House bill 4.99 would extend Montana’s Grow Your Own teacher pipeline and fund last-dollar grants

Representative Cetus Crow, sponsor of House Bill 4.99, told the House Education Committee that the bill seeks to “revise and extend the grow your own grant program” to build a pipeline of educators for rural and reservation school districts in Montana.

The bill would authorize the Montana University System to administer a Grow Your Own Educator program and provide last-dollar grants intended to help students cover the remaining cost of postsecondary coursework tied to teacher preparation. “The success of the program is contingent upon an appropriation of funding,” Representative Crow said, summarizing the bill’s funding requirement.

The proposal would allow eligible postsecondary institutions to partner with one or more school districts to develop or expand local teacher training pathways. Testimony from Beth Durodoye, dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education at Montana State University–Northern, described an existing model called TOP (Teachers of Promise) that delivered education-specific courses and field experiences to 167 high school students and used dual enrollment and counselor support to connect students to teacher preparation.

Angela McLean, director of American Indian and Minority Achievement and K–12 Partnerships at the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, told the committee that several pilot models began in the 2021 biennium but that there were “no completers from that time” and that the program lost continuity when funding lapsed. McLean said, however, that “we right now have at least a dozen students in the Havre Public Schools who are engaging in the paraprofessional work based model as they are matriculating in dual enrollment.”

Supporters—including a representative from the Chippewa Cree community and Larry Crowder, who identified himself as executive director of the Montana Rural Education Association—stated the program helps localize the teaching workforce and retains teachers in communities. The sponsor said the program’s design includes dual-credit coursework for high school students, apprenticeship or 2+2 models for paraprofessionals, and a last-dollar grant of up to $5,000 per year, not to exceed $10,000 per student over time.

Committee members asked for outcomes data and numbers. McLean said the program had produced pipeline entrants—“more than 50 students begin their pathway into the teaching profession” during the initial rollout—but that tracking was incomplete after the gap in funding. On capacity, McLean compared a funded educator residency program she said supports up to 60 teachers over a biennium and suggested the Grow Your Own model could sustain a similar scale if funding is steady.

Representative Crow closed by urging bipartisan support and said the bill is intended to give small schools tools to recruit and keep licensed classroom teachers by training people who live in the communities they will serve. The committee did not record a formal vote during the hearing; the bill will proceed through the committee process for further action.

Ending: The committee hearing closed on House Bill 4.99 with no immediate committee action recorded; sponsors and proponents said continued appropriations will determine how many candidates can be supported through the proposed program.