The View from Hillsboro - Advocating for Public Schools

Wasting time in Salem

2005-06-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Our elected representatives in Salem are only a few weeks away from finishing their work and going back home, where they can finally go back to campaigning for the 2006 elections, surely posturing one more as the defenders of public education, just like they did in 2004. Most of the commissions have shut down, and very little of substance has any chance to be approved at this point.

Both the OSBA and COSA have very good pages on their web sites where they have tracked the over 300 education related bills from this year.

So what is my opinion of the accomplishment of the 2005 legislature on education?

I am extremely disappointed. The bitter discussion over the budget rerailed any discussion on other substantial bills on education. And in the end nobody will be happy with the result of the budget negotiations. Those on the left will not appreciate a budget that will force Portland schools to do some more cuts. And those on the right will be mad about all the money going to those special interests like childrens and parents, crying foul aainst those who sold us out to the evil teacher's unions.

There are many districts that will have to do more cuts to their schools. but the big loser is the Portland School District. Why does a district that was able to pass a school levy AND a special income tax have funding problems is beyond me. Hillsboro, on the other hand is in pretty good shape. But the problem is that all the organizations that advocate for schools (including Stand and Oregon PTA) are very Portland-heavy, and the priorities of the rest of the state didn't get quite as much attention.

What really bothers me is that none of the structural issues with school funding got fixed. The state still has a revenue issue. Measure 5 and measure 50 are still killing us, businesses (mine included) are still not paying their fair share. Health care costs and PERS are still out of control, increasing in double digit every year, and taking money away from the classrooms. And the idea of letting growing districts like Hillsboro fund the building of new schools with system development charges did not get very far.

I think it is time to stop looking at Salem for solutions. It is time to come up with a reasonable plan for quality schools, and put it on the November 2006 ballot.

Out of our schools' core competence

2005-05-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

At the budget committee meeting last night, Hillsboro School Superintendent Jeremy Lyon replied to a question from one of the committee members about the proposal of outsourcing the custodians' positions. He said that we need to look at all that is not strictly within our core competence, which is educating children, to look for ways to save money.

Basically, the vast majority of classified employees should be aware that if the district management has its way, there will be a discussion on whether we should keep them as district employees or if we should outsource their jobs out. Are school buses next? Are we going to have secretaries in our schools who are employees of a temp agency?

I have my reasons to be against outsourcing classified jobs. I don't like the idea of eliminating a living wage job and having that same job done by a minimum wage worker who will rely on taxpayer money to keep his family off the street and out of malnutrition. Outsourcing support positions when it does not make us more efficient is not a good idea.

I have a button that says "I support the HCU bargaining team", and I wear it. One of the three people in the public at the budget meeting last night who was not a union representative or a school board candidate (a principal) approached me and asked me why. I support our classified employees, I support our teachers, I support our students and our parents. I support our schools and everyone in it. We need them, we need their commitment and their ideas. The little I have seen regarding the current contract negotiations make me think that I would not support the district position.

On the calendar

2005-05-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

This evening we have the annual town hall meeting for the Hillsboro 2020 vision.

5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Hillsboro Civic Center
150 E. Main Street, Hillsboro

I will attend, and see what is the new vision for the city when it comes to education. A few months ago I attended a presentation of the results of the previous five year vision implementation, and I did not see much related to local schools. After all, schools are not classified as an essential service, and the city and district don't talk with each other a whole lot, at least not as much as they should.

Christian Science Monitor: Recruiting at public high schools

2005-05-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

An article in today's Christian Science Monitor talks about the Rift over recruiting at public high schools, with a PTA at Garfield high school in Seattle passing a resolution against recruiting on campus.

High schools are struggling with a similar issue as the No Child Left Behind Act requires that schools receiving federal funding must release the names of its students to recruiters. Some feel that's an invasion of privacy prompted by a war effort that has largely divided the American public. Others say barring recruiters is an infringement of free speech - and a snub to the military, particularly in a time of war.

Personally I think that parents and students should be informed know their rights. There is a site called Leave My Child Alone that, while biased, contains a wealth of Information on the subject. It would be nice for the Hillsboro school district to enact policies that comply with the NCLB act but also protect the privacy of our students and keeps them informed about this matter of (literally) life and death. Actually, it would be interesting to see what the policies of the school district, period. They don't seem to be available on the district web site...

Strategic Planning, part 2

2005-05-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, we received an email message from the Hillsboro School Board chair Monica Cordrey. It was in regards to our previous post on the strategic planning meeting, where I expressed the concern that the team assembled for the strategic planning was not really representative of our schools, with too many people from the top of the district org chart and too few parents and teachers. Chair Cordrey's message tried to assure me that my concerns were not founded, but instead made things a lot worse...
For example, on my concern about having too many people from central administration in the team:

"Staff" on this list include 4 building principals, 2 teachers, one classified employee, and the respective union leaders of our Classified and Licensed staff (whom would certainly not call themselves "management!"). Of those remaining folks who actually are District-level management, we have our Superintendent, our Business Manager who handles daily oversight of the budget, the Deputy Superintendent in charge of facilities, transportation, Hispanic outreach and personnel, the Assistant Superintendent who works with daily school operations including curriculum and school improvement, our Special Education Director, and the Director in charge of technology and information services.

So we have two teachers and one classified employee who are there as themselves, and not as representatives of their union or as managers of their department.

Three Board members participated, as well as two high school students. We included representatives from law enforcement, city government, and the business community, as well as parents. We went to great lengths to balance the team by gender, as well as to find advocates for students in elementary, middle and high school.

Add to the list two high school students and an unknown number of parents, not including those parents who are on the team to represent other organization, such as the chamber of commerce. So my guess is that students and those people who have the most contact with students make up roughly about 1/4 of the team (1 classified, 2 teachers, 2 students and perhaps 3 parents our

Oregon House: Our Own "Nuclear Option"

2005-05-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

I began a very long day in Salem, yesterday. I was with a group of school advocates from the Oregon PTA and Stand for Children, who attended the House floor discussion on HB 2727. Iw was fascinating to see the pure arrogance of the republicans and of the speaker Minnis to eliminate the right of the minority of being heard. And the total lack of attention that the majority pays to the "special interest groups" such as the 19,500 students in the Hillsbor school district.
The Democratic minority had proposed a minority version of House Bill 2727 that replaced the content of the bill and replaced it with a proposal for 5.4 billion funding for K-12 education. Personally I don't like the idea of amendments to bills that don't have little to do with the original bill. I have seen to many bad ideas being attached to reasonable bills in the US Congress, and I don't like seeing that happen here in Oregon.

But the idea that the amendment was not in order because of its content never came into the discussion. The republicans moved to postpone the bill to August 31, which really means postponing it forever, since there is no way that the legislature will be in session by then.

