Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2018)
JULY 13, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Homeless solution comes from all The homeless are fast becom- ing one of the major challenges for public services across the nation and here in Marion County. There is an array of programs, shelters and campaigns here and throughout the United States to address the issue. Public offi cials and private sector organizations work to fi nd solutions that so far has proven unsolvable. Marion County does not have the visual evi- dence of its homeless that major cities face. In some of America’s largest cities one will fi nd block af- ter block fi lled with tent communities of the homeless. It is disconcerting at the least. The pub- lic cries out “Do something!” People are homeless for different reasons be they economic, men- tal health issues, problems with il- licit drugs, shattering of the family unit or any kind of support system. Understanding that basic truth of the homeless makes the cry to do something less clear. Do what? By whom? While creating programs, devis- ing shelters and compiling reports, the municipalities and organizatons invovled need also to come up with suggestions for what Joe Public can do to help. As a generous nation our people always ask “What can I do?” If all that is needed by the organi- zations addressing the homeless is- sue is fi nancial support, they need to megaphone that need and lay out how contributions will be used. Everyone and every industry can have a hand in alleviating the homeless issue. For some it may be a fi nancial donation to a char- ity that is hosting a shelter or a food kitchen or medical care for those on the street. Those things satisfy the daily needs of people but they don’t come close to fi nding a home for those who want one. Finding affordable housing has become diffi cult for those without a constant history of being a renter or those who are un- or under- employed. The strong residential real estate market weighs heavy on apartments and other multi-family housing options. Benefi ting from market-led supply and demand, owners of multi-family residenc- es are in the driver’s seat when it comes to setting rates. That’s called the free market system and should not be disrupted, but there are solu- tions. Cities, counties and the state can draft legislation to provide attractive incentives for owners of buildings to convert space into low-income housing. Attractive incentives can include tax breaks as well as waiv- ing and discounting of permitting fees. Any incentives should be good enough to make any property own- er to seriously consider them. The alternative for a property owner is to let market forces reward them. Housing for those now homeless should not be free. Those who re- ceive housing need to compensate for it either by paying low monthly rents or with a signed contact to help maintain the resi- dence. Homelessness is a cru- el way to live. How does society aid those who fi nd themselves without a home due to domestic violence, drugs or men- tal health issues? Rather than look to govern- ment to address and solve the prob- lem, society needs to ask itself what they are willing to do, if anything, to help those who need a hand up rather than a hand out. Regard- less of what solution one consid- ers there is money required. Some in the private sector may question why their tax dollars are going for those who decide to live outdoors. That is a simplistic question; given a choice, wouldn’t everyone rather have a home to live in? Most people would agree that a government’s primary role is to protect its people and keep them safe. Protecting people against the ravages of homelessness is no less important than maintaining the de- fense of the nation from outsiders. Government can’t help those who don’t want help but it can certainly be in the corner of those who seek a hand up. These are vulnerable people liv- ing in our parks and on our side- walks. Unless we, the people, col- lectively decide to privatize the homeless, we must rely on our pub- lic offi cials to do the right thing and allocate enough money for those most in need. As a people we don’t have the training to counsel some- one with mental health issues, that has to come from the experts. The same goes for those people fi ghting addiction and who are homeless. There is a certain skill set that the average person does not have and we turn to the professionals. What we, as a society have, is em- pathy. Understanding, acceptance, respect and amity offered by us will go a long way to let those who are homeless through no fault of their own know they are not alone. The homeless are not invisible and we shouldn’t treat them as such. With an economy that is boom- ing there certainly are jobs available to those unemployed homeless. We have to have the will to help ad- dress the problem so it is no longer a black mark on society. Ask society to lend a hand for its own benefi t as well as the homeless and society will answer affi rmatively. —LAZ our opinion ‘Bad’ jobs don’t have to be that way By