The Oregonian's editorial Sunday praising Vicki Phillips' leadership in crafting a cost-conscious school district budget seems to imply that "trust" alone is sufficient for running a quality educational progam. I beg to disagree. Phillips' "decisive" leadership--closing five neighborhood schools and tinkering with the structure of a couple of others -- is like throwing a few deck chairs overboard before the Titanic hits the iceberg.
The iceberg in this case is the shameful underfunding of public schools by taxpayers and the people who represent them. We pay less now per student than we did 15 years ago, yet we demand more. As a result, class sizes in Portland and around the state have increased to intolerable numbers. That's not going to change without adequate funding.
Phillips is new to the district but the people who hired her-- members of the school board--aren't. I suggest they haul her down to Salem to do some serious lobbying, along with the superintendents of Portland's neighboring school districts.
Once that happens, then praise for Phillips' leadership from the state's largest newspaper would be welcome.
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Former chair of the school board Ron Saxton is considering a run for governor to provide the "leadership" he claims the current governor, Ted Kulongoski, has failed to provide.
According to Steve Duin in his column today, Saxton's leadership vision, based on his twice-weekly KATU television commentaries, looks a lot like Kulongoski's:
"Saxton spent his last year on the air discussing taxes, PERS reform, public schools and the pervasive public disenchantment with government. On the rare occasions when he moved past the debates to conclusions, he applauded the decisiveness of Vicki Phillips, superintendent of Portland Public Schools, and criticized the Oregon Supreme Court's PERS ruling."
And he advocated the "free lunch" strategy of no new taxes:
"And Saxton adores the tired mantra that the answer to our prayers is 'not just cutting services or raising taxes; it is finding ways to do things differently.' Last June, he celebrated that free-lunch approach by suggesting Oregon's leaders could learn from Virginia's, where a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor 'adopted a budget that adds more than $1.5 billion to the state's treasury over two years, replenishes a depleted rainy-day fund and invests in critical services and infrastructure.'
" 'Admittedly,' he adds, 'Virginia's plan includes raising taxes.' No kidding: $1.4 billion in new taxes, with sizable boosts in the sales and cigarette taxes."
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Down in Salem, the Democratic Senate and Republican House are bickering over how to spend a few million more that's been added to the state budget. The Dems want to give it all to schools ($5.325 billion), which at least would "stop the bleeding", according to Sen. Kurt Schrader.
The Republicans disagree:
"[Rep. Wayne] Scott countered that $5.175 billion would lead to only 'slight reductions' for schools, and that the money would be better kept in reserve and spent on other programs.
" 'We want to ensure that seniors stay in their homes and inmates stay in prison,' said Rep. Susan Morgan, R-Myrtle Creek, Ways and Means vice chairwoman."
That's what it's come down to -- the jailhouse versus the schoolhouse.
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