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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2005)
Plan: Current funding process too competitive uorwnuea irom pdge i state and talking about education, it has become obvious to me that we’re not looking at tins the right way,” he said. Kulongoski described the current process as a competition amongst lob byists with “winners and losers.” “We actually compete with each other,” Kulongoski said. In particular, Kulongoski said the K-12 educators have a better lobby and thus get more of the attention in the debate. As such, Kulongoski said, the de cline in state revenues from 2001 to the present is not entirely to blame for in adequate education funding. “That disinvestment policy has been going on for 15 years in this state.” Kulongoski said he was particularly concerned about the decrease in the Oregon Opportunity Grant state schol arship program because it also affects students in Oregon’s private schools. “I have a rising population in this state and a decreasing student enroll ment,” Kulongoski said. “The kids will not end up going to school in this state.” Kulongoski said Oregon youth will go to higher quality schools that are more affordable. The solution, Kulongoski said, has two major parts: Start treating the state’s educational system as a unified enterprise instead of a loose collection of competing agencies, and grow the state’s economy. In order to pay for necessary im provements in the state’s education system, Kulongoski said it is vital to grow the state’s economy. This means having one of the best educated and best trained workforces possible, he said. “We are still recovering from a natu ral resource-based economy,” he said. He stressed that growing the econo my will take time because of the transi tion between a natural resource-based economy and an economy more fo cused on skilled labor. “The one thing we can all do is look at education as an enterprise. ” The governor criticized the Minnis plan because it dedicates funds only from personal income tax revenue. “The difference I have with that is an ideological one,” he said. He said that all residents of Oregon — busi nesses included — have an obligation to pay for education. KuiongosKi saia me ousiness com munity is the single largest beneficiary of higher education. “They benefit from this more than anyone else,” he said. As such, he con tinued, the business community should have a stake in funding education. Kulongoski also said the Minnis plan is too narrow in its focus on only K-12. “I want the debate about the whole enterprise,” Kulongoski said. “I am not telling you that it gives ed ucation at every level everything they need,” he said. “I’m not telling you this is going to be easy.” However, the key to turning around education in this state is getting stable funding for a holistic education enter prise, he said. Then the debate over education funding can focus on what the money is going to be spent on rather than how much money is going to be spent. The governor said critics of the plan would probably say that 61 percent of the general fund going to education would leave inadequate funds for oth er essential government services. However, Kulongoski also said that an increase in education would lead to reduced crime as well as reduced need for social services, which would re duce demand for government services. “It’s basically putting our money where we’ve been talking. We’re prior itizing it,” Kulongoski said. The governor said the legislature has already accepted parts of the plan in one form or another. “There’s not a piece of this that has n’t passed one part of the legislature. It’s just sitting there,” he said. The governor also made some gener al remarks about education in the state. “I think a lot of kids are just bored to death in high school,” said Kulongos ki. “They’re just looking for something a little more challenging, and we’re not going a very good job of it. ” The governor said closer partner ships between high schools and com munity colleges will allow students to take more advanced classes. “I think the pivot point for education in Oregon are the community colleges,” he said. “That’s why I’ve pushed this idea of a seamless system.” The seamless system would allow any student with a two-year degree from an Oregon community college to receive iuu crecm ior rnose iwo years at any public or private college in the state. “It works. It’s a good investment. It’s efficiency,” he said. The governor also said that stan dards to graduate high school in Ore gon are much more lax than they are in many other parts of he country. “There is no one in this room who looks at the global economy and be lieves you can compete with that stan dard,” Kulongoski said. However, simply raising the stan dards for graduation will not fix the problem, he said. “I have to have the teachers who are qualified to teach that type of a cur riculum and it’s going to take some time to get there.” At the close of his address, the gov ernor said any discussion of education would be incomplete if it didn’t in clude discussion of those who decide not to go to college. He said people who would rather work with their hands are given “sec ond class status in society” if they choose not to go to college. Kulongoski said tradespeople and other laborers who choose different paths should not be stigmatized. “Somebody has to pick up the tools ... and put all this together,” he said. Kulongoski was introduced by LCC President Mary Spilde. Spilde said the governor’s speaking tour is the “beginning of an important conversation” about the future of edu cation and the future of the state itself. A group of minority students from LCC’s Rights of Passage summer acad emy was in the audience. “The summer academy is for stu dents of color from our local middle and high schools,” Spilde said. “These students are investing their time now for higher education in the future; an investment we all know pays off.” A group of students played drums and sang a Native American song be fore the governor’s remarks. When students were given a chance to ask the governor questions, one student asked whether it was hard to be governor. Kulongoski replied, “Yes. And when the legislature is in town, it’s very hard. When they’re gone, it’s better.” gabebradley@ daily emerald, com 1R,e&t<ZUrKZ*tt Open daily 7 am - 3 pm Seat Swafyaat ut loom! Try our biggest & best Pancakes & Omelettes! Ask about our daily specials! We serve breakfast anytime! Also serving lunch 1689 Willamette *343-1542 FRIDAY'S @ FOUR STUDENT GOLFING AT 'THE NINES’ $AA.95 Nine Holes plus FREE Fountain Drink (or $ 1.00 off beer or wine) For More Info call 345-9160 or visit