Republican Incumbent Elsie Arntzen Wins Second Term as Montana State Superintendent
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Republican incumbent Elsie Arntzen will hold onto her position as Montana superintendent of public instruction, according to the Associated Press and the .
Arntzen won with about 52 percent of the vote. Her opponent, Melissa Romano, earned 44 percent of votes.
The race was a rematch of 2016 when Arntzen beat Romano . After the defeat, Romano returned to the classroom and was in 2018. Romano pledged during the campaign to advocate for public preschool if she won and would work closely with the legislature to improve education in the state.
Arntzen is also a former educator and served in the state legislature for .
Asked in a debate what she had done to help schools adjust to the coronavirus crisis, Arntzen pointed to professional development to prepare educators to teach online. Arntzen Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, for allegedly not consulting her before announcing a mask mandate for schools and allocating $75 million in coronavirus relief to schools. Bullock鈥檚 office has disputed those claims. Bullock, who was term-limited, for the U.S. Senate this week to incumbent Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican.
Arntzen supports school choice and 鈥渉as attended pro-school-choice rallies and voted for school choice policies as a legislator,鈥� the Billings Gazette reported. School choice has been top of mind recently, with a case out of Montana reaching the Supreme Court earlier this year. In that case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, a 5-4 conservative majority found that states could not exclude religious institutions from participating in programs that subsidize private school tuition.
Before Arntzen was elected four years ago, the position was held by Democrats for straight.
Libertarian also ran and earned about 4 percent of the votes.
2020鈥檚 KEY EDUCATION VOTES:聽See our full coverage of聽the 46 races that could reshape America鈥檚 schools聽following Election聽Day 鈥� and get the latest updates on state policies and students鈥� challenges during the pandemic by signing up for聽麻豆精品 Newsletter.听
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