E.J. DIONNE JR. So many policy proposals aimed at reducing economic inequality empha- size moving disadvantaged people into higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs, typically with more access to education and training. We do need to invest far more in expanding oppor- tunity for fellow citizens who have lost all hope for advancement, but there is a fl aw in this thinking, as Steven Dawson argues in Make Bad Jobs Better, a compendium of his recent work pub- lished earlier this year by the Pinker- ton Foundation. If we defi ne success “solely as securing a middle-class job,” he writes, “then we will limit our- selves to helping only a narrow seg- ment of low-income workers improve their lives.” Dawson focuses on the tens of mil- lions of Americans who do very nec- essary work in our society and receive little reward for their efforts. He chal- lenges the idea that “bad jobs” are des- tined to be bad forever, and that little can be done to enhance them. Consider that we mourn the de- cline of auto, steel and other manufac- turing jobs that were seen in the past as at least as “bad” as the retail and ser- vice occupations of the new American working class. It took unions working to raise pay and benefi ts and social legislation limiting hours and protect- ing worker safety to make old econo- my blue-collar jobs “good.” The lesson is that what constitutes good work is a matter of social and po- litical decision-making—and choices by employers to see their workers as assets and not merely as costs. Dawson is a pioneer in doing what he recommends. At the Paraprofes- sional Healthcare Institute, he helped create employee-owned cooperatives of home health care workers, thereby converting what were once poorly paid jobs into pathways to indepen- dence, entrepreneurship and respect. Dawson is scathing about the way our em- ployment markets treat large numbers of very hard-working people. “A bad job is not simply the absence of a good job,” he writes. “A bad job destabi- lizes the individual, her family and the community. A bad job not only fails to pay enough for decent food and shelter for a worker’s family, it can risk her health, disrupt any chance for a predictable family life, undermine her dignity, and deny her voice within the workplace.” He notes that “the occupations that employ the largest numbers of low- income youth and adult workers ... experienced higher than average real wage declines” in the years after the Great Recession. The pay drops were especially large for workers in retail, personal care and food preparation. For many who fi nd themselves at the bottom of the economy, the bane of their lives is instability: wage theft, part-time work, seasonal work, vari- able hours, and unpredictable sched- ules—the problem of “not knowing when you will be called to show up to your next part-time shift.” Low-wage jobs are also among the least safe. Public policy has a role to play in making jobs better, starting with higher minimum wages, income sup- plements such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, universal family leave and health coverage for everyone. We should be building on the Affordable tho opinion of othors Care Act, not gutting it. And many low-income jobs are supported indirectly by government money (Medicaid especially), so pub- lic programs should be consciously geared not just to providing essential services but also to offering platforms for the improvement of work life it- self, for enriched training, and for more worker voice. These can, in turn, raise the standard of the services. Dawson looks as well to private- sector employers as part of the solu- tion. Especially when labor markets are tight, employers have an interest in satisfi ed, engaged and well-trained workers who welcome responsibility. This is one reason why the Federal Reserve should be wary of steps that would increase unemployment. In another useful paper, “Restore the Promise of Work,” Dawson joins the Aspen Institute’s Maureen Con- way to call for lifting up “high-road employers” who “offer concrete ex- amples of how good jobs can be ben- efi cial to all.” Tax policy can encour- age high-road practices, and Conway and Dawson note that when govern- ments contract for private-sector ser- vices, job quality should be part of the negotiations. We should not allow the melodra- mas of the Trump presidency to over- shadow the problems we need to solve or distract us from the reforms and in- novations that could change the lives of a great many struggling people. Dawson writes that “fear and inse- curity will remain, and deepen, unless having a job once again means secur- ing stability, dignity and self-worth for ourselves and our families.” When it comes to job quality, we need to get to work. (Washington Post Writors Group) Buehler’s not an education candidate Keizertimes Whoatland Publishing Corp. 142 Chomawa Road N. • Koizor, Orogon 97303 Phono: 503.390.1051 • www.koizortimos.com MANAGING EDITOR Eric A. Howald oditor@koizortimos.