Opinion
4A
Thursday, June 24, 2021
OUR VIEW
What should
Oregon’s
graduation
requirements be?
ome high school graduates are profi cient in cal-
culus while others struggle with algebra.
Some graduates can write complex sentences
without pondering the mysteries of clauses, while
others can’t distinguish between the passive and active
voices.
But despite the range in accomplishments, it’s
hardly an extreme notion that Oregon students should
demonstrate basic abilities in math and writing before
they receive a diploma.
Beyond the obvious reason — after 12 years in
school, students ought to be capable of proving they’ve
learned a certain amount in those two subjects — to
distribute diplomas to students who lack these skills
is to set them on a potential path of frustration and
failure, particularly if they go to college.
But Oregon’s Democrat-controlled Legislature
thinks diff erently.
Lawmakers recently passed Senate Bill 744, which
now awaits Gov. Kate Brown’s signature. The bill will
suspend for the next three years the Essential Skills
graduation requirement, and it directs the state Depart-
ment of Education to evaluate how Oregon determines
graduation requirements.
An evaluation is reasonable.
But it’s hardly necessary to waive the current
requirements while evaluating them.
Oregon initially suspended the Essential Skills
requirement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during
which many students in the state have taken mostly, or
only, online classes.
That suggests, if nothing else, that “comprehensive
distance learning” wasn’t especially comprehensive.
Another fl aw in the concept is that it ignores the
reality that most students preparing to graduate were
subjected to distance learning for less than a year and
a half. Surely it’s not too much to expect that many
of those students would have acquired the necessary
skills to show profi ciency even before computer moni-
tors replaced actually classrooms.
An organization that supports the bill, Foundations
for a Better Oregon, said in a statement that “An inclu-
sive and equitable review of graduation and profi ciency
requirements, when guided by data and grounded in a
commitment to every student’s success, will promote
shared accountability and foster a more just Oregon.”
That statement falls squarely within the category of
“sounds nice but what, exactly, does it mean?”
First, why would any review of graduation require-
ments be anything except “inclusive and equitable”
if the same standards, as they do now, apply to all
students?
Second, what evidence is there that the current
graduation requirements are not “grounded in a com-
mitment to every student’s success?” What else would
they be grounded in? The entire purpose of gradu-
ation requirements is to ensure that students have
learned what they need to learn to have a chance to be
successful.
The last part of the sentence from Foundations for
a Better Oregon is even more perplexing. What does
“shared accountability” mean in this context? That
schools are responsible for teaching, and students for
learning? If so, just say that.
It’s a laudable goal to improve Oregon’s gradua-
tion requirements. High school diplomas should have
relevance; they should ensure that the students who
receive one have, during the preceding years, learned
enough to pursue a productive life as an adult.
But suspending such requirements, even for a few
years, is more likely to hurt students, by awarding
them diplomas that imply a level of education that they
haven’t actually attained.
S
Prescribed fi res help take heat off
SEN. RON
WYDEN
OTHER VIEWS
t was 102 degrees in Med-
ford on June 1, 2021. Let me
say that again just in case it
didn’t fully sink in — Medford
suff ered temperatures as high as
102 degrees in spring, making
it harder for fi refi ghters battling
Southern Oregon’s fi rst fi res of the
year.
Now, I usually like Oregon
to be in the record-setting busi-
ness, but not for hot, dry weather
in April and May. Having a 100-
degree day while still in spring-
time should ring alarm bells for
Oregonians everywhere.
It was not so long ago that Ore-
gon’s fi re season was only a few
weeks in August and September.
The events of Memorial Day
weekend only serve as a reminder
that the human-caused climate
crisis has increased the frequency
of fi res that threaten lives, busi-
nesses and entire communities.
Over the past week, I met
with forest managers and fi rst
responders in Southern Oregon,
I
U.S. SENATORS
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande offi ce: 541-962-7691
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Offi ce Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton offi ce: 541-278-1129
REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNOR
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
Cliff Bentz
2185 Rayburn House Offi ce Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford offi ce: 541-776-4646
SENATOR
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-415
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
STAFF
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support in suppressing the 2017
Milli fi re before it could overtake
Sisters.
To that end, I recently intro-
duced legislation to increase the
pace and scale of prescribed fi res.
The National Prescribed Fire Act
has the support of conservation
groups as well as leading timber
industry voices because its pas-
sage would mean healthier forests
for timber harvest, forest ecosys-
tems and outdoor recreation alike.
It’s going to take all hands on
deck to prevent wildfi re in the
coming dry seasons, so that’s why
I have introduced bills to harden
our power grid by burying power
lines, generate thousands of good-
paying jobs for young people
reducing fi re-causing fuels in the
woods, and meet emissions goals
by investing in the clean energy
sector.
Smart, science-based forestry
policy is smart climate policy. If
we treat hazardous, fi re-starting
fuels now in the cooler, wetter
months, we can prevent future
fi res before they have a chance to
spark.
———
Ron Wyden, a Democrat, rep-
resents Oregon in the U.S. Senate.
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Central Oregon, and the Willa-
mette Valley to hear their forecasts
for the 2021 fi re year.
The bottom line is it’s long past
time for nickel-and-dime solutions
to billion-dollar problems caused
by wildfi re, such as smoke-related
health issues, damage to local
economies and life-and-death
threats to Oregonians.
Our state has a backlog of
roughly 2.5 million acres of fed-
eral land in dire need of wildfi re
prevention. And Oregonians don’t
want 2.5 million excuses about
why there aren’t more forest health
improvements and prescribed fi re
treatments completed on these 2.5
million acres.
They just want these fi re risks
reduced as soon as possible.
The science is clear: controlled
burns clear out dead trees and veg-
etation as well as break down and
return nutrients to the soil, cre-
ating healthier and more resilient
forests. Prescribed burns or fuel
reduction treatments can head
off wildfi res before they have the
chance to burn out of control, dev-
astating lives and livelihoods.
I saw this fi rsthand in Sisters,
where a prescribed burn near the
Whychus Creek provided key
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