Brad Avakian And The Politics Of Shop Class

Capitol Currents:

On the campaign trail, Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian likes to talk about a bill he championed in the legislature last year that aims to bring back "career and technical eduction" to Oregon schools. The measure, HB 3362,  passed without a single vote in opposition. It created a $2 million grant pool from the state's General Fund, and schools around the state were encouraged to apply for a piece of the money in order to create what Avakian calls a "21st Century shop class." Avakian uses this program as an example of his track record as head of the Bureau of Labor and Industries. He's facing a credible challenge this November from Republican state Senator Bruce Starr.  Last evening, Avakian took his re-election campaign to a meeting of the African American Chamber of Commerce in Portland. He spent a great deal of his presentation describing the role of Labor Commissioner, and concluded by talking about his shop class bill and his hopes that it would create a new generation of skilled workers in Oregon. He said the first round of grants led to the establishment of new shop classes in 21 schools around the state. But Avakian seemed unprepared for the first question from the audience: "Of those 21 schools, are there any in Portland?"No, the Labor Commissioner conceded, there are none in Portland. Grants were awarded to school districts in eastern Oregon, central Oregon, Eugene, and a few other places. But while Portland applied, it didn't make the cut. (You can see the entire list of grants here.)The audience clearly wasn't pleased with this response, and peppered Avakian with questions about how the grants were awarded, who sat on the selection committee, was racial and ethnic diversity of students part of the criteria for choosing the grant-winners, and above all, why would the state's largest school district be shut out of a program like this?Avakian, while emphasizing that he personally did not serve on the grant selection committee, said that the Bureau "reached out to every single school district in the state" and that he was confident that Portland would come up a winner in the next round of grants. There were more than 70 applications the first time around, and there simply wasn't enough money to award a shop class grant to everyone who asked. It wasn't clear whether the audience was satisfied with the answer. Avakian left immediately after his speech, but not before telling the audience he "wasn't going to stop until every middle and high school in the state" was able to offer a shop class. Including, presumably, those in Portland.

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