Opinion
A4
Saturday, May 28, 2022
OUR VIEW
We are failing
our children
F
or anyone following the news of the school
massacre in Uvalde, Texas, it should be
clear that we are failing our children.
For anyone following the news of Oregon’s state
audit of the Oregon Department of Education titled
“State Leaders and Policymakers Must Address
Persistent System Risks to Improve K-12 Equity
and Student Success,” it should be clear that we are
failing our children.
For anyone following the news about the nation-
wide shortage of child care and preschool, it should
be clear that we are failing our children.
We are America. We are the most wealthy and
powerful country in the world by some measures.
Yet, by many other measures, we suck.
Here are a few from the Children’s Defense
Fund’s 2021 report:
Child poverty: Nearly 1 in 6 children under age
6 live in households below the poverty line.
Child hunger: More than 1 in 7 children live in
“food insecure” households.
Gun violence: Guns — not motor vehicle acci-
dents — were the leading cause of death in 2018
in children ages 1-19. Nine children die of gun vio-
lence every day in this country.
Bullying: In 2019, 22% of students age 12-18
reported being bullied during the school year.
Education: In 2019, at least 67% of public
school eighth graders were not profi cient in reading
and math. And, only 85% of high school students
graduate on time.
Early childhood care and education: Our lack
of investment in child care and early education
means that most families cannot aff ord (or even
fi nd) quality care and education for their infants,
toddlers and preschoolers.
All this, despite plenty of research showing that
for every $1 invested in early childhood — birth
through kindergarten — the lifelong return on
investment is more than 13% a year.
We have neglected our youngest children and
their parents for far too long.
Lack of investment in quality early childhood
programs has ripple eff ects. Children who have no
exposure to high-quality preschool often struggle
in kindergarten. Those children struggle to read
by third grade, and struggle to graduate from high
school.
Brain development begins at birth, and so much
intellectual and socio-emotional development hap-
pens in the fi rst fi ve years. Yet we only begin public
investment in our children when they turn 5 and
enter the K-12 school system. Our tax dollars would
go so much further if spent on younger children.
We all need to focus on investments in early
child care and preschool.
Universal federally-funded preschool for 3- and
4-year olds would be a great place to start. This
does not mean expanding the K-12 school system,
although that may work in some areas. It means
supporting high-quality, nonprofi t child care cen-
ters and in-home child care as well.
EDITORIALS
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opinion of The Observer editorial
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opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of The Observer.
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Severe storms happen here, too
MARC
AUSTIN
EYE TO THE SKY
M
any might think severe
weather only strikes the
Great Plains and south-
eastern Unites States, but make no
mistake, severe storms and tornadoes
can strike anywhere in the country.
In fact, every state, including
Alaska and Hawaii, have recorded
at least one tornado. The Inland
Northwest is no diff erent, and while
we don’t see the same frequency of
these hazards as locations east of the
Rockies, we do get our fair share.
On May 30, 2020, a signifi cant
severe thunderstorm event brought
several intense thunderstorms to
parts of Central and Northeastern
Oregon and far Southeastern Wash-
ington. Rotating thunderstorms,
known as supercells, dropped large
hail to the size of golfballs and larger
to the west of Bend, and caused
extensive wind damage in Culver,
where winds were estimated at
80-100 mph.
More recently, on May 6 this year,
a storm produced two separate tor-
nadoes between Weston and Tollgate
in the Blue Mountains. These torna-
does were given an intensity rating
of EF-1, with wind speeds up to 104
mph. The tornadoes caused minor
structural damage to a few buildings
and wiped out numerous trees.
Umatilla County has histori-
cally seen few tornadoes, with only
seven documented going back to
1950, including the two on May 6.
While these are the only known doc-
umented tornadoes, it’s likely there
have been others that were never wit-
nessed or reported.
Much of National Weather Ser-
vice Pendleton’s county warning area
resides in rural areas with sparse pop-
ulations. The combination of a low
frequency of severe weather, and few
people to witness and report it, likely
means it happens more often than we
think.
Digging into the severe weather
archives, both Washington and
Oregon see an average of two torna-
does per year. These largely occur
west of the Cascades, where ingre-
dients for severe weather come
together a bit more often — moisture
being the key ingredient.
One of the ways to improve our
understanding of tornado and severe
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Marc Austin is a warning coordination
meteorologist for the National Weather Service
in Pendleton. Austin leads outreach and weather
preparedness programs, and engages the media,
emergency management and public safety
communities in building a weather ready nation.
U.S. SENATORS
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 St.
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
Cliff Bentz
2185 Rayburn House Offi ce Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford offi ce: 541-776-4646
STATE REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNOR
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
STATE 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
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thunderstorm frequency is to train
people how to safely observe and
report severe weather to the NWS.
This enables us to get a better grasp
of how common large hail, damaging
winds and tornadoes really are in the
Inland Northwest. The other major
benefi t of the spotter training program
is that it helps NWS forecasters do a
better job when it comes to warning
the public about hazardous weather.
The combination of complex ter-
rain and limited radar data in some
areas make ground-truth observa-
tions critical when severe weather is
occurring. The best way to become a
storm spotter is to sit in on one of our
live or virtual spotter training ses-
sions, or take a series of self-guided
online training sessions at your
convenience.
We’re always looking for more
storm spotters to engage with us and
provide critical weather information.
If you’re interested, visit weather.gov/
pdt/spottertraining.
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