FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2015
4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
Opinion / Politics
— Editorial —
We smell a
gun grab in
the works
Rep. Jeff Barker, Chair, House In-
terim Committee on Judiciary sent the
following statement out last week:
“In the wake of the senseless shoot-
ing at Umpqua Community College on
October 1, both Senator Prozanski and
I have called a special joint meeting of
the House and Senate Interim Com-
mittees on Judiciary. The goal of this
hearing is to provide an opportunity
for examination and discussion on the
state’s role in preventing and respond-
ing to these acts of violence. It is also
an opportunity to look for areas where
we, the Legislature, can make changes
so our homes, schools, and commu-
nities are safer. Topics will include
threat assessments, prevention efforts,
mental health services, on-site security
options, coordinated law enforcement
responses, and community and victim
services. As mass tragedies impact
every town, school, and community,
I’d like to extend an invitation to you
to participate in the hearing. It will
begin at 9 a.m on Thursday, December
17, and will be held in Hearing Room
F at the Capitol.”
On Wednesday, less than 24 hours
before the hearing, Sen. Floyd Prozan-
ski distributed an offi cial letter dated
December 16 to media announcing
the meeting. This letter called the
gathering “a hearing on active shooter
events.”
By the time this issue is out, the
meeting will have come and gone.
We can’t imagine what good a
bunch of politicians coming together
to discuss the topic of active shooting
events could possibly do.
We haven’t seen an issue with “co-
ordinated law enforcement responses.”
We certainly don’t see a reason for
State government to involve itself in a
school’s, town’s or business’s “on-site
security options” or “victim service”
to any degree greater than at present.
Considering Prozanski’s history of
attempted gun grabs and last year’s
SB941 debacle, we’re suspicious. In
fact, this hearing smells to us like
the latest springboard from which to
launch (read: infl ict upon us) the new-
est gun control initiatives from Salem.
After all, we have a special legisla-
tive session coming up in February
2016.
—The Baker County Press Editorial Board
— Letters to the Editor —
Gun control rules
To the Editor:
A quick study—the four rules of gun
control:
1. There will always be guns.
2. Criminals will always have guns.
3. The way to stop criminals is for law-
abiding citizens to have guns.
4. You can’t change the fi rst three rules.
Joe Bailey
Baker City
No refugees, please
To the Editor:
Why I do not want any Syrian “refugees”
on U.S. soil:
1. In order to do any kind of realistic vet-
ting, you need some form of valid ID. Most
Syrian “refugees” have nothing of the sort;
therefore, you do not even have a starting
point to do any kind of vetting.
2. In order to do any kind of realistic vet-
Letter to the Editor Policy: The Baker
County Press reserves the right not to pub-
lish letters containing factual falsehoods or
incoherent narrative. Letters promoting or
detracting from specifi c for-profi t business-
es will not be published. Word limit is 375
words per letter. Letters are limited to one
every other week per author. Letters should
be submitted to Editor@TheBakerCounty-
Press.com.
Advertising and Opinion Page Dis-
claimer: Opinions submitted as Guest
ting, you also need a functioning govern-
ment to talk to. The government in Syria is
in a shambles, courtesy of the Syrian civil
war, therefore there is no one to talk to in
order to do any kind of vetting.
3. Infi ltrating terrorist fi ghters into enemy
nations is one of the oldest tricks in the ter-
ror playbook. And given the fact that three-
fourths of Syria is in the thrall of ISIS, such
a trick becomes ridiculously easy.
4. We have more than enough homeless,
poor and hungry people right here in the
U.S. to be taking care of. Since when did a
Syrian “refugee” come before a homeless
American?
I say send them to Saudi Arabia. They
have the money, resources and space to
take them in easily. Plus, they can keep a
better eye on them than we ever could.
Dorian Atkins
Salem
Opinions or Letters to the Editor express
the opinions of their authors, and have not
been authored by and are not necessarily
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of our staff, management, independent
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State contract with travel
agency questioned
Salem,OR - State Repre-
sentative Gene Whisnant
(R-Sunriver) has asked
Oregon State Auditor Gary
Blackmer to conduct a
fi nancial and performance
audit of the Department of
Administration's contract
with Azumano Travel. Rep.
Whisnant submitted his re-
quest to Director Blackmer
on November 18, 2015,
and asked that the audit
specifi cally explore why
the state's contract with the
travel agency has not been
competed or reviewed for
performance since 2005.