www.PlayRiverRidgeGolf.com FOR THE STUDENTS AT U of 0: AN OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN PRESENTING THE MOST BENEFICIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN MANKIND’S HISTORY 0226(48 For well over 35 years, I have conducted a private research and development project which deals with matters absolutely essential to health and the effective development and fulfillment of the full range of human capabilities. The results are so remarkable and have such profound implications for our use of technology and our lifestyles that I have maintained effective privacy. However, a number of things have made it clear that the time has come to share it with those who can benefit most and from whom a group can be developed to arrange for making the work available to our society and the world. “It is pure serendipity, if there is such a thing, that I happen to be in Eugene at this transitional moment." There is an element of passing the torch, but participation places no requirement or burden on the recipients. You will quickly see that once it begins it will take on a dynamic life of its own. It may help to give some indication of its importance to tell you that over the years I have consulted with approximately 200 scientists, engineers and technicians in universities, government agencies and private industry for special information, equipment, supplies or production facilities. Only once did any of them disagree with anything I told them, almost all of them mentioned supportive material from their own disciplines and most rated my work as the most advanced being done anywhere. Many of them actually consider it to be the most important and beneficial in mankind’s history. They have, without solicitation or compensation, voluntarily supplied at least 95% of the total costs of the work; amounting to about $2 million. The project included thousands of experiments, applications and modifications, in my laboratories and in situ, the development of many special environments, mechanisms (equipment), techniques and processes and over 100 field trips and expeditions. The best procedure in presenting this work is to follow the sequence of discovery and development of the original project. This is fine because that early work clearly demonstrates the wonders that follow and it also provides enormous benefit and pleasure, since it is an environment in which every factor which influences the actual impact of audio and visual experiences, as well as the mental activity induced by them, is optimized. It is an ideal perception chamber and not only gives one an enhanced experience without gimmicks or embellishments, but introduces one to remarkable qualities and intensities of clarity, recognition, realization, retention and effective integration and to one's nearly incredible human potentials. These are genuinely transcendent above those stimulated by our regular lives and by the audio/visual formats and environments currently in use. Its applications to the visual and auditory arts as well as theater, motion picture, television and, especially, education, can honestly be described as a quantum advancement and much less expensive than those currently in use. When you begin to experience what a human being actually is and is capable of experiencing and developing, you will begin to realize that 'the most important developments in mankind’s history’ doesn’t begin to suggest how remarkable and beneficial they are. Its simplest form is what could be called a theater for a one-person audience and it provides a perfect (introduction and base for the advanced versions fw larger audiences and for the body of work that followed. Those who participate will assist in producing a sequence of demonstration versions and will then be amongst those from whom the participants in the next phase will come. My present intention is to have as many theaters producing as many different programs as there are those wishing to do so. This version is so inexpensive, compact and easily constructed that there is no reason that anyone who wants one cannot have one, as long as I feel that they can be trusted with so potent an access to the individual auditor’s mind and consciousness. One must be very carefui that what is presented will have positive resonance. It may be that those who are sufficiently trustworthy in this regard will be permitted to establish some simple commercial applications in order to assist their own financial situations. I need very little help, but I will find excellent use for all that is available. The basic rules are simple: Your participation will always remain voluntary. You will never have any obligation, except to respect proprietary rights. You must never do anything to help which doesn’t feel right. Your efforts must never exceed your enthusiasm because quality suffers and quality is All. Everyone is welcome and will be useful, but I especially recommend it to those interested in education, the arts, theater, psychology, sociology, physiology, engineering, etc. If you would like more specific information on the perception chamber project, you may leave your name, telephone and e-mail, fax# or mailing address for John Lawrence Consultants at 816-729-6855. When I see how many wish to continue after that, I will arrange a time and place where we can get together for mutual discussion prior to making any decision. TO U of 0 TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS: I will be glad to have your input and involvement as long as it is open-minded, well intentioned and constructive, though not necessarily uncritical. The scientific proofs of my work will become relevant at some stage and you will find them essential, useful and fascinating. The more scientifically inclined you are, the more you will be astonished and absolutely convinced. Very early on and before the advanced work is produced, it will be absolutely necessary to make direct, effective contact with those who have the most actual influence in our society, so that everything beyond the perception chamber is made available to and exclusively controlled by them. It would be ingenuous and irresponsible for me to pretend that the advanced work does not have overwhelming implications for society and such things clearly fall within their area of interest and real world authority. Also, they should, themselves, have available the developments pertaining to regeneration and youthful longevity as soon as practicable. They are of genuinely incomparable value. You may be able to provide useful guidance and assistance in this. In the meantime, if this comes to the attention of anyone of particular spcietaj inflqeoce,they $tjopl.d contact, rpe, ipipipcfiately,..