The most disturbing thing to me was the power grab by the republicans, who hold a slim majorith in the house. Democrats have no right to propose amendments and have an up or down vote. This wholesale elimination of the rights of the minority is similar to what the republicans in the US senate are planning for the next few days, something they call the "nuclear option".

We had four months of intense debate in the legislature and around the state regarding K-12 school funding. The revenue estimate has been revised many times, including a very positive one last May 13. School districts are finalizing their budgets for the next year, as required by law. So why are Derrick Kitts and the republicans in the house delaying the vote on the K-12 funding even further? We need stable and adequate funding, and we need to know what the funding for the next biennium is going to be. The time for action is now.

The discussion on the house floor was revealing. One one side of the isle, representatives were quoting school superintendents on the level of funding needed to avoid cuts, usually above 5.4 billions, in some cases significantly higher. They were pointing out the urgency of the decision. On the other side of the isle there was deafening silence, broken occasionally by the annoyed comments of a republican legislator that wanted to limit the discussion to the August 31 date, and nothing else.

An Informed Public

2005-05-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Turnout: 13%

2005-05-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

What in the world is wrong, people? As a community, we chould be ashamed of the incredibly low voter turnout for the school board elections. In Washington County the turnout was only 13%.

There is something wrong when only one in eight registered voters can be bothered to vote in a vote-by-mail election that impacts our public schools. 45% of the state budget goes to K-12 education, and that is a significant chunk of our tax dollars. Yet we don't seem to pay any attention to the election for the people who are managing those funds.

Oregonian: Metro area's millions float other schools

2005-05-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

An interesting article in the Sunday Oregonian titled Metro area's millions float other schools on the wide range on per student funding for K-12 education, with some of the lowest numbers being in the suburban communities of Washington county.

Sherwood is the lowest with only $5,800 per student, Beaverton is close by with $6,300 (not including the local option funds) and Hillsboro is around $6,500. All of them well below the state average of $7,200 per student. I can see that there are higher costs for things like transportation in other parts of Oregon, but since K-12 education expenses are mainly for labor and benefit, our higher cost of living here in Washington county should be taken into account. Our superintendents makes that point in a couple of quotes in the article:

"'We do need some kind of recognition in the funding formula of the higher costs of living,' says Hillsboro Superintendent Jeremy Lyon.

But with statewide funding being squeezed, this isn't the time for that change, he says.

'Looking at ways to divvy up that pie at other school districts' expense is not any solution I would be interested in,' Lyon says."

On the radio

2005-05-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

I was a guest on the The Jayne Carroll Show on AM-1360 KUIK yesterday, when Tom Cox was guest hosting. It was an interesting segment, I think.

I got to talk about the reasons why I am running, but a couple of times the segment took some serious detour. The first one came when I mentioned the older gentlemen that I met a few days ago when I was canvassing in North Plain, who asked me about my position on the second amendment. I asked if he meant he wanted to see more guns in schools, but he was more interested in the hanting and fishing aspects. We had a good conversation about the benefits of preserving the environment for the next generations.

But I digress.

I should have known better than to mention the second amendment in an interview with a libertarian. Tom Cox started talking about concealed guns and terrorism in Israel, for a significant part of the segment.

At one point Tom mentioned that we only spend 50% of each school dollar in the classroom. I tried to make the point that while I am all in favor of spending our money in ways that benefit the student's education, the other 50% is mostly stuff that people really care about, and they would be up in arms if we were to propose cutting them. Like busing, or school cafeterias. After all, we are in the business of educating children, we are not public transit and we are not a food enterprise, right? And no, I am not in favor of eliminating busing and cafeterias, I was just trying to make a point.

It's like the discussion that I had with more than one person during the past few weeks about the excessive amount of money that, in their opinion, we spend on school administrators. I make the point that we have probably 40 people in the district that are considered administrators according to the Oregon Revised Statutes. And I mention that 80% of them are school principals, and more than half of the total are elementary school principals. But people like principals, it's just those evil "administrators" that they don't like. Go figure.

School funding forum, Wednesday May 11, 7 PM

2005-05-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

Would you like to talk about the future of our public schools and share your concerns and your opinions with other members of the community, one or two state legislators, as well as some of the candidates for the Hillsboro school board? I am helping the Hillsboro chapter of Stand for Children to organize a community forum on school funding and the future of public education.

School Funding Forum
Are you concerned about…
Classroom size?
Shortened school years?
Inadequate facilities?

Get involved!
Attend the School Funding Forum
Wednesday, May 11th 7 – 8 p.m.

Hillsboro School District Office
3083 NE 49th Place, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124-6009

Discuss your concerns with our special guests:
Oregon State Representative Chuck Riley (confirmed)
Oregon State Representative Derrick Kitts (invited)
Betsy Biller – Asst. Superintendent, Hillsboro School District (confirmed)

Download a flyer (PDF).

Strategic Plan Renewal

2005-05-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

In the past 3 days, a group of 31 staff and volunteers has been working on the renewal of our strategic planning for the next 5 years. The press release on the district web site lists the people who are part of this first team.

I was a little surprised at the fact that the district management is heavily represented on the team, and that the "Community, parents and patrons" group is only 1/3 of the team. Many of the names I recognize are people who were on the strategic team 5 years ago. I hope that the new people on the team are aboe to bring some fresh ideas to the table. The previous strategic plan
is still quite relevant, and because of budget cuts many of the proposals in it were never implemented.

I hope that the team updates the previous plan for these days of lean funding, but that they also come up with great, bold and new ideas that can turn the Hillsboro public schools into something to be proud of.

Ballots are out

2005-05-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

I received my ballot in the mail on April 29. I was a little surprised to find that the only thing on the ballot was the Hillsboro School Board election. Your ballot may have more things to vote on.

At this point, everyone who is supposed to be receiving a ballor should have one. If you still don't have a ballot, click on the There's more! link to find out how to get one.

If you do not get your ballot by May 6, 2005 call the Elections office at 503-846-5800. If you have moved since the November election, you will need to update your voter registration with the new mailing address and request a new ballot. The postal service will not forward your ballot to your new address.

The Washington County election office is located at 3700 SW Murray Blvd. Beaverton, OR 97005, a block north of TV Hwy.

Imagine

2005-05-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Imagine no school busing. I wonder if you can.

I grew up in Italy, and many people have asked me what the school system was like there and if my experience with Italian public schools is relevant to what I would like to do as a school board member.

My days in high school started with a ride on public transit. There are no school buses in Italy. Elementary students walk, middle school students walk or get a ride from their parent, high school students take transit or ride a Vespa (no driver's permits until you are 18 in Italy).

School started at 8.30 AM and ended at either 12.30 PM or 1.30 PM. when we all went home for lunch (we also had no cafeteria). We did this six days a week. Yes, Saturdays too. We had no elective classes. I went to a high school with a science focused curriculum, and everyone took exactly the same classes. Math every year, foreign language every year, Latin every year, history every year, one hour of PE every week, plus lots of literature, philosophy, writing, and geography.

