Commentary
Stand up, speak out for more public school funding
Guest commentary
Since the national and state eco
nomic crisis, you have encountered
challenges. In order to guarantee
that Oregon’s schools remain one of
the nation’s best, I am asking for
your help. Step back for a minute
and evaluate your education experi
ence, not only as a student, but as an
Oregonian as well. It should be obvi
ous education is the key that un
locks the door to success. How do
you improve the quality of our edu
cation system?
It’s simple. Prove to those around
you that your generation’s future
and the institutions you learn in are
worth the public’s investment. Every
cent counts toward the necessary
tools that enable you to learn every
day, from textbooks to teachers. If
the public doesn’t continue to fund
education, we will send the wrong
message to everyone involved. Let’s
encourage Oregonians to properly
fund one of the best public educa
tion systems in the nation.
Some people think our schools al
ready have enough money. Let’s look
at some facts. In a well-known
Northwest economist firm’s study, it
was discovered that in 1990, Oregon
was spending 4.6 percent of the total
state income on K-12 education; in
2000, Oregon spent only 4.2 per
cent. Put another way, the gover
nor’s published budget is $1 billion
short of what’s needed to have the
same education product we had two
years ago.
A big misconception about spend
ing is that the GIM and GAM costs
hundreds of millions of dollars per
year. Not true. The cost of this as
sessment system is #30 to #40 mil
lion. It is impossible to eliminate stu
dent assessments, as they are now
mandated by the federal govern
ment’s No Child Left Behind Act.
During my March 21, 2003, tes
timony to the Oregon House of
Representatives Revenue Commit
tee, I advocated for increasing pub
lic investment in our schools and
our future. I summed up our situa
tion like this:
“We, and the federal government,
are demanding dramatic improve
merits from our schools — and it ap
pears we are about to give them dra
matically less money than they
need. It’s as if we were telling a base
ball manager, ‘Win 100 games and
the Series this year, or you’re fired
— and by the way you’ve got to cut
payroll by 20 percent.’”
After reading this, education’s fu
ture must appear pretty bleak, but
you know better. Oregon schools are
worth fighting for. Oregon has been
No. 1 or No. 2 in SAT scores for the
past 13 years. Oregon teachers are
among the most qualified in the na
tion. By every objective standard,
Oregon schools are among the best
in the nation!
Failure to invest in our schools
would surely stifle our chance to
keep our lead, as well as harm stu
dents and their futures.
You can change this situation,
strengthen our schools and safe
guard your future all at the same
time by making a simple commit
ment. Whenever possible, educate
those around you concerning what
the statewide budget cuts have done
to the learning process in your
school and community. Become an
education advocate. If you can touch
the lives close to you — your family,
your friends, their families — you
can help sway public opinion toward
investing in Oregon’s education —
investing in your future.
Susan Castillo is Oregon's
superintendent of public instruction.
Limiting late-term abortions violates reproductive equality
Guest commentary
The vote March 13 in the U.S.
Senate to limit late-term abortions
was not only an attack on a
woman’s right to control her own
medical and reproductive choices,
but also an attack on gender equi
ty and basic human rights.
As a matter of clarification, only
1.4 percent or all abortions occur in
the second half of pregnancy, and
these are typically done in an effort
to save the life of the mother, or in
instances where the fetus will not
survive past delivery.
That having been said, the at
tempts made to legislate this deci
sion, to take a personal, often
medically necessary, choice away
from women and their care
providers is a symbol ot the very
real and evident inequality that
continues to exist in our society.
As a further example of this, one
only need look at who the deci
sion makers were this week —
the vote in the Senate was com
posed of 14 women and 86 men.
The ripple effects of this decision
and others like it are something that
concerns all of us as citizens and as
students. One’s educational oppor
tunities and economic well-being
are dramatically affected by his or
her ability to make comprehensive,
informed decisions about when and
how to start a family.
Women need to be able to control
when they have children to get a
good education, and they need a
good education to ensure that they
can support the children that they
want to have.
This is not the first attack on the
reproductive rights of women, and
it most likely will not be the last.
Knowing this, the time for compla
cency, if ever there was one, is over.
To ignore one’s rights is to lose them
— advocate for equality now.
Rachel Pilliod is a junior political science
major.
Letter to the editor
Free speech in classes
shouldn’t be stifled
Nanci McChesney-Henry, an
anatomy teacher at Sheldon High
School in Eugene, recently focused
on the link between the environ
ment and the human body. A stu
dent question regarding the environ
mental effect of oil triggered an open
discussion. About half of the 32 stu
dents offered comments.
“My class,” said the teacher, “is
about a free exchange of ideas.” For
thousands of years this has been the
classic definition of education in a
free society — education that W.B
Yeats calls “not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of the fire.”
However, Shawn Haggard, 17, “a
self-described conservative who fa
vors war against Iraq,” contacted
Lars Larson and appeared on KEZI
news to complain about the teacher.
According to other students in class,
including Kristina Turner, also a
Bush supporter, Haggard almost
completely misrepresented what
happened in class. Principal Bob
Bolden has been fielding angry calls
and e-mails from around the state
and beyond ever since.
Instead of being publicly vilified,
McChesney-Henry should be
praised and honored. Anyone aware
of the extremist assault on public ed
ucation led by the fundamentalist
and evangelical Christian wing of
Bush’s Republican Party, however,
knows that these know-nothings
consider true education dangerous.
Subversive. Un-American. They
much prefer rote memory, religious
monopoly and unquestioning, lock
step state indoctrination posing as
patriotism. Through intimidation,
they wish to smother the free inter
change of ideas.
We cannot allow teachers on any
level to be threatened in this way by
American Taliban or anyone else.
Jerome Garger
Eugene
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012461
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