OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2016
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
OUR VIEW
Unfunded mandates
show state’s lack
of real leadership
n politics, it’s easy to pass the buck — or the blame —
through the age-old practice of unfunded mandates.
It’s the practice where one government orders an agency or a
lesser governmental entity to take a speciic action to ix a problem,
but doesn’t supply the money to make it happen. The mandate makes
the agency or the community ix the problem out of their own bud-
gets, which is often nearly impossible to accomplish without raising
taxes, cutting services or both.
Even more, this practice usually rears its head at election time to
give voters the idea that leadership is truly addressing problems rather
than letting them slide. But the fact that those leaders have to issue
a mandate in the irst place shows the problem did slide. And some-
times, those same state leaders avoid transparency by using mandates
as a scare tactic to get legislative or voter approval for unpoular or
controversial legislation that they support.
That’s the case currently with two state mandates in the past three
weeks.
And to no surprise, the mandates surfaced as Gov. Kate Brown
endorsed Measure 97, the highly controversial ballot measure that
would create a 2.5 percent tax for some corporations on gross sales of
more than $25 million, rather than taxing those corporations on their
on the proits as now is the case.
Supporters of the measure say it would raise an additional $3 bil-
lion and help Oregon ix long-standing problems and avoid a loom-
ing $1.4 billion deicit. Supporters also say the tax revenue would
be spent only on schools, seniors and health care. Opponents point
out the regressive nature of the tax and say corporations would sim-
ply pass the tax on to customers who can afford it least. The measure,
they say, would curb private sector growth while boosting public sec-
tor hiring. They also point out that lawyers for the Legislature say
tax dollars raised by Measure 97 could be spent however lawmakers
please. In her endorsement, though, Brown said she would make sure
the money goes to those areas.
I
The mandates
The irst mandate came in early August when the state Treasury
announced that the bill for schools, cities, state agencies and other
public employers in Oregon will rise by $885 million next biennium
to fund the state’s public employee pension system. The $885 million
is much higher than was forecast and represents a 44 percent increase
from what public employees are currently paying into the pension
plan to support it.
Next came an order from the Oregon Board of Education after
it adopted a new, fast-tracked rule at the behest of the governor that
requires testing for lead and radon in schools, public disclosure of
problems that are found and the elimination of each problem when
discovered. School districts are required by the mandate to have a
preliminary plan in place by October and a inished plan by January.
While parents and educators all agree that ixing those problems
needs to happen and happen quickly, the order came without a fund-
ing mechanism in place. The state School Boards Association predicts
the mandate could cost districts hundreds of millions of dollars state-
wide. Fortunately, districts on the North Coast have been proactive
and only a handful of problems have surfaced so far.
Public schools are also facing another challenge that was mandated
by the Legislature in 2007. It requires they provide a minimum of
150 minutes of physical education instruction per week for kindergar-
ten through ifth grade and 225 minutes for sixth through eight grade.
Schools must meet the standard by 2017, but less than 10 percent of
1,080 public schools with some or all grades K-8 are in compliance.
School advocacy groups are asking lawmakers to either push back the
2017 deadline or to allow a phase-in. Funding for additional PE teach-
ers is one of the reasons the advocacy groups have cited for the poor
compliance rate.
Leadership and reforms
Real leadership is needed in addressing each of these problems.
PERS in its present form simply isn’t sustainable, and there are
a number of reform options available. The governor and legislators,
however, have been reluctant to attack the problem head on. Lead
in drinking water at schools is curable, and the fact that there was no
statewide requirement for even testing until 2016 says the state Board
of Education and those who oversee the board from the governor’s
ofice were asleep at the wheel. The problem of physical education for
children in K-8 is even more curable with innovation and creativity at
the local level and the proper leadership and focus at the state level.
