After 29 years teaching in Montana public schools, I know exactly what it looks like when a struggling student is rendered invisible by a one-size-fits-all model that often fails to recognize kids’ technical aptitude.

That’s why I am designing Great Adventure Academy, a diploma-based Community Choice charter school to empower juniors and seniors through project-based learning and paid internships in trades like construction and agriculture. With the addition of our trades teacher endorsement program, high school students can enter our career track to become a state-endorsed teacher — all while earning pay — without the debt of a four-year degree.

This means a student who used to feel invisible in a traditional classroom thrives as they lead a framing crew on a construction site, earn a paycheck, and realize their own attributes and how to harness them.

Yet, while 47 states have access to charter schools to unlock student potential, Montana remains one that does not. Our Community Choice charter school law was approved three years ago but remains hung up in litigation, putting our youth at a national disadvantage.

Not every student is college-bound, but every student deserves the opportunity to be successful. It is time to end the legal gridlock. Let’s give all our children the right to find their niche and thrive right here in Montana. For more information or to get involved in supporting chartering in Montana, contact Cathy Kincheloe, with the Community Choice Schools Commission at cathy.kincheloe@mt.gov.

Mark Casazza,

Whitefish