BUTTE — Last week on Jan. 17, school districts across Montana got a chance to start collecting some extra cash as they entered donations made to the dollar-for-dollar tax credit program, and Butte Central schools got a huge chunk of those donations with $1.8 million that will go towards scholarships.
“In our community, there’s a great need for scholarship assistance for kids who would like to pursue private education and so we’re just really blessed and grateful to the group of benefactors who have been so generous to us and allowed us,” said Don Peoples, the president and superintendent of Butte Catholic Schools.
According to Montana’s Office of Public Instruction website, registration of the donations is limited to representatives of Montana public school districts and representatives of student scholarship organizations.
The website shows that a representative from the Central Education Foundation of Silver Bow entered 25 donations with a total of $1,807,220.00 that will benefit scholarships to Butte Catholic scholarships and Don Peoples says the donations will go toward current and potential students.
Butte Central schools currently have 415 students enrolled in grades preschool through grade 12, and Peoples says the school enrollment has grown in the past two years.
The total amount collected by 13 organizations for the scholarship program tax credit came to $4,497,230.00.
Public schools collected donations for innovative learning programs and the cap was raised from $2 million to $5 million in 2024 after the Montana legislature passed House Bill 279.
Butte public schools collected one of the lowest combined totals for the larger school districts in the state with six donors contributing just over $28,000.00 to the elementary schools and $18,000.00 to the high school.
School districts in southwest Montana collected a combined total of $944,800.00 of $5 million of available funds to promote innovative learning in elementary and high schools.
The largest amount collected for southwest Montana public schools went to Big Sky kindergarten through high school with $574,000.00.
Donations collected by public schools will be used for transformational and advanced learning opportunities; services and equipment for students with disabilities; work-based learning partnerships; post-secondary credits or career certifications and technology that improves student experience and opportunities.
By 8:35 a.m. on Jan. 23, the cap was reached with a total of 354 donations made by 311 individuals and 38 businesses in Montana. You can visit Montana OPI's Education Donations website to see a breakdown of the donations.
