ICYMI: Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen Grilled by Auditors for Questionable Spending of Millions of Federal Dollars

An audit of Arntzen’s Office of Public Instruction found $67.5 million in “known questioned costs”

Helena, MT – New reporting from the Daily Montanan highlights more chaos from Elsie Arntzen’s Office of Public Instruction (OPI) after a legislative audit uncovered more than $67 million in questionable spending of federal dollars by her office.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers grilled Arntzen during a legislative audit committee meeting this week over millions of dollars in spending that had no documentation of how money was spent, if the spending followed federal programming, and the failure of OPI to follow up and make sure spending went towards the intended purposes.

According to reporting from the Daily Montanan, lawmakers noted “as much as $52 million went untracked without receipts, documentation, or site visits. Those problems had been flagged during the 2021-2022 audit cycle but many of the recommendations were not implemented by Arntzen.”

“The Office of Public Instruction is in complete shambles under Elsie Arntzen’s leadership and it’s costing Montana kids and educators, and it’s costing Montana taxpayers,” said Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party Sheila Hogan. “Arntzen’s protégé, Susie Hedalen, worked at OPI under Arntzen and would no doubt continue her disastrous legacy of running OPI into the ground.”