Each of those problems have their own individual solutions, and
state leaders, especially those at the top, should be just that. They
should be visible to the public and transparent with their motives and
actions instead of using unfunded mandates as their method of oper-
ation. And importantly, they should quit looking for the easy cure-all
ixes for problems the state faces. They should know from experience
that easy ixes aren’t always the right ixes.
Finding the boundary
for bribery standards
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
Washington Post Writers Group
W
ASHINGTON — Ber-
nie Sanders never under-
stood the epic quality of the
Clinton scandals. In his irst debate,
he famously dismissed the email
issue, it being beneath the dignity of
a great revolutionary to deal in things
so tawdry and
straightforward.
Sanders failed
to understand that
Clinton scandals
are sprawling, mul-
tilayered, complex
things. They defy time and space.
They grow and burrow.
The central problem with Hillary
Clinton’s emails was not the classiied
material. It wasn’t the headline-mak-
ing charge by the FBI director of her
extreme carelessness in handling it.
That’s a serious offense, to be
sure, and could very well have been
grounds for indictment. And it did
damage her politically, exposing her
sense of above-the-law entitlement
and — in her dodges and prevarica-
tions, her parsing and evasions —
demonstrating her arm’s-length rela-
tionship with the truth.
But it was always something of a
sideshow. The real question wasn’t
classiication but: Why did she have
a private server in the irst place? She
obviously lied about the purpose.
What exactly was she hiding?
Paranoia
Was this merely the prudent para-
noia of someone who habitually
walks the line of legality? After all, if
she controls the server, she controls
the evidence, and can destroy it — as
she did 30,000 emails — at will.
But destroy what? Remember: She
set up the system before even taking
ofice. It’s clear what she wanted to
protect from scrutiny: Clinton Foun-
dation business.
The foundation is a massive fam-
ily enterprise disguised as a charity,
an opaque and elaborate mechanism
for sucking money from the rich to
be channeled to Clinton Inc. Its pur-
pose is to maintain the Clintons’ life-
style (ofices, travel, accommodations,
etc.), secure proitable connections,
produce favorable publicity and reli-
ably employ a vast entourage of
retainers, ready to serve today and at
the coming Clinton Restoration.
Favors
Now we learn how the whole
machine operated. Emails began drib-
bling out showing foundation ofi-
cials contacting State Department
counterparts to ask favors for founda-
tion “friends.” Say, a meeting with the
State Department’s “substance per-
son” on Lebanon for one generous
Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire.
Big deal, said the Clinton defend-
ers. Low-level stuff. No involvement
of the secretary herself. Until — drip,
drip — the next batch revealed foun-
dation requests for face time with the
secretary herself. Such as one from
the crown prince of Bahrain.
To be sure, Bahrain, home of the
Fifth Fleet, is an important Persian
Gulf ally. Its crown prince shouldn’t
have to go through a foundation — to
which his government donated at least
$50,000 — to get to the secretary. The
fact that he did is telling.
Now, a further drip: The Associ-
ated Press found that over half the pri-
vate interests who were granted phone
or personal contact with Secretary
Clinton — 85 of 154 — were donors
to the foundation. Total contributions?
As much as $156 million.
Current Clinton response? There
was no quid pro quo.
Last line of defense
What a long way we’ve come.
This is the very last line of defense.
Yes, it’s obvious that access and
inluence were sold. But no one has
demonstrated deinitively that the
donors received something tangible of
value — a pipeline, a permit, a waiver
— in exchange.
It’s hard to believe the Clinton
folks would be stupid enough to com-
mit something so blatant to writing.
Nonetheless, there might be an email
allusion to some such conversation.
With thousands more emails to come,
who knows what lies beneath.
On the face of it, it’s rather odd
that a visible quid pro quo is the bright
line for malfeasance. Anything short
of that is deemed acceptable. As Don-
ald Trump says of his own dona-
tion-giving days, “when I need some-
thing from them ... I call them, they
are there for me.” This is considered
routine and unremarkable.
