LOCAL
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
BUSES
CENSUS
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
vehicle is stationary. This makes them
ideal for school buses, Greenlee said,
because many operate in this speed
range.
If not for the automatic chains, local
schools bus drivers might sometimes
face the possibility of putting on iron
chains for an icy stretch and then have
to stop and take them off, a long pro-
cess. The automatic chains, Bolen said,
can be a time saver.
The automatic chains Bolen and
other school bus drivers use are fi xed
to the suspension of buses. When the
chain system is activated, small rubber
chain wheels that run along the inside
of the back tires of the bus are lowered.
Then as the bus accelerates the chain
wheel spins and the chain links are
thrown underneath the tires to provide
friction. Air brakes provide pressurized
air to push the chainwheels to the tires.
Still, while the devices are a big help
to drivers, Maley said, “they do not
replace iron chains.”
She noted when conditions on
Interstate 84 are so slick that traction
devices such as traditional chains are
required by state law, automatic chains
do not count as acceptable traction
devices. But the automatic chains are
valuable when buses encounter packed
snow and ice on steep roads.
“They are a huge help when going up
hills,” Maley said.
Maley said her school buses have
automatic chains in them year round
and that they are easy to maintain if
properly operated.
By April 1, 2020, every-
one across the country will
have received an invitation
to take part in Census 2020.
Census takers then will
start visiting people who
have not responded to the
invitation, either by phone,
mail or online. According
to the Census Bureau, the
data from the census pro-
vides the basis to distribute
more the $675 billion in
federal funds each year to
support housing, trans-
portation and other vital
programs in state, counties
and communities.
Census data also helps
reapportion congressional
seats. The 2020 Census
could mean Oregon gains
a seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
Neighboring Umatilla
County started a complete
count committee in 2018 to
get the jump on outreach
and obtaining an accurate
count. The committee
consists of local government
offi cials, public employees,
members of nonprofi ts and
more. Umatilla County
Commissioner George Mur-
dock is one of six commis-
sioners nationwide to serve
on the National Association
of Counties Census 2020
Working Group. He said
collecting population data
relies on census takers
and informed citizens, and
everyone the county fi nds
is worth $4,000 in program
funding.
Murdock said the trend
statewide is 70% of people
self-report, but 30% of
Oregonians are considered
hard to count.
“The people who are the
hard to count,” he said, “are
CIVICS
Continued from Page 1A
Conference of State Legis-
latures. But legislative at-
tempts in Oregon to require
students to study civics
to graduate have failed in
recent years
For now, there are nonprof-
its working to fi ll in the gaps.
“It is taught, but it is not
taught to all of our students,”
said Erin Esparza, executive
director of the Classroom
Law Project, a civic educa-
tion nonprofi t.
After being appointed
earlier this year to fi ll out the
term of the late Secretary
of State Dennis Richardson,
Bev Clarno has continued
and expanded civic educa-
tion initiatives launched by
her predecessor.
During her nearly 20
years serving in the Oregon
Legislature, Clarno recalled
getting letters from people
seeking help on federal is-
sues. Some were struggling
with a government issue and
didn’t know who to turn to.
She remembered the civic
education she received at
Redmond High School.
“I think it’s something that
lasts all your life,” she said.
However, both face chal-
lenges in reaching all parts
of the state.
‘We’ve got to make good
citizens’
Americans are becoming
increasingly unaware of the
basic functions of govern-
ment.
A 2016 survey by the
Annenberg Public Policy
Center found that only 26%
of Americans could name all
three branches of govern-
ment. Only 17% of Americans
trust the government accord-
ing to a Pew Research Center
survey released in 2019.
The National Assessment
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Ernest Boudreau, a technician at the La Grande station of the Mid Columbia
Bus Company, holds a portion of the automatic chain system the company’s
schools buses use to help get around in winter conditions.
of Educational Progress’s
most recent report card
released in 2015 found that
77% of students scored below
profi cient in civics and less
than half of eighth graders
knew the purpose of the Bill
of Rights.
“What’s going on in today’s
politics, we don’t have people
that understand how their
government is supposed to
function,” said state Rep.
Paul Evans, D-Monmouth.
“Now we don’t have people
who understand that it’s
their responsibility to main-
tain a republic.”
Evans attributed the
decline in civic education
in Oregon classrooms to
a series of tax measures
meant to curb the increase in
property taxes as well as the
decline in timber revenue
around the late 1970s and
1980s. With less revenue, he
said schools had to get “back
to basics.”
Evans has unsuccessfully
introduced legislation three
times to require students
to study civics in order to
graduate, most recently
in 2019. He said that the
Oregon Education Associa-
tion (which didn’t return a
request for comment) op-
posed the bill over concerns
of creating an unfunded
mandate.
He said it makes sense
that the state’s educational
system has given more sup-
port to reading, writing and
math as standardized test-
ing has become increasingly
common. But he said schools
should teach civics, which he
said is just as critical.
“We have got to move
away from just deciding how
we’re going to make good
workers for the 21st century,”
said Evans, who won’t rein-
troduce the bill for Febru-
ary’s short session. “We’ve
got to make good citizens.”