When I do door to door talking to people all over the Hillsboro school district, the main concern I hear is class size and funding. But many parents are even more concerned about the quality of the education that their kids are getting. Some see that our schools have become "glorified day care centers" or that we "spend too much time planning the next party or the next extracurricular activity". I hear from business people who are very disappointed (to put it mildly) at the ability of the high school graduates that they hire to do simple math and to talk on the phone correctly, let alone their work ethics.

We have very low expectations of our students. And they tend to match those low expectations. Last week I attended a school board worksession where the board discussed increasing the number of credits required for a high school diploma from the state minimum of 22 to 24.5. It was rather disappointing to hear so little enthusiasm from the current members for a proposal that (in my humble opinion) is still not enough.

I went to public schools in a far away land where schools were lean and had no "frills", but academics were the focus of our days. Why can't we have world-class K-12 education here in our town?

The voter pamphlets are online

2005-04-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

The ballots for the May 17 election will be mailed one week from today, along with the voter pamphlets. A few people have asked me where to find more information on the other candidates running. There isn't a lot of information out there that I am aware of, but the voter pamphlet statements are available online on the web site of the Washington County election office.

http://www.co.washington.or.us/deptmts/at/election/may05/vp0505-B.pdf

Witness our schools

2005-04-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

80 people attended today's performance of Witness our schools by Sojourn Theater at Glencoe high school in Hillsboro. Next week is the last weekend of performance of this incredible piece on our Oregon public schools. If you have not had the chance to see it during the many performances during the past nine months, head to Roosevelt High School in Portland on April 25 at 7 PM. It is an incredibly powerful portrait of our schools and of the opinions of Oregonians about them.

It is hard for me to describe what Witness our schools is. It is based on interviews of 500 Oregonians about public schools, and the words of the play are often those of people around the state.

For me, those words were often the words of my neighbors. In the past few weeks I have knocked on hundreds of doors, introducing myself as one of the candidates for school board. The dozens of conversations that I had on doorsteps and living rooms match precisely the ones in Sojourn's piece. I saw the talented actors play parents who are involved in their schools and in their kid's education. I saw them play educators who work hard to do what is best for their students in spite of federal and state mandates, and who don't get the recognition they deserve from some parents and from the community at large. I heard the voices of people in my neighborhood who don't see the value of public schools because they don't have any connection with them.

Many of the voices that I heard today were those of students. They were very well represented in the audience. It was very interesting to participate in the discussion after the play with those high school students. They really deserve to be heard, because of their personal experience and because of their vested interest in the quality of education.

Not surprisingly, the audience was made of people who were very vocal about our schools. They are students, parents and teachers who want to be equal partners in shaping the future of our schools.

65 Percent Solution

2005-04-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

An editorial in the Hillsboro Argus last Thursday (65 Percent Solution) uses some interesting statistics to continue the myth that schools are wasteful places...

According to the article, Oregon spends 58.8% of its funding "in the classroom", which the columnist thinks is too low. Evil bureaucrats waste the remaining 41.2% on school busing, principal salaries and facility maintenance.

Statistics can be conveniently used to prove nearly every position. But the reality is the money we spend on items that impact the kids education directly (and that includes anything from school buses to toilet paper) is closer to 88% in our district.

I just hope that the district starts doing a better job at communicating the reality of the district budget this year. And I hope that the Argus starts to look at some good ideas coming from both sides of the isle, not just from those that seem to be interested in having public education fail.

Hillsboro School Foundation

2005-04-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure to attend the HSF dinner and auction yesterday evening. I am guessing that between the fundraising last night and in the phoneaton last fall, the foundation raised around $100,000 to be spent on activities that enrich the classroom experience for the students in the Hillsboro schools. Alongside the HSF we have booster clubs, PTO and PTA groups that collectively raise probably over $600,000 a year, and businesses like Nike and Intel that provide another $100,000 or more in funds when their employees volunteer in our schools.

All that money is spent on activities that enrich the classroom experience in many ways, ranging from art to music to activities before and after school hours. Those hundreds of people who donate and raise funds deserve our deep gratitude. Without their effort and the strong committment of our educators, our schools would be a dull place with mediocre education.

On the other hand, the million dollars that we are able to raise and spend are almost pocket change compared with the over 150 million dollars a biennium that the district receives from the state. Think of what we could do with an additional 1% increase in our state funding.

And how long can we go before the handful of people that are helping with the needed funding for all those activities get burned out?

3000 doors

2005-04-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Over the next few weeks, I will be knocking on doors all around Hillsboro and North Plains, to introduce myself. I want to talk with all of your about the value of our public schools, and hear your opinions and your ideas. I have already visited close to 500 homes, and I had some very interesting conversations on many doorsteps...

I have talked with many people who, for one reason or another, are not very supportive of our local public schools. I met with a retired couple who really does not want any more of their property taxes to go to fund public schools. My answer to them and to many others who have no current connections in our schools is that that they should vote and help elect someone like me who will help manage our limited funding well, to get the best educational value out of the taxpayer's dollars. The district recently refinanced many of the school bonds, which will reduce the total property taxes in the district by over two million dollars.

I met with the parents of an ADHD student who ended up taking their child out of school and homeschooling. I heard their story and shared my vision of a public school system that meets the needs of every student, including special needs students, ESL and TAG students. I want to see students, teachers and parents work together to find ways to improve our shcools. And I would like to see some meaningful conversation between the homeschooling community and the public school community in our neighborhoods. I think that we have much to learn from each other's experience.

I met with a first grade teacher, who teaches in one of our elementary schools where a large percentage of students are from Hispanic families. We talked about the gap that my wife and I see in the reading skills in our own school, for those kids are bright and hard working but don't have someone to help them after the school day is over. I listened and shared my ideas on how we can increase the quality and quantity of parent involvement both inside and outside the classroom.

I talked with a father of a second grader who feels that with our current system and our current resources kids who are more talented are not challenged. I told him of teachers I have seen do the impossible, and be able to challenge students according to their skills. I shared my idea of having our great teachers share their experience with their peers across the district, so that we can all benefit.

I heard from many people who are angry at some of the bad decisions that they feel that the district made in the past. I heard a lot about the new administration building, and the new facilities building. I told them that I feel that transparency is critical and that good communication is essential for people in the community to be aware of what is happening.

I talked with many parents, who were pleasantly surprised to see someone care enough about their schools and their opinion to walt to their home and knock on their door.

The countless conversations I had in these past two weeks have been wonderful. I am having a great time and I look forward to visiting three thousands homes during this campaign. All the rain in the past few days hasn't slowed me down a bit.

