Democrat Don Pogreba of Helena is running for governor primarily because he doesn’t think the state has lived up to its constitutional responsibility to fund quality K-12 schools.

The mixed results from school mill-levy elections in larger districts last week show the need to find an adequate, stable source of school funding, he said

“That illustrated the difficulty with the funding formula the way it is now with the heavy reliance on property taxes,” Pogreba said. “When they (voters) get nervous, they vote against the one tax they get to vote on.”

Despite some additional spending, Montana hasn’t complied with the 2004 and 2005 District and Supreme Court decisions that declared the state funding unconstitutionally inadequate, Pogreba said.

“There were some increases, but it wasn’t enough to offset some years of underfunding and the difficulty of enrollment problems in small schools,” he said.

Pogreba is a Helena High School English teacher making his first bid for public office. He faces Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Bill Fischer of Lakeside in the Democratic primary for governor June 3. The winner will face the Republican nominee, either Sen. Roy Brown of Billings or Larry H. Steele of Great Falls.

Pogreba and running mate Jason Neiffer, another Helena teacher, have emphasized the need to increase school funding and accountability. They filed shortly before the March 22 deadline, praising Schweitzer for doing “a great job” as governor but offering different perspectives on education and energy.

“If he (Schweitzer) beats us, having people run against him doesn’t hurt him in the long run,” Pogreba said. “Honestly, I can’t imagine the person who would vote for us in the primary and would turn around and support Senator Brown.”

Pogreba said Montana needs to more to a more rehabilitative approach towards corrections, with education playing a key role, and favors expanding drug and mental-health courts.

“I think more money for education will prevent the need for more money for corrections,” he said. “I’ve never understood why we want to send more money for jail cells and not for textbooks.”

The death penalty, Pogreba said, is a clear violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and is imposed nationally far more against the poor and racial minorities.

Pogreba supports the expanded development of wind power in Montana but called himself “agnostic” toward Schweitzer’s advocacy of plans to turn coal into liquid fuels unless he can be convinced there won’t be an environmental impact.

A clean environment will be Montana’s greatest asset, drawing people here to live here and travel here, the candidate said.

“Our philosophy is we shouldn’t be looking to 1950 for our economic solutions,” he said. “We should be looking to 2050. By that, we should not assume that resource extraction is a long-term solution for our economy.”

Pogreba said he strongly opposes enactment of a general sales tax because it would be punitive toward low-income people.

He favors using other tax revenue, such as income taxes, to fund schools and moving away from reliance on property taxes.

Pogreba said he sympathizes with the Republican idea to cut taxes on businesses, but it should be done in a targeted way, not across the board.

“It feels like in the ’90s, we really missed out when Idaho became a high-tech state,” he said. “My hope would be to get that kind of job base here, a place for the graduates from our schools to get jobs here. I think our public universities do a great job of turning out job seekers for Seattle. It would be nice if we could keep them here.”

Mini bio

Name: Don Pogreba.

Office sought: Governor.

Office salary: $100,120.

Political party: Democratic.

Age: 36.

Birthdate and place: January 13, 1972, in Conrad.

Home: Helena.

Occupation: English teacher at Helena High School since 2001. Owner of Big Sky Debate, a debate research business, 2001-present.

Family: Single.

Education: Graduated from Laurel High School, 1990. Graduated from Carroll College with a bachelor’s degree in English, 1995, and a bachelor’s degree in secondary education, English and history, 1998

Past employment: Teacher, C.M. Russell High School, 2000-2001, and assistant director of forensics, Carroll College, 1996-2000.

Military: None.

Political experience: None.

Web site: www.pogreba neiffer08.com.