"I was troubled to learn
that the State of Oregon
has maintained an exclu-
sive contract with Azu-
mano Travel for more than
a decade, without ever
opening up that contract
for competing bids," said
Rep. Whisnant. "Further, it
appears as though former
Governor Kitzhaber ap-
proved a loan of taxpayer
funds to Azumano Travel
despite clear warning signs
that the company was
facing serious fi nancial
uncertainties. Our govern-
ment has a responsibility
to ensure that taxpayer
dollars are managed in
the most transparent and
frugal manner possible. I
am requesting an audit of
the state's contractual his-
tory with Azumano Travel
so that we may learn the
full details of this relation-
ship and discover how
to prevent situations like
this from occurring in the
future."
Rep. Whisnant's deci-
sion to request the audit
came after Willamette
Week reported that Oregon
offi cials used Azumano
Travel to book a recent trip
to Asia. Willamette Week's
reporting also raised
questions about the scope
and nature of the state's
contractual history with the
travel agency.
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— Guest Opinion —
The feds and
education
By Sen. Mike Lee
There is much to like in the Deseret
News’ Dec. 6, editorial, “Utah’s con-
gressional delegation confronts a chang-
ing Washington environment.”
The editorial correctly notes that Paul
Ryan’s recent election as speaker of the
House is an encouraging development.
I wholeheartedly agree. It was an honor
to accept Ryan’s invitation to introduce
him at his fi rst major policy address at
the Library of Congress last week. He
outlined a bold and innovative conser-
vative policy agenda that Republicans
can begin implementing under a new
president in 2017.
The editorial also correctly criticizes
the current “all or nothing” environment
in Washington, which has led to far too
many fi scal cliffs, legislative logjams
and government by crisis. As Ronald
Reagan advised, conservatives should
be ready to take half a loaf when they
can get it, and then come back for the
other half later.
Unfortunately, the Every Student
Succeeds Act that Congress passed this
week prevents conservatives from do-
ing exactly that. And it enshrines some
pretty terrible education policy into law
in the meantime.
Proponents of the bill claim that ESSA
“allows states to set their own academic
standards.” What proponents of the
bill do not tell you is that the bill also
gives the secretary of education fi nal
veto power of all state education plans.
If he doesn’t like a state’s academic
standards, he can deny that state’s plan
and withhold its funding. This is a sub-
stantial stick that could force states to
implement federally preferred education
plans.
Proponents of the bill also claim that
ESSA replaces the federal “accountabil-
ity system with state-designed account-
ability systems.” What they do not tell
you is that that the bill keeps most of the
old No Child Left Behind annual testing
mandates in place.
Proponents of the bill correctly note
that the bill does eliminate federally
mandated teacher evaluations. But while
that particular stick may have been
eliminated, the bill also spends almost
$3 billion on teacher training carrots
that only increase federal infl uence on
what is taught in our classrooms.
Proponents of the bill also argue that
the bill “limits” the education secre-
tary’s “authority to prescribe interven-
tions and school improvement strate-
gies.” What they fail to mention is that
there were already three similar prohibi-
tions on the secretary (in three federal
statutes: No Child Left behind, the
Department of Education Organization
Act, and the General Education Provi-
sions Act) that the secretary violated in
the process of implementing Common
Core the fi rst time. Without a substan-
Submitted Photo
Mike Lee is a U.S. Senator from
Utah.
tial enforcement mechanism — losing
money — a future secretary will be just
as able to side-step words intended to
roll back his or her authority.
Finally, proponents of the bill also
claim that it “consolidates dozens of
individual federal programs into a single
block grant for education.” This is just
plain false. While the bill does collapse
some programs into others, it also cre-
ates six brand new grant programs, leav-
ing about 40 total different programs for
states to navigate.
Reasonable people can disagree about
the bargain ESSA struck. Maybe a 12
percent increase in education spend-
ing is worth getting rid of mandatory
teacher evaluations. Maybe giving
Hillary Clinton a $250 million down
payment on her federal pre-K agenda is
worth consolidating a few programs.
But if you are looking ahead to 2017,
if you want to set the table for “effective
political leadership in an incremental
collaborative environment” under a new
Republican president, then the ESSA is
a disaster.
The bill reauthorizes K-12 federal
educational policy through 2020 — the
end of the next president’s fi rst term in
offi ce. That means this bill effectively
handcuffs the next president on educa-
tion policy, effectively preventing any
conservative education reform from
being advanced.
And that is a tragedy. The entire Utah
delegation is united behind a conserva-
tive vision of local control for K-12 and
pre-K education. We almost certainly
will not reach that vision in one “all or
nothing” step. We most certainly should
be willing to accept incremental steps
towards conservative goals.
But details matter. As President
Obama has taught us, the Department of
Education will fi nd the tiniest loop-
hole for federal control, and then force
an aircraft carrier through it. This bill
leaves far too many of those loopholes
wide open.
More importantly it prevents conser-
vatives from coming back later under
the next president to achieve more
incremental reform. That is a loss for
all Utahns, and that is why I am pleased
our entire Utah House delegation voted
against the bill.
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