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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANuARY 30, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
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OUR VIEW
Education is the challenge for this Legislature
E
very child in Oregon
deserves an excellent educa-
tion — regardless of where
the student lives or attends school,
regardless of whether the student
comes from a well-to-do family or
an impoverished one, regardless of
academic ability, and regardless of
ethnicity or race or background.
Last week’s Department of Edu-
cation report on graduation rates
shows that is not the case in Ore-
gon. But another report last week
from the Legislature’s Joint Com-
mittee on Student Success provides
a path forward.
Across Oregon, high school
graduation rates increased by 2 per-
centage points last year to almost
79 percent. In Clatsop County, the
rates ranged from 73.4 percent in
Seaside to 94.3 percent in Knappa.
The improvement is welcome
news, but it remains deeply con-
cerning that one-fifth of public high
school students fail to graduate
within four years.
There also are vast variations
among demographic groups. The
graduation rate was 82 percent for
girls but 75.6 percent for boys.
Graduation rates generally were
lower for students of color but
higher for former English language
learners. Only 54 percent of home-
less students graduated within four
years of high school.
As members of the Student Suc-
cess committee said last week, the
public has had enough. Oregon has
been grappling with these issues
for decades, with too little progress.
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
Gov. Kate Brown has said boosting funding for public education is her top priority
heading into the 2019 Legislature.
Insufficient funding has been
a major obstacle, especially since
voters’ passage of Measure 5 in
1990 put the onus on state govern-
ment to fund public schools. But
money is not the only issue. It’s
how the money is spent.
On the one hand, the collabo-
rative approach espoused by the
nonprofit, nonpartisan Chalk-
board Project has achieved pro-
found academic gains and higher
staff morale in participating school
districts. On the other hand, the
state’s recent audit report on Port-
land Public Schools shows “how a
school district should not operate,”
according to Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner.
The bipartisan Student Success
committee has abundant ideas for
reforms — excellent ideas — but
with a combined price tag of well
over $3 billion. Not everything can
be done.
The Legislature will signifi-
cantly increase education spending.
But PERS’ unfunded actuarial lia-
bility will consume a huge chunk
of any additional money earmarked
for reducing class sizes, extend-
ing the school year or making other
improvements. The majority Dem-
ocrats and Gov. Kate Brown must
face up to their responsibility to
rein in public pension costs, instead
of wringing their hands over court
decisions that overturned past
reforms.
School districts must accept
that additional funding will come
with requirements for account-
ability in how that money is used.
Unlike previous political endeav-
ors that chased the educational fla-
vor of the day, the Student Success
committee based its recommenda-
tions on reality. Lawmakers visited
more than 50 schools — from the
coast to eastern and southern Ore-
gon — and talked with hundreds
of students, staff members, parents,
business people, civic leaders and
others.
This week, committee members
are starting work on determining
which proposals would achieve the
greatest return on investment and
how to pay for them. Their top pri-
orities include the importance of
early childhood education and the
drastic need for more school coun-
selors, mental health therapists and
other behavioral health services —
throughout the state.
In their letter submitting the
Student Success report, the com-
mittee’s Democratic and Repub-
lican leaders wrote: “A student’s
achievement should be a result of
their own efforts, not their parents’
income or their race, ethnicity, or
ZIP code. Unfortunately, factors
entirely outside of a young person’s
control too often determine their
access to a high-quality education.
Oregon’s students deserve a public
education system that sets them up
for success.”
That is the challenge for the
2019 Legislature. That is the chal-
lenge for Oregon.
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2009
In a move eagerly anticipated by liquefied natural gas
opponents on the North Coast, President Barack Obama
has named Jon Wellinghoff acting chairman of the Fed-
eral Energy Regulatory Commission, the five-member
board that oversees the LNG permitting process.
The move, together with likely changes to the board’s
makeup in the coming months and pending challenges
to the U.S. Court of Appeals, could have consequences
for the Bradwood Landing LNG project, the frontrunner
among three LNG proposals in Oregon.
Wellinghoff, a Democrat, was the lone dissenting
vote on the Bradwood project, which was approved by
FERC in a 4-1 vote in September.