It’s not until a Rolex shows up on
your wrist that you get indicted. Or
you are found to have dangled a Sen-
ate appointment for cash. Then, like
Rod Blagojevich, you go to jail. (He
got 14 years.)
Yet we are hardly bothered by the
routine practice of presidents reward-
ing big donors with cushy ambassa-
dorships, appointments to portentous
boards or invitations to state dinners.
The bright line seems to be out-
right bribery. Anything short of that
is considered — not just for the Clin-
tons, for everyone — acceptable
corruption.
It’s a sorry standard. And right
now it is Hillary Clinton’s saving
grace.
GUEST COLUMN
Teens bound up for North Coast Food Web
By SUSAN CODY
For The Daily Astorian
eenagers over at the North
Coast Food Web are inside
cooking, while other teens
paint a mural on the side of the build-
ing. Yet more teens are creating a
play to present at the Performing Arts
Center. All three groups are part of
Upward Bound, a federal program to
prepare students for college.
The local Upward Bound program
serves Seaside, Warrenton and Astoria
high school students from low-income
families as well as those families in
which neither parent holds a bache-
lor’s degree.
Through ield
trips to colleges,
farms, Powell’s
Books, Colum-
bia Sportswear and
Mount St. Helens,
students broaden their horizons and
learn of different career opportunities.
“The six-week summer academy
is experiential learning,” says Moria
Golub, an adviser for Upward Bound.
“They are not put through testing
standards. They get out of it what they
put into it.”
The cooking group is studying
“Food Systems, Food Conversations.”
They have seen ilms and listened to
speakers about nutrition, food access
and food deserts. They visited a local
organic farm and picked berries in the
wild and on a U-pick farm.
“This is awesome,” says Asia
Lambert, one of the students. “I like
cooking with all natural ingredients
that are good for you.”
As they look over the fruits, veg-
etables and salad they have prepared,
one boy yells, “This is what I live for
T
Rachel Najera
poses next to
her creation on
the wall at the
North Coast
Food Web.
Susan Cody
For The Daily
Astorian
– hummus and pita bread!”
Wendy D’Agostino, cooking
instructor at the Food Web, says,
“In the ifth week, they are making
more thoughtful food choices, even at
home. Today they all took everything.
That is better than in the past. Early
on, they wanted their BLTs without
the L and the T. The only second help-
ings they asked for were bread and
mayonnaise. Now they are eating
fruits and veggies.”
In the kitchen or outside, team-
work is essential to these projects.
“They worked together as a team,
evaluating recipes and iguring out
how to approach the task,” D’Agos-
tino says.
The mural painters also studied
food and farms, looking at plants,
drawing and sketching. After draw-
ing the outlines on the Food Web
wall, it became like a “coloring book
project,” says project leader Miki’ala
Souza.
She says, “I want them to do
everything – make the decisions, cre-
ate designs, themes and submit colors.
We started with some inspiration and
rules, but the students made all the
decisions.”
“I love it,” says Sadie Wooldridge.
“None of the work was decided for
us. It’s a great opportunity to do some-
thing for our community.”
“We got to make our own choices,
which we don’t get to do in school”
says Brittany Virgillo.
As they paint, the students discuss
some of the opportunities they have
experienced. Adam Morse loved see-
ing the play, “In the Heights,” writ-
ten by the same man who wrote the
Broadway hit, “Hamilton.”
“It was different, but you could
recognize some of the music similari-
ties,” he says.
Visiting different college campuses
was a big plus. Several students were
impressed with Portland State Univer-
sity, while others leaned toward Lin-
ield and Western Oregon.
Upward Bound offers stipends for
reaching college-related benchmarks,
Golub says. Applying for scholar-
ships or meeting GPA goals are ways
to earn the stipends. Monica Alward
says the stipends can pay for the ACT
and SAT tests, which are expensive.
Susan Cody is the communica-
tions lead for the Clatsop County Way
to Wellville. She is also a former dep-
uty managing editor for The Daily
Astorian.