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,..