My goals

2005-03-31T09:25:00.000-08:00

Manage our money wisely, looking at the future

As a taxpayer, I want our tax dollars to be used wisely and prudently. This means getting the most effective quality public education out of our limited funding. Let's maximize the funds that go into the classroom, especially for K-3 students who need to learn the basics well, so that they can reach their potential in the rest of their years in school. But balance that with reasonable spending in infrastructure, maintenance and classified personnel, so that schools are supported and we are not penny wise and pound foolish and end up spending more than we should at a later date.

For the many small and large maintenance and construction contracts that the district has with external companies, let's make sure that we are getting not just the lowest price, but the best value for our dollars. And invest a small percentage of the money spent for those contracts to monitor and audit like we do for our large construction projects.

And let's work with our representatives in Salem to find ways to help our district and all the public education system be more efficient, keeping health care costs from spiraling out of control and optimizing the value of the services we receive through the Educational Service District.

Communication, communication, communication

There are many reasons to be proud of our public schools and of how they are managed, but in the past few years the district has not done a good job at communicating to the public about it. You can't have transparency and trust without good and plentiful communication.

If elected, I will be accessible. I will "adopt" a group of 5-6 schools in the district and I will attend school councils, PTA meetings, and other gatherings in these schools at least twice a year, to be able to listen to teachers, families, students, classified workers, and all citizens in those neighborhoods, and to establish personal relationships. I will do all I can to get the district to be much more active in its communication efforts, but in these days of lean budget I pledge to be an active part of the solution, at the very least.

I would also like to see the board and the district play an active role in building a stronger dialog with our elected representatives in the North Plains and Hillsboro city councils, in the Washington County Board of Directors and Metro, and in the legislature. Public schools must be represented and heard when decisions that impact them are made.

Bring new ideas to the table

While I don't yet have the in-depth knowledge of the workings of the district that the current members of the school board have, I can bring a fresh point of view and new ideas.

Let's all get together and think out of the box to find low cost ideas to improve education. Some examples: Train volunteers to tutor and read to K-3 students, especially in the English learner communities. If we want kids from families where English is the second language or where the parents work two jobs to succeed, we should involve them and help them. Offer classes for parents and volunteers so that they can be better prepared to play an active role. As a community, we can add to the great work done in our classrooms to help our kids do their best.

Why not have teachers share some of the outstanding work that they do in their classrooms with their colleagues, so that we can all gain from their knowledge? Sharing experiences among colleagues is a best practice in many professional organizations, we should encourage more of it within our schools.

These are just two examples of what we can do in the short and long term if we put our minds to it. Think of what we could do if we were to tap the minds of the people of the district for more and better ideas. In the next few months the district will work on its strategy for the next 5 years. I want to see that process evolve into a constant source of input from the community and of renewal of our vision and our goals.

Some good news

2005-03-31T08:21:00.000-08:00

The Governor announced that we may see more money for all public education (pre-K to college) compared to his initial budget. The $5.25 billion for the next biennium for K-12 education that he talked about yesterday translates into 7-8 million dollars in additional funding for the Hillsboro public schools. This means no further increases in class sizes and perhaps enough funds to spend wisely on restoring a few of the things that were cut in the past three years. This is still not enough for quality education for the long term, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

Addicted to gambling

2005-03-30T06:25:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, my wife and I attended the hearing of the Lottery Commission on the rate proposal for the new line games. Tavern owners came from all corners of the state to testify about how dependent their business is on the income from gambling. But it was not supposed to be that way. The profits from the gaming in their establishments were supposed to be in addition to their normal food and beverage business, which was supposed to be viable on its own.

Instead, we heard from tavern owners who claim to be losing money since they agreed to lowered rates on the video poker gaming last year, from those who claim that thousands of jobs will be lost due to the lower rates. We have created an industry that survives only thanks to the public funding in the form of rates that are higher than necessary. We have an industry that is addicted to the revenue from gambling.

In the testimonies of the tavern owners we also heard the stories of folks in rural Oregon who already spend all that they can afford on gambling. The owners argued that the new games would not get them to spend more. It is very sad that because of the lack of courage on the part of our elected officials (starting from our governor), we are forced to depend on people's destructive behavior to finance important public services, from schools, to parks, to the police.

It should not be that way.

Rainy day (fund) blues

2005-03-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's Argus has an opinion piece (not available online) written by Senator Bruce Starr on his proposal for a rainy day fund to be voted into the Oregon constitution, JSR 23. The proposal was discussed earlier this month in the Senate Revenue Committee.

I think that it is time to vote on a proposal for a rainy day fund. I am not convinced that cutting expenses by an additional 3% to fund it is the best way to go.

In the USA, the vast majority of state revenue falls into three categories:

Property taxes. Very stable and reliable.
Sales taxes. Moderatly stable and reliable
Income taxes. Unstable and unreliable, they are higher during times of booming economy.

Oregon does not have sales taxes, and since Measure 5 the percentage of total revenue generated from property taxes has declined. This leaves us with the only option of funding everything mainly with the revenue from income taxes. But there are expenses that will need more money when the economy is weak and the revenue from income taxes is low, for example programs that promote job growth or that target the poor, such as the Oregon health plan. And you have long term investments like public education that need to be funded at an adequate level during good times and bad times.

I am hopeful that both sides of the isle in the legislature will find a compromise on how to fund a rainy day fund to get it on the ballot next year. I just wish that our representatives in Salem had the courage to fix the structural problem of funding for Oregon.

For more solid information on Oregon's revenue and expenses, I highly recommend visiting the website of Citizens for Oregon's Future.

What I believe in

2005-03-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

Education – key to a stronger, more competitive Oregon
Public schools have always been a foundation of our community. They provide a better future for our children and grandchildren and an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to be part of the American dream. We need a well educated workforce to create jobs, reduce crime rate, and eliminate poverty.

Public schools – a great long term investment
We must manage our limited financial resources well, by being smarter, more efficient, transparent, responsive and accountable. But at the same time we all need to work towards stable and adequate funding that matches the growth in the student population in the Hillsboro school district, to keep our great schools from declining.

Students – the focus of our schools
We should not forget the goal of public schools: To provide a quality education to a new generation of students. We should strive to preserve those activities – from music to art, from theater to sports – that enrich the minds of students of all ages and keep them excited and motivated. Public education needs to be recognized as an essential service.

Teachers – we value their work and their commitment
Teachers should have more opportunities for training, and to learn best practices among themselves. We need to maintain an adequate level of support personnel, and funding for programs for English learners and special needs children. We should also work with the home/private schooling communities to see what lessons we can learn from each other.

Parents and families – their involvement is critical
Parent/family involvement in teacher-led, family-oriented programs can dramatically improve the quality of our education system, especially for younger students, and should be encouraged.

My life experience

2005-03-21T21:11:00.000-08:00

I am turning a round 40 years old this year, a couple of weeks before the election. Time to write a few short paragraphs on my life, to see what, if anything, in my past makes me a good candidate to vote for in the upcoming Hillsboro school board elections.

