of professional development programs.
Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, announced the proposed bill alongside Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Susie Hedalen, who is also a Republican. The bill targets the long-standing practice of teachers attending educator conferences.
Watch Senate President and MFPE President talk about the teacher conference:
“They have PIR days and do training and there was a lot of fully charged political agenda that was being taught at that,” Regier said Tuesday.
The Republican leader cited concerns about LGBTQ content at the conference, referencing a 2024 presentation titled “LGBTQ – State of the State” that focused on gender identity.
“There was six LGBT modules with gender unicorn, which includes discussion of physical sexual attraction. I mean, this is going to grade schoolers, DEI and art, a panel with new children describing the censorship as a dangerous place,” Regier said.
He said that there are audio recordings of the conference that were made public on social media.
“There's audio recordings of once again, very liberal policies that are being pushed, and sexualized pictures and gender, DEI, all of that was still being pushed on our public teachers once again,” Regier said.
The Montana Federation of Public Employees, the state’s largest union of public employees, disputes these characterizations.
“The Educator Conference is being completely misrepresented,” MFPE President Amanda Curtis, a former teacher, said.
Curtis said that the conferences are designed in collaboration with the Office of Public Instruction and approved by Hedalen's office. She emphasized that curriculum groups decide which courses to offer, and teachers invest significant time and energy in preparing sessions.
“The curriculum groups decide which courses they're going to offer, and the teachers put a lot of time and thought and energy into preparing these sessions,” Curtis said.
Curtis said there was 320 sessions that took place at the conference.
“They're presenting lessons and presentations to help teachers help kids learn the best that they can,” Curtis said.