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS Dorok Wiloy nows@koizortimos.com ADVERTISING Paula Mosoloy advortising@koizortimos.com PRODUCTION MANAGER & GRAPHIC DESIGNER EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com Ono yoar: $25 in Marion County, $33 outsido Marion County, $45 outsido Orogon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 Androw Jackson graphics@koizortimos.com POSTMASTER Sond addross changos to: LEGAL NOTICES logals@koizortimos.com Koizortimos Circulation BUSINESS MANAGER 142 Chomawa Road N. Loah Stovons Koizor, OR 97303 billing@koizortimos.com RECEPTION Lori Boyolor INTERNS Poriodical postago paid at Salom, Orogon Random Pondragon Casoy Chaffi n facobook.com/koizortimos twittor.com/koizortimos Knute Buehler is the Republican candidate for governor of Oregon. He has announced as his highest priority to lead Oregon schools from the nation’s bottom fi ve to the top fi ve in fi ve years. Oregon gover- nors serve four-year terms. So why is he not committed to four years? Buehler has spoken and written on his subject of high- est interest because, he says, “Oregon politicians have failed to do what is necessary to improve the quality and fund- ing of our K-12 public schools.” While he fur- ther writes that “good things” are happening in our schools every day, “too many schools have been left out and be- hind.” For just one of the many problems is the number who fail to graduate. He must not be aware of the huge disparities between dis- tricts throughout the state and their divergent delivery abilities. Buehler has served two terms in the Oregon House of Representa- tives. Why during his two terms did we not hear anything from him about his interest to reform Oregon education K-12? Since he’s an or- thopedic surgeon who was trained, as most of them are, in part at least, by tax-supported institutions, then why is he not, in his mid-50s, serv- ing the medical needs of the Cen- tral Oregon area in which he chose to reside? Since he says his goal as a state leader is education reform, why did he spin his wheels trying to secure the Secretary of State job? After all, its focused on audits and elections? Oregon has proven time and again that the voting citizens in this state are, with some exceptions in wealthy school districts, only able and willing to fi nancially support at the very minimal level or will- ing to support public education at all. Buehler says he can increase the general fund budget for public schools an average of 15 percent per year or a whooping 75 percent during his plan. He says he’ll get the $1.2 billion he needs by taking it from public pensions and that health insurance that supports Oregon’s poorest citizens. As his GOP colleagues in the Oregon House and Sen- ate are so fond of chortling: “That’ll happen when pigs fl y!” He says he will see to it that the money he can take away from retired public employees and cutbacks and costs associated with health insur- ance will bring into existence per- formance-based classrooms. Hope he will soon explain the specifi cs of what he knows about perfor- mance-based classrooms and how successfully or not this re-staging of schools will deal with this reform, its pitfalls and challenges. Buehler throws around such concepts as “critical, evidence-based profi ciency standards” as though all a governor must do is announce his intentions in tradition-bound schools and they’ll transform like magic into a new order of things. This candidate’s interests sound so very similar to a man who got to be governor, John Kitzhaber, another medical doctor who sounded seri- ous in his desire to reform Oregon education and then walked away gono h. mcintyro from it by hiring a big name from the East to lead his plan for reform. Buehler references the 180-day school year in Washington state as a model for Oregon’s 165-day year to emulate. What is known is that for years Washington citizens have been more interested in public educa- tion at all levels by investing in and modernizing its public schools and universities. Oregon’s residents do not send its representatives to Salem with a plan to fund education at any level. To the contrary, the represen- tatives arrive at Oregon’s capitol, es- pecially from GOP-dominate areas, with the order to cut, cut, cut ev- erywhere and public education kin- dergarten through graduate school has suffered accordingly. This writer is not impressed by Governor Kate Brown’s interests or efforts to improve public edu- cation. However, knowing what’s known about Knute Buehler does not reassure that he is going to turn any corner in public education. He and his wife are among Oregon’s wealthiest residents who, with their million dollar incomes from pro- fessional services, are also involved in 14 other business activities all of which are in business to make mon- ey not perform charitable, volun- teer, or public services. They appear to be people who solely seek wealth accumulation and the related power to wield it. (Gono H. McIntyro sharos his opinion wookly in tho Koizortimos.) Share your opinion Email a letter to the editor. Deadline is noon Tuesday. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com
