Archives West Finding Aid

In 1864, two years before the first school district was organized in Virginia City, Montana Territory, the position of "school commissioner" was created with the responsibility of reporting to the governor on matters relating to education in the territory. The office remained until the 1872 Montana Territorial Assembly passed a school law which provided that the guidance of the territory's schools be placed under a superintendent of public instruction. The Constitution made the position of superintendent elective. At the same time the Constitution also placed the newly created state's higher education system under the direction of the State Board of Education, composed of the superintendent of public instruction, the governor, the attorney general, and eight other members appointed by the governor. The State Board of Education was made responsible for the determination of educational programs and policy, preparation of budgets, financing of current operations, personnel administration, and planning and financing of physical facilities. Beginning in 1959 the State Board of Education became ex officio the Board of Regents. A Department of Public Instruction, under the superintendent's direction, was created by the Montana Legislative Assembly in 1959, "for the purpose of the staff and administration of the duties and services of the superintendent of public instruction." This legislation made legal the name which had been used informally by the superintendent's office for many years.