An Informed Public
The Oregon form of government requires an informed public aware of the deliberations and decisions of governing bodies and the information upon which such decisions were made.I read this snippet of chapter 192 of the Oregon Revised Statutes at the Hillsboro School District budget committee yesterday evening, to make the point that while the school district follows the letter of the law in regards to public meetings, the lack of any funding for communication in the budget for the next year does not comply with the spirit of the law.
We don't have an informed public here in Hillsboro, when it comes to our schools. The only people who are aware of the good and the bad of our local schools are those who are already well plugged into the district. Even people who are active in schools don't know much. And the 75% who don't have any connection with schools don't hear anything, except for the occasional bad news on the newspaper, such as the purchase of a $270,000 dollars postage machine reported erroneously in the Oregonian.
I talked with a lot of voters in the past few weeks about our schools, and many people have a very negative view of how our local public schools are managed. As far as I can tell, the district does not plan to do any significant activity to change that perception. At the budget committee meeting, I tried to make the point that dedicating even one tenth of one percent of the budget to improving communication would make a huge difference. The reaction? Crickets chirping.
posted by Unknown @ 4:00 AM
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