KEYES, BENJAMIN

Meet the Candidate

Running For:
State House of Representatives
District:
36
Political Affiliation:
Democrat

Survey

Response Legend

  • SSStrongly Supports
  • SSupports
  • OOpposes
  • SOStrongly Opposes
  • *Comment
  • −Declined to respond
  • †Declined to respond, Position based on citation

Question Response Comments/Notes
1. Public School Funding in Montana is at an inadequate level. SS* Public education funding is absolutely abyssmal in Montana, and it is literally investing in our future.
2. Parents should have greater freedom to choose how and where their children are educated, including options such as education savings accounts, tax credits, vouchers, or other school-choice mechanisms. SO* While parents should have greater freedom to choose how and where their children are educated, including options such as education savings accounts, tax credits, vouchers, or other school-choice mechanisms, many of those programs function as a means to funnel tax money into religious educations, which is a violation of our Constitution and without basic funding for public education to begin with, none of them matter. Families in Montana don't need tax credits for school they can't pay for even with it, or vouchers, or any other mechanism you can find. Rather than finding work arounds for our critically underfunded education system, we need to fund it.
3. Parents should be allowed to homeschool their children without additional state regulation SO* While homeschooling our children is an important ability, and the cornerstone of a parent's ability to properly educate and raise their children, without any oversight or guidelines, the system becomes terribly abused, putting our children at a disadvantage in an ever increasingly demanding world, where unqualified or inconsistent parents don't provide sufficient or even reality-based education on things as simple as adding and subtracting. While it is imperative to protect our ability to choose our children's education, it cannot be done without some manner of accountability to ensure we aren't allowing our children to suffer for our lack of foresight.
4. Curricula based on Critical Race Theory (CRT) should be prohibited in Montana public schools SO* I don't believe there is ANY subject which should be banned outright from any education, if insituted at the appropriate intellectual and emotional time frame. Your focus on Critical Race theory as one example says far more about your perceptions than you may be intending. We need to critically analyze and evaluate All claims presented to us, and teach our children how to understand and process new ideas, to determine their truth value, or at the very least, identify whether they merit further consideration. Banning any subject or topic for discussion is a level of fearmongering and control that we, as Americans, should not tolerate. We do not shirk from hard conversations or honest pursuits of Truth. We should not teach our children to do so either. Comprehensive sex education should be taught at appropriate emotional and intellectual development stages, in order to more fully equip our children with the knowledge they need to make safe, educated decisions about the situations they will find themselves in, throughout life.
5. Comprehensive sex education should be taught in public elementary schools, beginning as early as kindergarten. SS* While I strongly disagree with the idea that sex education should be taught without ristriction to kindergarteners, we live in a world where we are forced to recognize that the ability to understand the world around them and situations they might be exposed to require our children to have the language needed to explain their experiences, and failing to teach them the most fundamental and basic of understandings will do nothing but harm them in their lives. Sex education in kindergarten is an Abuse Prevention measure, teaching children consent, their control of their own bodies, their ability to say No, and what is not acceptable. Framing your questions the way you did feels dishonest and misleading, looking for a simple answer, rather than the nuanced reality of the world we live in.
6. Montana’s income taxes are too high. SS
7. Montana’s property taxes are too high SS
8. Montana’s corporate taxes are too high SO* The reality of the situation we live in is that we see an ever shrinking middle class in Montana because corporate tax rates are what they are. We need to relieve the burden on the Montanans who can no longer support the burden of providing all value and labor, while the wealthiest and most powerful amongst us reap all of the benefits, with record profits quarter after quarter while our public services shrink, costs go up, and fewer and fewer Montanans can make ends meet.
9. The Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms for self-defense. SS* The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". Ratified in 1791, it protects an individual's right to possess firearms, particularly for self-defense. That cannot be any clearer. We have the right, and it shall not be infringed upon.
10. Montanans should not be discriminated against or treated differently based on their vaccination status. SO* As far as people being treated differently for their vaccination status, we have a moral and ethical responsibility to society to do everything in our power to reasonably mitigate as much harm to our fellows as possible. We are each given the freedom to make those decisions based on our own history, choices, and medical necessities. We are Not free from the consequences of the choices we make, however. The freedom to act is Not the same as the freedom to act without repercussions. We each have to make informed decisions on the actions we take with the best information we have available, Whether those actions are publicly accepted or not is not within our control. We choose our actions, and experience the consequences of them, just as everyone around us is forced to do the same.
11. Climate change is a serious problem that requires increased government regulation. SS
12. Environmental regulations in Montana are currently too restrictive. SO* Human driven change is the reality that we must address appropriately.We can no longer ignore the effects it is having on our world.Environmental regulations are the guard rails put in place to protect the land, and future of our citizens. Those same rights and protections enshrined in our state constitution.Restrictions put in place to honestly and studiously consider the effects our actions have on the environment long term, while slow and arduous, are the absolute bare minimum we should be putting into our planning for the future. We cannot easily repair or restore the damage we are doing. We need to take more care in our actions.
13. Abortion should be illegal at all stages of pregnancy. SO
14. Abortion should be legal only in the early stages of pregnancy and restricted after a specific point, except when necessary to save the life of the mother. SO
15. Abortion should remain legal at all stages of pregnancy, without restriction. SO
16. Individuals and organizations should be allowed to opt out of abortion-related mandates, if those mandates violate their religious or moral convictions. SO
17. Physician-assisted suicide should be legal in Montana. SS* The only consideration or law that should matter is between patient and doctor.
18. Biological males who identify as transgender should be allowed to compete in women’s and girl's athletic competitions. SS
19. Medical procedures intended to change a minor’s sex or gender should be prohibited. SO
20. Same-sex couples should be permitted to adopt children. SS
21. State and local nondiscrimination laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the same manner as race, religion, and national origin. SS* While I fundamentally disagree with how your questions are worded, let me make this clear. Human rights are not determined by gender, orientation, identification or any other nebulous aspect someone might use to identify themselves. All humans get All human rights, whether you approve of their choices or not.
22. Montana’s marriage laws should be revised to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage. SS
23. Objective moral truths exist and should inform laws and public policy, rather than shifting cultural preferences. SO
24. Government should be limited in scope, with most decisions best made by individuals, families, and local communities rather than centralized authorities. SS
25. Homosexuals and transgender people should be allowed to adopt children: SS
26. Personal responsibility and self-governance are more effective at solving social problems than expanded government programs: SS
27. Parents—not government institutions—are the primary authority responsible for the education and moral formation of their children: SS* No. Objective moral truths do Not exist. That is what is known as a "presuppositional arguement".Again. All humans get all human rights, regardless of whether you approve of their choices. Personal responsibility and self governance is more effective than central governance for resolving personal issues and societal conflicts. To think that they are the Only answer is genuinely dishonest.While parents are the primary authority in the education of their children, they are not the Sole authority, for the simple fact that we have seen that power be used, abused, or discarded - all at the cost of the children throughout history. While it is important to recognize the ideal that parents will teach their children everything they need to know of true importance, we cannot ignore the reality that parents, and most citizens lack the time, energy, or skills necessary to provide complete, functioning and beneficial educations to their children on top of the ever increasing demands of a more and more difficult world. And thats completely setting aside the parents who abdicate their responsibility altogether.