I was born in New York (in Queens, to be exact) from wonderful and caring Italian-American parents. My middle name John honors my Sicilian grandfather Giovanni Napolitano. My parents moved to Italy when I was 18 months old, and I lived in Rome and Milan for a large part of my life. I went to public school in Italy, and to a public university, the Milan Polytechnic, where I studied and graduated with the equivalent of a MS in Electrical Engineering. The Milan Poly was the second largest school of engineering and architecture in the world in terms of number of students, with about 30,000 students total and well over 1000 members of the faculty.

During my years at the Milan Poly I ran to be one of the student representatives on the board of directors of the university, and served one two year term. I was heavily involved in all the matters discussed by the board, especially the budget for research and teaching. As is the case with our own K-12 education school district budget, we had to make tough choices to stay within our means. It was an incredibly rewarding experience, but also a lot of hard work.

After I graduated from college, I moved to California and started working in the semiconductor industry, first as a process engineer and later as a manager of a department of about 20 between engineers and technicians. I got married to my loving wife Kathy and moved to Texas with her. While in Texas, my wife's older daughter was in high school, and I had the pleasure to see first hand the disaster that is the test-and-metrics-driven Texas school system (I will write about my opinion of Texas schools in a later post). I spent most of my evenings for three years to study at the University of Phoenix, where I earned a Master in Business Administration. After my daughter Anna was born, I left my job to take care of her during her first year of life, which was possibly the most rewarding year of my entire life. After that I started working as a translator for companies the IT industry, and later started my own translation company. I also served for two years as the Administrator of my professional organization, the Italian Language Division of the American Translators Association.

We moved to Oregon three years ago, finally settling in our wonderful community, where we plan to spend the rest of our lives helping Anna reach her potential and become a productive member of our community.

In my forty years I have learned to value the essential role that public schools have in our communities, as a student, a parent and a board director. I have seen first-hand school systems that are very different, in Italy, California, Texas and Oregon. Now it is time to give back to the public schools that gave so much to me, and use my experience to benefit of all us.

This week in Salem

2005-03-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of events related to public schools are happening in Salem this week.

On Monday March 21, the Oregon Education Association, Oregon's teachers' union, is taking advantage of spring break to have a OEA Lobby Day.

On Friday March 25, there will be a hearing of the Lottery Commission at the state fairgrounds. I will post additional information as they are available.

Diesel bus emissions

2005-03-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

The Oregon Environmental Council has published a pamphlet on School bus emissions. With diesel prices climbing steadily and approaching 3 dollars a gallon, it may not be a bad time to look at the cost of alternative (and potentially less polluting) fuels to run our school buses. The Hillsboro school district covers a very large area, and transportation costs are significant.

Contractors and living wages

2005-03-14T05:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of school board meetings ago, one of the routine items voted by the board was a couple of relatively small contracts for some fire alarm upgrades. One thing I noticed was the very large spread in the amounts of the bids: In one case the lowest bid was less than one third of the highest bid, in the other it was less than half.

When I was a member of the board of directors of my university (a long time ago, in a far away land...) we were legally required to assign contracts to the lowest bidder, but we also had to exclude those that offered a bid that was too low. The idea is that if someone offers you a deal that looks too good to be true, it probably is. We did not want to be penny wise and pound foolish and have to pay more at a later time because of poor workmanship and lack of quality.

In a case like the one of the HSD fire alarm upgrades (and other "small" contracts) I would really like to know if the contractors bidding are paying their workers well enough to attract qualified people. Let's ask what they expect to pay the people working on the project that we are going to pay for. Are the workers going to get a living wage? Or will their children qualify for reduced cost lunches if they attend Hillsboro schools?

I think that we need to pay more attention to the people who work on our contracts, and make sure that they are treated fairly. It is the right thing to do, and in the long run it makes more financial sense.

Why don't more people run for school board?

2005-03-14T05:39:00.000-08:00

As of last Friday, five people (including me) had filed to run for the four seats up for grabs in the Hillsboro school board elections on May 17. The Oregonian asks the question "Why don't more people run for school board?" in its weekly Community Snapshot.

I would add to that the question "Why don't more people VOTE in the elections for school board?" In the May 2003 election, right after a season of severe funding cuts for our K-12 public schools, less than 25% of the registered voters in the Hillsboro school district cast a ballot. Local and state government have a significant effect on our daily lives, yet the large majority of people are not aware of who their representatives are and of what they do. The reality is that only a handful of people are informed and passionate enough about local government. And that is one of the reasons we lost the November levy by a landslide. One of my goals, if elected, is to improve communication with the local community.

And based on what I know about the other candidates running for the Hillsboro school board, we may lack in quantity but we are big on quality. The people who are running are knowledgeable about our schools and our district, are passionate about them, and they will bring a lot of new ideas to the table.

Early retirement

2005-03-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

I missed an interesting article in the Oregonian a few days ago: For most, $5,000 may not be enough to quit teaching

While the reality of the current funding for K-12 education is not pretty, I have to say that I noticed that the attitude of some people during the recent school board and budget meetings that I attended is to consider experienced teachers as an expense, and one we can't afford. Experienced teachers are more expensive, and the cost of salaries and benefits is a very large percentage of the budget, but they are not just line items in an expense spreadsheet. These are a valuable resource and our classrooms may not be as enriching once we trade a dozen veterans of the whiteboard for some less costly new teachers. We need new teachers, and we also need experienced teachers. When the choice we have to make is between a bad teacher to student ratio and a worse one, when we focus on the numbers that will look good on the paper, we lose track of the big picture, and that we are all in this together for the future of our students.

Intel's new Strategic Investment Program

2005-02-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, Intel announced that it will request Washington County to discuss a new Strategic Investment Program (SIP). In 1999 the county agreed to a tax incentive specifically for Intel that would pretty much eliminate property taxes for all the equipment in the Intel manufacturing fabs in Oregon, limiting the property taxes to the land and building. On the county web site there is a page on the 1999 SIP that seems to be rather biased in Intel's favor. It shows how much more Intel would pay in property taxes on its land and buildings, but it does not mention (at least not directly) the fact that over the 10 year period of the agreement Intel would receive an estimated 70 million of tax reduction on the equipment.

The press release issued by Intel last week shows that the company only invested 7 billion of the 12.5 billion originally planned. The new program promises 25 billion in investments through the end of the next decade.

Is it worth it? If we continue with inadequate funding for education, safety, and a number of basic services, in a decade we won't have the educated workforce necessary to operate the advanced equipment in the new fabs, and people won't be interested in moving to our community to live and work here.

The city of Hillsboro will be in the red this year and next, mainly because of the limited revenue coming from the high tech companies. Oregon is already the most business-friendly of all the western states, and the percentage of state revenue coming from business has declined dramatically since measure 5. It is time for businesses to do their share.

