KATU:
The Oregon House and Senate have both passed a series of education bills that will provide more money for schools and significantly remake the structure of education in Oregon.
Read the full article here. Discuss below.
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Posted on June 21, 2011
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9:54 a.m.
Jun 22, '11
As a school board member, past budget committee member, and lifelong education advocate - I am still dumbfounded by the actions of my party's leadership.
The package as a whole has a few potential strengths, but there is a lot of risk involved - especially for smaller school districts that cannot compete with larger districts.
And if the appointment of a superintendent is such a good idea - and I don't believe it is - why not allow the public to vote on it?
Did the exigencies of the situation require a legislative bypass? Did Oregon need an assimilation rather than an open, public decision...? Really?
Without an independently elected superintendent, or an independently elected board of education (or SuperBoard K-16), what is the linkage to local government? I am disappointed in both the process and product.
Making this position which used to be an advocate for the education community as a whole (which actually does include over 190 local governments) into an instrument of the state (governor appoint, senate confirmation) defeats that function.
State legislators are justifiably frustrated at our realities - to them I say welcome. But as a group legislators see a portion of the picture. Between the will of the legislature, the bureaucracy of ODE, the Congress, US DOE, the fluctuations in property tax values, and the Courts - balancing priorities isn't as easy at it appears.
No question, the State of Oregon pays the bulk of the bill for education operations: but there are more than general fund operational expenses, and the strings attached provide less and less flexibility for a changing education/training reality.
Prior to yesterday it was hard; now it's going to be harder.
In simplest terms, the State of Oregon lost yesterday. More importantly, our children lost yesterday.
I sincerely hope that whatever tactical gains were made by those pushing this bill were worth the price.
Over time, it will prove a pyrrhic victory.
There was a time when the Democratic Party believed in the legitimacy of the ballot - when nobody among us would deny citizens the opportunity to determine structural questions.
Evidently, we are now living in a new era.