Rosendale Blasts Education Department on Hunter Safety Funding

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Montana’s Eastern District Congressman Matt Rosendale joined the voices of Montanans criticizing the U.S. Department of Education for threatening the loss of federal funding for Montana public schools that offer hunter safety and archery programs.

KGVO News spoke to Rosendale on Tuesday who said the move doesn’t surprise him considering the tenor of the Biden Administration’s views on firearms.

Matt Rosendale Joins Elsie Arntzen in Opposing Department of Education

“This is another example of people in high places not understanding the communities that they're trying to provide services for, which is what I always quite quote Dwight Eisenhower, ‘if you live 1,000 miles away from a cornfield and use a pencil for a plow, farming looks very easy’,” said Rosendale. “What we have here are a bunch of people that are trying to make decisions about what is the best way for Montana to deliver education.”

Rosendale said he has been in constant communication with Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Elsie Arntzen on this topic.

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Rosendale said he has Taken Action with the Department of Education

“Peter, I spoke with Superintendent Arntzen immediately when she was informed of this, and we had heard about it as well, and we took action,” he said. We've already sent off a letter of complaint to Secretary Cardona to say, look, the Safer Communities Act is supposed to be administered and delivered by the local communities. The state of Montana received $4.8 million that Superintendent Arntzen has distributed to over 25 districts, and it's to make sure that we promote safe and healthy programs that promote safe and healthy students.”

Rosendale emphasized the fact that both hunter safety and archery are healthy activities that promote Montana’s outdoor lifestyle.

“Archery and hunter safety mean getting kids outside to enjoy the great outdoors in the state of Montana,” he said. “It certainly promotes health and safe students. Why we are put in this position is pretty easy to summarize and that is it's nothing more than the Department of Education trying to advance a progressive agenda at the expense of Montana.”

Rosendale said he has been in contact with other State Representatives

Rosendale said he has been in contact with other state representatives around the country on this issue.

“I've already had Congresswoman Laura Boebert from Colorado on the phone who I've worked with on a regular basis,” he said. “She's an extremely like-minded individual. Additionally, Congresswoman Mary Miller from Illinois has a district in the southern section of Illinois that has a farming family. Mary's always been very supportive as well. She's home-schooled her children and still believes that if we're going to have this public school system, that it has to mirror the principles and values of the people that are attending.”

See the letter from Congressman Rosendale to Secretary of Education Cardona here.