Opinion
A4
Thursday, June 2, 2022
OUR VIEW
Next governor
must have plan
for education
O
regon does not have a detailed plan
of how the state will improve K-12
education.
Let’s repeat that.
Oregon does not have a detailed plan of how
the state will improve K-12 education.
Plenty of goals, plans, programs and initiatives
are out there. Almost every legislative session,
something new and diff erent gets passed. State
employees and school district offi cials then go off
to add the latest churn on top of the churn.
Having a broad, statewide plan is no guarantee
of success. But Oregon does need a long-term
approach to education goals. It needs measure-
ments. It needs reporting requirements. It needs
specifi cs about how funding gets us to goals and
how new initiatives fi t in.
Much of that exists. What is missing is how
it all fi ts together in a detailed road map for the
future. Any state plan should be heavy on goals
and providing performance data and easy on dis-
trict fl exibility to reach goals. There would also
need to be a mechanism for accountability.
What are our candidates for governor going
to do? They can refl ect parental dissatisfaction
easily enough. What are their plans for statewide
improvement? Do they believe Oregon needs a
statewide education road map?
Oregon’s public education is far from a mess in
every classroom in every school district. It suc-
ceeds for many students. And not every education
problem is directly related to bad teachers, bad
curriculum or poor education investments.
But Oregon’s public education system does
have problems. Here are some facts from a new
state audit of public education:
• Less than 25% of Oregon students meet pro-
fi ciency standards in math in 11th grade.
• Oregon’s graduation rate may be improving,
but it is still near the bottom in the nation.
• A statewide review in 2020 found only a
third of Oregon children eligible for early inter-
vention special education programs had access to
them.
• Many of the students who are performing
poorly in the system are minorities or low
income.
Oregon is getting its level of performance with
more recent investment in education. Measure 98
was passed in 2016 to increase graduation rates
and career readiness. It was essentially another
$800 per high school student per year. Oregon
also established a corporate activity tax in 2019
to bring in what was hoped to be an extra $1 bil-
lion a year to improve education in early child-
hood and K-12.
We are going to have that new governor in
not so very many months. It looks like Orego-
nians will have three major candidates to choose
from: Democrat Tina Kotek, independent Betsy
Johnson and Republican Christine Drazan.
Which one would be the most likely to deliver a
plan for improving K-12 education and pull it off ?
We don’t see anything like that on their campaign
websites. Should it be?
EDITORIALS
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State’s forest collaborations are a sham
ROB
KLAVINS
OTHER VIEWS
ere in Eastern Oregon, our
identity and way of life are
deeply connected to our
public lands. Landscapes of deep can-
yons, snow-capped peaks, dense for-
ests and deserts are quite literally our
backyard.
They provide clean cold water,
abundant wildlife, freedom and a
core piece of our identity.
In post-colonial times, our rela-
tionship with the land has been based
on what we can take from it. Thank-
fully, many of us are rethinking that
relationship.
The idea of logging big old trees and
intact forests runs counter to Orego-
nians’ deepest held values. It also runs
counter to science showing the irre-
placeable values these forests provide.
Keeping forests functioning is one of
the best things we can do to slow cli-
mate change and the extinction crisis.
But change is hard. Romantic
notions of Manifest Destiny persist,
and many infl uential voices are intent
on trying to move into the future
with their eyes glued to the rearview
mirror. The now-infamous West Bend
project is an example of the confl ict
that creates.
When a biker noticed blue paint on
some big old pines — meaning they
were slated for logging — on a pop-
ular trail near Bend, the nature-loving
city became embroiled in confl ict.
That frustration was justifi ed.
H
Aggressive logging
But the West Bend project is not
an isolated case, nor is it the most
egregious.
Across Eastern Oregon, timber
sales billed as “restoration,” “thin-
ning,” “fuels reduction” and “collab-
oration” are decimating our forests.
Too often, they are just labels applied
to justify the same aggressive logging
that many Oregonians thought we
moved past long ago.
It’s partly our fault.
As the “timber wars” came to an
end, and environmental safeguards
were put into place, we played a
major role in creating forest collabo-
ratives. These groups sought to bring
interested parties together to fi nd
common ground and guide public
agencies to develop projects. As a
state that prides itself on our green
values, and ability to get along —
some call it “the Oregon Way” — it
seemed like the right thing to do.
Collaboratives initially focused on
restoring forests damaged by logging,
fi re suppression and overgrazing.
They worked to protect healthy for-
ests, clean water, old growth and
wildlife habitat. Many succeeded.
Fast-forward to today.
Environmental protections have
been eroded and extractive interests
have taken over. Most collaboratives pri-
oritize getting to “yes” for its own sake.
Anything other than green-
washing Forest Service logging proj-
ects has become controversial. Rural
politicians, timber executives and
extractive interests run the agenda
and marginalize those without a
fi nancial interest. Anything not
involving chainsaws and bulldozers is
not worth discussing.
That’s why the Wallowa Whitman
National Forest was able to invoke
collaboration to get away with log-
ging centuries-old trees in the Los-
tine “safety” project. The results were
lawsuits and an increased fi re risk.
Now the same planners are dou-
bling down with the Morgan Nesbitt
Project, which would nearly clear-cut
virgin forests from the edge of the
Eagle Cap Wilderness into the Hells
Canyon National Recreation Area.
The Umatilla National Forest pro-
posed logging over 27,000 acres of
pristine forests and some of the big-
gest trees in Eastern Oregon on the
Ellis Project. Next door, with no envi-
ronmental analysis, they are devel-
oping Parkers Mill, which would
allow more logging of roadless forests
than has occurred across the lower 48
in the last two decades combined.
Last summer, we bore witness
to old-growth logging in a project
called Big Mosquito. The project’s
stated goal was to thin small trees to
protect old growth from fi re. It was
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Millions of dollars
The latest round of funding for
“collaborative restoration” is counted
in the tens of millions of dollars. It is
being celebrated by the agency, collab-
orators and decision makers. If folks
like U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley are serious about their com-
mitments to protecting our forests,
slowing climate change and supporting
healthy rural communities, they need
to put sideboards in place, empower
all members of the public and provide
meaningful oversight and account-
ability. They also need to defend basic
environmental protections.
One easy and concrete step would
be to call on the Biden administra-
tion to restore long-standing pro-
tections for big and old trees called
“the Screens” that were eliminated
by the Trump administration just
hours before Inauguration Day. This
shouldn’t be controversial.
Wyden rightly endorsed the pres-
ident’s Earth Day executive order to
begin creating long-term protections
for mature and old growth forests. He
and Merkley need to do the work to
ensure the Forest Service stops the
bleeding now.
█
Rob Klavins is the Northeast Oregon field
coordinator for Oregon Wild. He lives near
Enterprise and helps run the family farm and
business.
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touted as yet another success of the
Blue Mountains Forest Partners Col-
laborative. But once the celebrations
subsided and the logging equipment
rolled in, the big old trees were con-
sidered a danger, splashed with blue
paint and cut down. It was only due to
diligent conservation advocates that
we learned of the carnage. The col-
laborative and agency remain silent.
These projects are like West Bend,
but over tens of thousands of acres
and in places farther away from the
watchful eye of the public and objec-
tive media outlets.
Over the last 20 years or so, tax
dollars have rained down on these
logging collaboratives. With the
groups always eager to tell their suc-
cess stories, and silence dissent,
there’s been little to no oversight.
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