I was at the first half of the Oregon Education Investment
Board meeting today at Portland
State University.
They continue to go further and further down the wrong road.
(1) The
Board unanimously approved the four strategic investment priorities put forth
by the Education Funding Team (the wording in the motion did list four
priorities with category labels slightly different from the document, but I
think they are the same) .This is unfortunate, as I have previously blogged
(here):
Nowhere in the document are the priorities of this blog
(more foreign language immersion programs, paid high school study abroad
programs, and more online educational options) promoted. The investments
proposed would, for the most part, continue to propel Oregon’s education system down the wrong
track.
(2) Professor
Linda Darling-Hammond presented an oral summary of her paoper “Supporting
Educator Quality in Oregon”
(here) over the internet (She is the one on the screen in the photo). The paper puts forth ten recommendation for
recruiting, preparing, mentoring, developing and evaluating teachers,
Unfortunately, nowhere in her paper or oral presentation are the special issues
related to foreign language immersions teachers even mentioned. This is a
strategic blunder with profound consequences. And not one member of the Oregon
Education Investment Board asked “what about immersion teachers” or otherwise
noted the oversight. The OEIB is not operating in the context of a global
economy that will require Oregon to sell more goods abroad.
(3) Governor
Kitzhaber did make comments about the need for more revenue. From the Oregonian
article “Gov. John Kitzhaber: Parents, educators need to vote to raise taxes
before schools can shrink cklass sizes, add back days” by Betsy Hammond (here):
Gov. John Kitzhaber responded a
bit testily Wednesday when he was reminded that parents, educators and students
all are clamoring for smaller class sizes, a full school year, lower college
tuition and other education services wiped out by eroded state funding.
The only way to afford those improvements, he said, is for the public to start
clamoring for higher taxes.
"There is nothing we can do today that is dramatically going to add school
days in the upcoming biennium. We are going to be lucky if it doesn't go the
other direction," he told his overarching education board at its meeting in Portland on Wednesday, after several members
urged him to tell the public he'll increase education funding.
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