What stands out in the Tribune article about PPS' ambitious plans for closing the budget gap and restructuring the district is what Superintendent Vicki Phillips didn't say. She said nothing about long term funding solutions for Portland's schools.
That doesn't surprise me. One of her staunch supporters, Scott Bailey of Citizens and Parents for Public Schools, wrote in an e-mail to Stephenson Elementary parents saying that CPPS is less concerned with money than with working "...to improve the quality of teaching in our schools, how to raise the rigor of curriculum, how to improve leadership... ." In other words, funding schools adequately isn't as important as running schools efficiently.
That's straight from Vicki Phillips' mouth, and conforms quite nicely with the district's desire to impose a business model of school governance on Portland. According to the Oregonian, "...Phillips' push to close schools plays well with business leaders concerned about the district's cost structure." Raising taxes to fund public education doesn't have the same appeal.
I recently wrote a post arguing the importance of fully funding the Quality Education Model to ensure that all schools are able to offer a full array of instructional programs in classrooms with reasonably small numbers of students. Quality education should not be sacrificed on the altar of the "business" vision of efficiency.
Conservatives and libertarian charter school proponents like Rob Kremer tend to disagree. In his latest blog post, Kremer dismisses the QEM as a pie-in-the-sky funding scheme with no guarantee of improving student outcomes. He goes on to claim that charter schools can deliver the goods for half what we're now paying now for traditional public schools. I'd like to see the evidence.
Kremer is backing Ron Saxton for governor. In one of his comments on the same post, he cites support for Saxton from such friends of public education as Don McIntire of Measure 5 notoriety, Lars Larson, the right-wing radio blowhard, and other bona fide conservatives like state legislators Wayne Scott, Jeff Kropf, and Brian Boquist.
Five good reasons why former Portland School Board Chair Saxton may be perhaps the worst choice for Mahonia Hall.
Comments