I worked as an engineer and as a department manager in the semiconductor industry for many years. High tech companies will fight tooth and nail to get even a fraction of one percent in savings. But the truth is that the tax incentives are only a small part of the decision on where to start a new fab. A company I worked for invested hundreds of millions in a development manufacturing line in the Bay Area in the late 1990s, even though the labor costs were high, property taxes were high, and earthquake safety requirements were extremely expensive. A big reason for the choice was that there was an existing base of highly skilled workers in the area.

If we keep "bribing" companies to create jobs here, we will reach a point where they will not have a reason to invest here, regardless of the amount of the tax incentives. Let's think about it.

Surprises

2005-02-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

I really look forward to this little campaign. I want to talk with ordinary people and listen to their opinions and ideas. I am betting I will be very surprised by what I learn, like I did a few days ago.

Last week I attended an event organized by the Chalkboard Project here in Hillsboro. Attendance was pretty low (around 20 people).

One pleasant surprise in the two hour conversation was hearing many people say "I would be in favor of a sales tax if I knew that the money was going to fund education". This was not one of the limited number of topics that the organizers wanted us to talk about, but it kept coming up in what people were saying about stable funding for education and parental involvement.

My feeling is that there is a strong level of support for public school funding among the general population, in spite of the successes of measure 5 and other revenue limiting initiatives in the past two decades. A proposal that were easy to explain and that specifically funded education (and the Oregon Health Plan, if I had my say) would have a good chance of passing the scrutiny of the voters. So why do our elected state representatives and senators consider this type of idea toxic and carreer-limiting?

The other surprise in the conversation at the Chalkboard Project event was the very strong opinion against parent involvement expressed by one teacher who attended the meeting. She basically said something along the lines of "I am a teacher and I know that I am doing, and I don't like having parents come into my school and volunteer because they are not trained professionals and don't know what they are doing". Clearly it was not the prevailing position among the people who attended. Not surprisingly, since parents who care enough to attend this type of event are probably people who value parental involvement. But this surprised me nonetheless.

In my mind a greater level of parental involvement (both in terms of quantity and quality) in a teacher-led school environment can provide great benefits and help reduce the achievement gap. It is not a matter of using parent volunteers as a replacement for teachers in a limited funding environment, but rather of learning from some of the successes of the parent-led homeschooling model, and of making education a responsibility of the community, not just of the teachers. While I am not a trained education professional, I am perfectly capable of helping a first grader practice her reading. I do it at home every day, I am sure I could do at my local elementary school.

But I can see that this idea may be a tougher sell than I had imagined.

The Quality Education report

2005-02-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

The web site of the Oregon Department of Education includes the 2005 version of the Quality Education Commission report and a three page executive summary of the same document. Both can be found here. If I understand correctly, the report is mandated by the Oregon constitution, and it is supposed to be a planning tool that tells us what activities we need to do and what level of funding we need to provide in order to achieve a high percentage of students (90%) meeting state standards.

I highly recommend reading at least the summary and looking at the tables at the end of the full report that list the assumptions for the current baseline and the fully implemented model. The gap between them is significant, and we are losing ground with each passing year.

The idea of coming up with a vision and a plan to implement it as a tool to drive policy implementation and funding sounds like a reasonable approach. It is not rocket science.

Yet the issue of funding public education is extremely divisive and partisan. There are those who still feel that we are being too generous with our spending on public education in spite of the facts, that we can only afford a declining public education system.

I respectfully disagree.

English learners

2005-02-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

I was born in an Italian-American family, and was lucky enough to learn two languages well enough to earn a living from translating between them. And I was exposed to two wonderful cultures, the one of my parents and grandparents, and the one of the country I was born in and where I live.

In our schools here in our community we have many students who live in families where English is not the primary language, who have daily contact with the rich cultural heritage of other lands. We have kids from Asia, from Eastern Europe, and many Hispanics. They are sharp and hard working, but in the early years of their education many of them seem to be at a disadvantage in their reading level, and that may have an impact in their overall academic accomplishments later in life. I am not sure if the reason is that English is not the primary language in their household, but on average English learners (at least Hispanics) have a significantly lower average in the assessment tests in both reading and math.

We spend significant resources in ESL education, but I can't really see that the results match our efforts. I would like to see an assessment of our programs for English learners to see if they are effective and if we can improve them. Perhaps we should fund a volunteer program where people help a child read once a week, or maybe we should start a bilingual program in one elementary school or two where there is a significant percentage of ESL students, modeled on similar programs in a handful of schools elsewhere in the state. And maybe we should have a parent/family involvement program specifically tailored to the needs of the bilingual communities.

In any case we need to narrow the learning gap for English learners, and involve their families and their community leaders to identify a strategy and a plan of action. The upcoming strategy sessions that the School Board will organize in the coming months may be a good opportunity to start this dialog.

On my calendar

2005-02-16T06:26:00.000-08:00

Thursday February 17, Salem, Oregon PTA Legislative Summit
The Oregon PTA brings public school citizen advocates to Salem for a day of discussion and training. Citizen's for Oregon's Future will present information on school funding. The Chalkboard Project will show the results of their surveys of all the public schools stakeholders that details the perceptions about Oregon education and ideas for improving it. The
Oregon PTA Legislative Team will guide particilants through the process of being an effective advocate at the Capitol.

Monday February 21, Salem, Rally for School Funding - You are invited!
The event is sponsored by many associations, including Stand for Children, the Oregon PTA, the Oregon Business Association, the Hillsboro Education Association and many others. I hope you can come and join thousands of Oregonians to show your support for stable and adequate public funding for K-12 education. If you are interested and would like to carpool, please contact me.

Tuesday February 22, Hillsboro, School Board Meeting

Wednesday February 23, Hillsboro, Community Forum Meeting
Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center, 527 E. Main Street, 6:00-7:30 PM
One of 7 meeting organized by the district "to hear community input that will help guide budget development and long-range planning". This specific meeting will be held in Spanish.

Thursday February 24, Hillsboro, Chalkboard Project Town Hall Discussion - You are invited!
Hillsboro High School, 6:30-8:30 PM

Of tests and metrics

2005-02-16T06:12:00.000-08:00

In one of the meetings I attended last week I was given an advance copy of the Hillsboro School District scorecard for the year 2003-2004. There is a lot of interesting data in the four pages of the scorecard, some of them quite eye-opening for someone like me who is still learning the ins and outs of the district.

My family lived in Texas in the late 1990s. My wife's older daughter did her last three years of high school in Arlington. The educational system in Texas revolved around the standardized TAAS test, to the point that nothing else mattered. Funding was linked to the results of the test, and this meant that test preparation took precedence over any other educational activity. Funding was cut to the schools when a student was absent, and to make sure that they would get their monies, students had to make up lost days by spending their Saturdays at school in detention. When my daughter was home sick (and contagious) for a week, she had to spend the following five Saturdays doing nothing at her high school. And those students that for one reason or another were out more than a few days were strongly encouraged to drop out for the rest of the year. If they were no longer in school their absences would not count against the school, which would keep the district's metrics high so that they would keep their funding.