Thousands of Oregon jobs vanished in
December, sending unemployment rates in a
third of the state’s 36 counties soaring beyond
10 percent.
On the North Coast, the picture wasn’t quite
so bleak, though local communities are seeing
the effects of the national economic recession.
Clatsop County’s seasonally adjusted unem-
ployment rate rose to 6.9 percent in Decem-
ber from 6.3 percent in November — up sig-
nificantly from 5.8 percent in December 2007.
But it was still the third-lowest in the state and
far below the statewide average of 9 percent
unemployment.
The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals remanded
the Clatsop County Commission’s approval of the Brad-
wood Landing liquefied natural gas project Tuesday.
The board found fault with the county’s finding that
the facility is “small or moderate” in scale and that
requirements to protect salmon and traditional fishing
areas had been met.
50 years ago — 1969
Old Man Winter clamped an icy hand on the Sunset
Empire Sunday night, strangling traffic, forcing closure
of all schools in Clatsop County today, and making driv-
ing hazardous on all major highways.
Across the river, most meetings were canceled as five
to seven inches of snow fell in Chinook and Oysterville.
Many businesses were at a standstill for all but those
who were in walking distance.
1969 — Winter came to the West End mooring basin along with the rest of the Lower Columbia region, blanketing ramps
and boats in snow and coating the water with ice.
State patrols recommended use of chains on high-
ways on both sides of the river.
The 620-foot tanker Eagle Courier, en route
to sea from the Union Oil Co. dock in Port-
land, went aground at 8:15 a.m. today on Jim
Crow sands about 15 miles east of Astoria.
It was refloated two hours later on a rising
tide with the aid of the Knappton Towboat Co.
tug Noydena and proceeded to Astoria.
Plight of elk and deer, several reportedly
starving to death in the southeast end of Clat-
sop County, is termed drastic by local sports-
men and some farmers and ranchers in the
Jewell and Birkenfeld areas.
On the basis of this information, District
Judge Harold T. Johnson today sent a letter to
the Oregon Game commission office, Salem,
recommending the agency investigate this
situation.
Many local sportsmen are also concerned
with depletion of the winter elk herd through
starvation, by forages of predatory animals and
the upcoming archery season.
Several farmers in the Jewell area have been
feeding the hungry animals that came down
from higher elevations in search of lowland
food. Snow in the area is up to three feet deep,
however, making natural feeding almost impos-
sible for the game animals.
Coast guardsmen continued today in their stubborn
task of trying to get the beached deep sea boat Electra
off the sands of Clatsop spit, and they were not having
a great deal of success.
The have lashed empty metal drums around the Elec-
tra’s hull, in the hope that they would lift the foundered
boat on the incoming tide. That has not worked, yet.
They have dropped a heavy anchor off shore, then with
a series of pulleys have tried to pull her into the water.
That has not worked, yet. But the guardsmen are con-
tinuing their efforts, and not without hope. The Electra
went aground Wednesday night.
The old-timer in the knitted wool stocking cap
stamped the snow off his boots. “If you think this is bad,
you should have been here in January, 1930.”
Well, old-timer, yes and no. Comparing the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Weather Bureau Meteorolog-
ical records of January 1930 with those of this month,
the situation then was more drastic and weather condi-
tions were more severe because of ice, not snow. Snow
for January 1930 was only 8.5 inches.
Editions of the Astorian-Budget through January
1930 headlined the fact that the river was frozen across
from Wauna to The Dalles. The narrow channel of water
at Astoria was afloat with huge chunks of ice, mak-
ing traffic for small boats or those with wooden hulls
impossible.
U.S. Army engineers today left a dark pic-
ture of the Northwest billion-dollar salmon
industry future in outlining a program for
construction of more than 100 dams on the
Columbia River.
Before representatives of salmon packers
here, Col. Ralph A. Tudor, U.S. Army district
engineer, yesterday told commercial fisher-
men and representatives of game commissions
from the four Northwest states that the impor-
tance of the Columbia River salmon run would
be small compared with the billions of dollars
that could be expected from industrial growth
in the Northwest through Columbia River
power.
75 years ago — 1944