HOUSING
Continued from Page 1A
landmark legislation that would allow
duplex, triplexes and other denser
varieties of housing on some land zoned
single-family in most cities.
In a statement, House Speaker Tina
Kotek also pointed to how the Legisla-
ture dedicated $200 million to afford-
able housing development, $55 million
to affordable housing preservation and
$50 million for state homeless assis-
tance programs.
“More work lies ahead to make up for
lost time and the state must continue to
be a partner with local communities to
develop more housing,”” she said.
Michael Andersen, a senior research-
er with the Seattle-based sustainability
think tank Sightline Institute, said in
‘Roles that they need to
take on as grownups’
Under Evans’ bill, school
districts could allow students
to participate in an existing
civics education program,
such as the YMCA Youth
in Government, to meet the
requirement.
While Oregon’s educational
system has shifted, these
programs have continued
to operate. YMCA Youth in
Government has operated in
Oregon since the 1940s where
students participate in a mock
legislative process where they
research and debate issues
before casting votes.
Marisa Fink, the pro-
gram’s state director, said
that YMCA Youth in Govern-
ment is active in about a
dozen high schools in the
Salem and Portland areas.
She said it costs students
$200 to attend the three-day
event held in February in Sa-
lem and that raising funds to
attend can be a barrier.
“We are really starting
to focus on how to expand
statewide in rural areas,”
Fink said.
The program will be
looking to foundations for
funding to get more students
in the program. But she
said some schools are just
not that interested in civic
education.
Esparza said civics educa-
tion should teach skills
meant to help students work
collaboratively. In addition to
professional development for
teachers, the Classroom Law
Project also offers programs
such as high school mock
trials or simulated congres-
sional hearings. It also offers
another program where stu-
dents identify a community
problem and research a way
to solve it.
“It requires them to try
on the roles that they need
to take on as grownups,”
she said. At the end of the
program, she said students
are amazed that an adult
actually listened to them.
She pointed to the Oregon
Department of Education’s
most recent annual report
card, which shows social
sciences (including civics)
accounts for just 16% of
course offerings in schools.
But she said that there are
other ways to integrate
civics into the curriculum.
She mentioned a 5th-grade
teacher whose students put
Goldilocks on trial.
Although the group’s
programs reach 1,300 teach-
ers and 103,000 students
each year, Esparza said her
group is looking into funding
to reach schools that serve
communities of color or rural
areas.
Secretary of state’s
response
In May, Clarno appointed
Mary Beth Herkert, the
state’s longtime archivist, as
her offi ce’s full-time director
of civic education.
Herkert said previously
the job had been a part-time
responsibility assigned to a
member of the secretary’s
staff. She’s carried on the
work of Richardson who
brought the Kid Governor
program to Oregon in 2018.
In the program, 5th grad-
ers identify a plan to solve
a community issue and run
statewide for a one-year
term. Herkert said more
than 60 schools participated
this year.
She said she’s planning
on starting more programs.
She traveled to New York
to visit a school that had
implemented a program
where students read about
historical events and then
make and defend decisions
about what they would have
done in that situation.
often those who use or need
the most services that are
funded through census data
measurements.”
Murdock said Umatilla
County’s complete count
committee has helped set up
computers at the Pendleton
Public Library and with the
recruiting of local residents
to be census takers. Uma-
tilla County has a large
Hispanic population and is
seeking Spanish-speaking
census takers to help with
the language barrier and to
make those fi lling out the
census more comfortable.
“We want the people who
go door-to-door to be local
and look like those whose
information they are tak-
ing,” Murdock said.
Murdock said the county
wants everyone to be in-
volved and understand the
importance of the census
and having the information
come from the local level is
the most effective.
“If the federal government
says the census is important,
we don’t know how seriously
people will take it,” Murdock
said. “At the state level we
know it will be a little better.
If the county is encouraging
participation, even better.
But when it is the local com-
munities saying it, people
just respond better the
closer the information comes
from home.”
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an email that House Bill 2001 isn’t a
“silver-bullet” solution and expected it
to gradually change the state’s housing
stock, noting pushback on the new law
by cities.
Andersen blamed the lack of new
construction on high costs. He said if
Oregon wants to slow the rise in home
prices, it needs to build enough housing
to keep up with its rising populations.
Until then, he said high prices would
hurt the state’s economy and throw the
housing market out of wack.
“It’s like a game of musical chairs
where people keep arriving faster than
chairs,” he said.
‘A disappointment’
While the U.S. economy is currently
in an unprecedented 10-year expan-
sion, Lehner’s blog post included other
unexpectedly glum takes.
“Economically, the 2010s were a
disappointment,”wrote Lehner.
He wrote during the last decade
the economy was running below its
potential as it recovered from the Great
Recession of 2008. Although Oregon’s
median household income has sur-
passed that of the U.S., growth has been
uneven, he wrote.
According to Lehner, just nine of Or-
egon’s 23 rural counties have more jobs
than they did a decade ago.
“Encouragingly, rural Oregon has
very few places in permanent demo-
graphic or economic declines relative to
patterns seen throughout the country,”
he wrote. “However, even with decent
to solid growth in rural Oregon overall,
the state’s urban-rural divide increased
in the past decade.”
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