The result is that the Texas students do extremely well in the TAAS test, better that students in other states do on their own state's standardized tests. But when compared on the same national college admission tests, Texas students do very poorly compared with other states. To me, this means that they are learning how to pass the test, but they are not learning the academic and reasoning skills that the test should be based on.

I fear is that over the long term we will be forced to turn Oregon education into the failure that is Texas.

As a parent I have to admit that I like to see metrics that tell me if the school district and my child's school are doing their job. But the results should be the basis for some healthy discussion on educational strategies and improvement, not just a way to punish schools. And we should be able to measure our progress on metrics that we choose based on our state and local educational goals and our vision for our public schools. I would like us to find measurable ways to track our goal of greater parent involvement, for example. I would like to see metrics that show that our teachers are not just qualified but that they are allowed to spend enough time each year to further their own education and stay up to speed with the challenges in the classroom.

NYT: Utah House challenges NCLB

2005-02-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

An article in today's New York Times titled Utah Bill Mounts Challenge to Federal Education Law (free membership required) talks about a bill passed 72 to 0 by the Utah House of Representatives that would give higher priority to state educational goals when they are in conflict with federal mandates, and would prevent school districts from spending more than they receive to implement those programs. The bill now goes to the Utah Senate, where it is likely to pass.

"No Child Left Behind is one of the most important issues of federal intrusion in state affairs that we've faced," said State Representative Kory M. Holdaway, a Republican, speaking for [State Representative] Dayton's bill in yesterday's debate. "This is a message bill. We want to send a message to the federal government that Utah has a great education system and we know best how to manage it."

My virtual applause goes to the gutsy Utah House. Here in Oregon we have the same unfunded federal mandates that force us to take money from learning activities and use it for testing. We are told that our way of educating our students is not right (and that our schools could be considered "failing" because of that) even when it is considered ideal by experts and educators nationwide (for example when we use a team approach in our middle schools). We know how to educate the next generation of Oregonians, and I wish Salem would tell that to the federal government loud and clear.

Stable and adequate

2005-02-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

I worked in the semiconductor manufacturing industry for 8 years, and at each of the companies I worked for, the mantra was always "don't tell me why something can't be done, tell me what you need to get it done". It is one of the pillars of successful businesses. Don't just look for reasons and excuses for not meeting a difficult but important goal, find ways to accomplish the goal.

What does this have to do with education in Oregon and here in Hillsboro?

During his state of the state speech a month ago, Governor Kulongoski basically said that his 5.0 billion proposed budget for K-12 education is inadequate, but that there is nothing we can do about it because we can't have a stable and adequate revenue stream for education, health care and other basic needs of Oregon. I was at a town hall meeting last night, with state representative Chuck Riley (disclaimer: I volunteered in Chuck Riley's campaign), and it sounds like the idea that there is nothing we can do this session is pretty much everybody's opinion down in Salem (at least the opinion of Rep. Riley, who is on the House Revenue Committee).

It sure looks like those oregonians who want and benefit from public services and don't want to have to pay for them (the moral equivalent of shoplifters) have won because the people who should be fighting for all of us have given up.

But things can be done, it is just a matter of getting enough support. Personally I like the proposal in SB 382, which would cut income taxes in half and replace them with a sales tax that would roughly bring an equivalente revenue stream. And the money collected from sales tax would go towards K-12 education and the Oregon Health Plan. Section 145 of the bill:

Moneys in the Sales Tax Fund are dedicated to funding:
 (a) Kindergarten through grade 12 public education in this
state; and
 (b) The Oregon Health Plan and other health care needs in this
state.

We have found in the past few years that funding education mainly from the very volatile personal income taxes lead to significant changes in funding year to year. This is the wrong way to fund long term investments like the education of the next generation of oregonians, or other important services that need more funding when the economy and the revenue for income tax are down, such as the Oregon Health Plan. With SB 382 we have a proposal on the table, signed by both republican and democratis senators and representatives. We should work on getting the support of the business community and the public opinion behind this or another proposal that would stabilize the sources of funding for K-12 education.

Let's stop finding reasons why this will fail, and work on finding ways to win.

Vote for me on May 17

2005-01-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

We live in interesting times, when changes in technology and in our society make it possible for ordinary citizens like us to be part of the political system that affects our lives, in ways that we never thought of.

These are times when doing our duty as citizens and getting our vote counted - even in those itty-bitty local elections - barely gives us a passing grade in citizenship. We need to be involved, participate actively, and influence those in positions of power by communicating our opinion. It is time to reverse decades of increasing isolation in our community, to create new bonds and new connections, to speak with our neighbors about what is important to us all, and perhaps meet them for the first time. These are times when it is imperative to start a great conversation, in our living rooms and on our porches, in our churches and in our schools, everywhere around us, in person and online, to discuss once again abour our values and about the goals for our community that stem from those values.

Throughout my adult years, I have always had a strong interest in our public schools. I grew up in Italy, and got a great education in the public schools there. I lived in Texas and had a first hand experience with the test-driven public education during the years of governor Bush. I have seen the damage caused by looking exclusively at metrics and forgetting the students behind the numbers, and the importance of their education. And now that my family and I have settled in Oregon, I have great hopes for the education system of the community that is my permanent home.

There is great value in a quality public education system. I will touch on the reasons for my strong opinion in some future posts. But I don't see that my belief in public education is shared by the majority of people in Oregon or here in Hillsboro. Those among us who don't value the public services that can only be provided collectively by our community - or those who value them but who follow the morals of the shoplifters who want something but don't want to pay for it - are winning the battle for the opinion of Oregonians. We all lost a vote on local funding for the Hillsboro School District while the people in charge of the district never made a strong case on behalf of our students and our schools. After cutting spending to the bone, this year we are cutting some more. We delay spending on maintenance and backend IT servers that are well past their useful life and in serious need of maintenance or replacement. We live another day only thanks to the incredibly dedicated employees of the local schools. Instead of focusing on how to improve the quality of our schools - perhaps in new "out of the box" ways (and I will offer some ideas about this in a future post) - we play on the defensive because our schools are under attack.

And even people who should be well informed know very little about the reality of our schools. Just a couple of days ago there was an interview in the Hillsboro Argus with my state representative, Kitts, who seems to be oblivious of the reality of the schools in his district.

How come our seven representatives on the Hillsboro School District board are not as active in their role as advocates for our public schools? Between them, they have almost 50 years of experience at the center of our public school system. They do a reasonally good job at managing our funds while the revenue is shrinking. Where are they when their voice as elders in our community counts?

