Apparently the Editorial Board of the Oregonian has no background in or sympathy for school reform in the Portland Public Schools: no concerns for more Mandarin programs or sending high school students to study abroad for Portland’s economic future; no concerns for the increased learning opportunities and cost efficiencies of online learning, and no concerns to give the Portland School Board and administrators more control over teachers to deal with issues of quality (tenure, evaluations) and equity (assigning the best teachers to the worst schools). None of these issues were mentioned in their editorial endorsing the operating levy and rejecting the bond levy (here):
The Portland School Board will ask voters in May to approve a local-option levy to operate the schools and a construction bond to renovate them. Though the needs are real, the board overextended itself. Voters should reject the bond and approve the levy.
The editorial speaks much about what we can and cannot afford financially in 
Portland. What it fails to mention is that what Portland cannot afford educationally is, in words I’m using repeatedly (see here), “an outdated, inadequate, and inefficient school system.” From my perspective, the Oregonian Editorial Board joined a long list of enablers of the educational status quo in Portland, an informal group unwilling to withhold funding from our schools until significant changes are made. It’s disappointing.
Comments