For all these reasons, I have decided to run for election for one of the four open seats on the HSD board this May 17. I don't know if someone who is relatively new to the community and with a funny Italian name can unseat incumbents with close to a decade of experience. I sincerely hope I can, because I have lots to offer to the community. But even if I don't, I want to spend all my spare time in the next four months to start a new conversation thoughout the Hillsboro School District community about the important role of our public schools.

Let's talk.

Marcello

Chalkboard Project

2005-01-27T21:48:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I attended the Washington County Public Affairs Forum presentation given by the Chalkboard Project. I had stumbled on their web site in the past few weeks, but I did not realize the wealth of information that they had collected about the opinion of the general population of Oregon public schools and the state of education in Oregon.

For a start, they have a short and sweet one page summary of the Top 10 Things to Know About Oregon's K-12 Public Schools that is a real eye opener. They have also done a survey of the opinions regarding the issues and the solutions for our education system for many different stakeholders, ranging from parents, to teachers, to recent high school graduates, to school boards and superintendents. They also include data gathered from parents of students receiving special education services, as well as Spanish-speaking parents. The wealth of information and the ideas gathered from that study are very impressive. It should be required reading for all our Oregon legislators and for the administrators in our public schools.

On February 24, the Chalkboard project will be in Hillsboro, presenting its findings and collecting additional data from the participants. Definitely worth attending.

The dog ate my economy

2004-08-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

The Thursday Hillsboro Argus has a reasonally balanced editorial titled Good/bad news about how the Republicans tend to spin even terrible news about the economy as good news. The effect of the Bush years has been seen here at home in Hillsboro. Do you all remember the Doonesbury strip and how it made fun of Oregon's shortened shool year in the spring of 2003? Do you remember the additional levies that we had to vote on to keep funding for our schools? Do you remember the increased tuition costs at Oregon's colleges? We all suffered the effects of the Bush Tax.

What I find surprising is that the Bush administration was served all the ingredients for a booming economy, and blew it. The interest rates have been at record lows, but we still can't get business to invest in growth. The dollar has been weak, at record low levels against the euro, and we still did not get the boom in the export sector that we should have had. Instead we keep losing jobs to other countries.

The Bush administration had the potential of being great, but it let greed and cronysm get in the way of good government. And now the party line is that it is not their fault. It is Clinton's fault for leaving a sound economy with a surplus instead of a deficit. It is Saddam's fault. It is the fault of the short recession at the beginning of 2001. It is absolutely not the fault of Bush's irresponsible tax cuts that balooned the deficit and lined the pockets of the wealthiest with gold. In short, the dog ate my economy.

In November we will have a choice when we mark our ballot. If we still believe the excuses coming from the right, we deserve to get another four years of Bush. But I will mark my ballot for John Kerry.

Same sex marriage news coverage

2004-03-17T00:28:00.000-08:00

The best coverage I have seen on the web about the same sex marriage news in the past couple of weeks has been at a local blog, PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE. Worth a visit.

A great summary of Oregon house and senate races

2004-03-16T22:43:00.000-08:00

You can find an excellent one page summary of the status of the Oregon house and senate races here. It looks like the Oregon senate could have a democratic majority next year, assuming that they can win district 25 (Gresham). Three other senate races may be competitive, all of them currently in the republican column.

On the other hand, there are a lot more competitive races in the Oregon house races, many of them in Washington county.

Tax Reform Hearings

2004-02-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

After the defeat earlier this month of yet another ballot attempting to provide adequate funding for schools and other essential services, it is interesting to note that the Oregon Legislature's Tax Reform Committee is in the middle of a series of special hearings around the state to hear the opinion of citizens, local community leaders and business owners on how to reform the tax system in Oregon.

The schedule of the hearings includes stops in Beaverton on March 2nd and in Portland on March 3rd. The complete schedule can be found on the web site of the Citizens for Oregon's Future. On the same site we can also find some interesting data on the current tax system and the potential impact of many possible options on revenue.

Tillamook 50/50 initiative

2004-02-26T20:58:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the year again, when the petition gatherers begin to come out to ensure plenty of initiatives on the ballot in November.

There is going to be one rather interesting initiative looking for signers in the coming weeks. The Tillamook 50/50 strikes a remarkable balance between the needs of conservation of one of the rare temperate rainforests in the Nortwest, with the need for economic development and job growth in the area. Maybe I am biased, but a proposal that balances ideas that will appeal to pro-environment voters with ideas that will appeal to pro-business voters is refreshing, in this very polarized day and age.

In short, the initiative wants to have long term restoration on 50% of the area in the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests to be a native old growth forest. The remaining 50% will be used for a sustainable timber production. The interests of communities depending on water from the state forests (including a significant part of the Portland metro area) and the preservation of wildlife are also part of the plan.

More information on the initiative can be found on the web site of the Tillamook Rainforest Coalition.

Debate among republican CD1 candidates

2004-02-25T11:12:00.000-08:00

The three republicans who are running for the chance of challenging David Wu in the Novemmer election for the Oregon congressional district 1, are going to participate in a debate organized by the Washington County Public Affairs Forum. The debate will be held in Beaverton on Monday March 1 at noon, and it will last one hour. For details and location, visit the Washington County Public Affairs Forum - Speakers Page.

Oregon League of Conservation Voters scorecard

2004-02-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

The OLCV (Oregon League of Conservation Voters) is in the midst of evaluating the primary candidates, and their position on environmental issues. Endorsements will come out of this process, probably in the next few weeks.

The OLCV also has a scorecard for the 2003 session for all state representatives and state senators. Personally I like it a lot when organizations representing specific constituencies or positions publicly rate candidates and our representatives in Salem. It is a wonderful example of democracy in action.

Nader runs as an independent

2004-02-23T19:42:00.000-08:00

An AP wire article on kgw.com has some comments from Oregon voters regarding Nader running as an independent. Since he will not be the candidate of the Green party, he will have to collect over 15000 signatures to be on the ballot, not impossible but not an easy task. It would be 1/5 of the number of voters who cast a ballot for him in 2000. My feeling is that his support even in Oregon is almost non-existent, based on what I hear from Nader voters. Things may change if Democrats insist on nominating a stuffy insider like Kerry.

Chances are, Nader will be irrelevant in this election year.

Gay rights as a 2004 campaign issue?

2004-02-21T04:53:00.000-08:00

Look like gay marriage and gay rights may be a 2004 campaign theme even here in Oregon. A proposal to define marriage as being between a man and a woman may be on the ballot in November, according to News From 365Gay.com.

It will be interesting to see how the issue of denying equal rights for gays and lesbians tilts the balance in a battleground state.

It may be time to donate to the Human Rights Campaign.

Welcome

2004-02-21T04:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to ORP. I will be posting news, information and commentary on Oregon politics and elections.

I will post more on me later.