3
Last month, the National Com
mission on Excellence in Education
presented its report on the quality of
education in America.
Its message was dear and simple:
" T h e educational foundations o f
our society are presently being
eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity
that threatens our very future as a
Nation and a people.”
This charge is not one to be taken
lightly. As the Commission report
ed, if an unfriendly foreign power
had attempted to impose on Ameri
ca the mediocre educational perfor
mance that exists today, we might
well have viewed it as an act of war.
Some of the indicators supporting
this charge of "unilateral education
al disarmament" include:
• Some 23 m illion American
adults are functionally illiterate by
the simplest tests of everyday read
ing, writing and comprehension.
• Approximately 13 percent of all
17-year-otds in the United States can
be considered functionally illiterate.
Portland Observer, May 18, 1963 Page 5
Washington Hot Line
by Congressman Kon Wyden
Functional illiteracy among minority
youth may run as high as 40 percent.
• The College Boards' Scholastic
Aptitude Tests (SAT) demonstrate a
virtually unbroken decline from
1963 to 1980 Average verbal scores
fell over 30 points and average
mathematics scores dropped nearly
40 points.
• Average tested achievement of
students graduating from college is
also lower.
What is worse, these deficiencies
come at a time when expanding high
technology opportunities in new and
traditional industries are burgeon
ing.
It is easy to point the finger at
these problems, but it is obviously
more difficult to arrive at solutions
to these dilemmas.
The report calls for two kinds of
changes. The first are changes which
may cost no money, but which
require changes in policy and
priority — such as rethinking each
school's use o f classroom time, or
insistence by local school boards
that publishers produce higher
quality textbooks.
Other proposed changes w ill be
more expensive. These include
higher teacher pay, longer school
days and longer school years,
expansion o f required curriculum
offerings to include more years of
math, science, language and com
puting, and reforms in teacher
education.
But the Commission points out —
and 1 wholeheartedly agree — the
nation cannot a ffo rd not to make
these changes. A ll levels o f the
public and private sector have a
stake in these changes and will need
to share in their cost.
We need to develop a national
educational policy that looks
beyond our immediate fiscal con
straints at our needs through the end
o f the century. Our current short
sighted. bargain basement approach
to education in this country has left
us high and dry.
Other efforts I have supported
this year in the Congress include the
Emergency Math and Science Edu
cation Act, which passed the House 1
of Representatives in February and
is now awaiting action in the Senate,
and the American Defense Educa
tion Act. Both these measures ad
dress the glaring inadequacies pres
ent in the teaching o f math and
sciences — areas o f crucial im por
tance if we are to keep pace with
foreign counterparts in a booming
high-technology era.
Saturday
M ay 21
1983
Hogar«
Thee Barber Shop
407 N.E. M ason
On Ih« cornar ot Union
284-4181
In short, our educational system,
and, therefore, our nation and its
security, face some very real
problems. Yet, we are the products
o f past generations that have risen
to similar challenges and overcome
them. We need to move beyond
lamenting our shortcomings and
begin the uphill climb that will bring
us to the pinnacle o f educational
excellence.
Citizen Utility Board proposed
by State Rep. Watlv Priestley
One o f the most exciting ideas
being proposed in the 1983 legisla
ture is House Bill 2934, a bill to set
up a statewide Citizens U tility
Board. I f you’ve ever been
frustrated about rising utility bills,
but didn't know what to do about
them, you'll like CUB.
The Citizens Utility Board would
be a statewide, citizens organization
which would represent residential
ratepayers in electric, phone, and
gas utility rate hearings. Through a
special notice included in their
u tility bills, consumers w ill learn
about C U B and will be invited to
join for a few dollars a year. CUB's
board of directors will be elected by
its membership.
The proposal is modeled after
sim ilar legislation passed in
Wisconsin in 1979. Wisconsin's
CUB now has over 60,000 members
and its estimated budget for 1983 is
about $400,000. Having hired a
staff of experts, it has participated
in over 20 rate and policy hearings.
Estimates have pegged C U B 's
savings to Wisconsin consumers at
over $43 million.
Opponents (primarily utilities) of
a Citizens Utility Board argue that a
C U B is unnecessary because the
Public U tility Commissioner a l
ready represents ratepayer interests.
I strongly disagree and I'm sure
most ratepayers don't buy that
argument either. In fact, our present
Commissioner, John Lobdell, has
adopted policies which make it
much harder, if not impossible, for
citizens to participate in a utility rate
case. Ratemaking has become a one
sided affair and Oregon's tradition
o f fair and open government has
been tarnished as a result.
Death penalty on state agenda
by Greg Wasson
In 1914, Oregon voters abolished
capital punishment only to bring it
back in 1920. Between then and
1933, thirty-three people died at the
hands o f the state. In 1964, the
voters again abolished the supreme
sanction.
Just a little over ten years later —
in 1976 — a group that included the
late Rep. Dick Magruder filed an
initiative to put the state back in (he
execution business. The measure
failed to make the ballot.
During the 1977 session. Senate
Pres. Jason Boe warned that the
people wanted protection from a
perceived increase in violence.
"The public wants a program that
assures that when a guy like Brudos
has been tried and convicted, he's
going to be put away forever. He's
gone, he's away and we never have
to worry about him getting out
again.'*
The legislature refused to adopt
such a plan, however. The people
responded by restoring capital
punishment the next year almost
two to one.
The State Supreme Court entered
the debate in 1981, overturning
Oregon's death penalty for what it
termed fatal constitutional prob
lems; the 1981 legislature refused to
deal with the issue; and a 1982
initiative drive failed.
However, Republican Gov. Vic
Atiyeh is championing the return of
executions. The middle o f last
month, Atiyeh demanded that
the House Judiciary Com mittee
approve legislation referring the
death penalty to the people, citing a
public clamoring to bring it back.
Rep. Dick Springer, a member of
the committee, answers that there
has to be a limit to government by
applause meter and that no matter
what the public wants, the death
penalty is wrong.
A majority of the legislators who
control crime and punishment issues
this session share Springer's views
and it’s unlikely that the body will
refer the issue to the people.
A proposal given a greater
possibility of success is advanced by
Rep. L arry H ill, D -S pringfield.
Known as the civil death penalty,
Hill's idea is to provide the possibili
ty of a life sentence that means just
that — locked up for the duration.
" It 's the death of the person's
civil rig h ts ," explains H ill. "T h e
sentence for the conviction of aggra
vated murder (for example, murder
for hire) would be the permanent
loss of the ability to live among the
rest of the people in society.”
Legislative opponents o f capital
punishment would do well to
consider H ill’s proposal against the
backdrop of the last five years. The
fate of those who ignore history is
well established.
A second suggestion for quieting
public fears comes from Rep. Peter
C ourtney, D-Salem . Courtney
proffers that the state be required to
notify the sentencing judge and
district attorney if the Parole Board
is considering letting a prisoner out
before he or she has completed the
minimum sentence imposed at trial.
The effect, says Courtney, would
likely be to make parole less likely in
instances where local officials chose
to appear before the board.
Seniors, people on fixed incomes
— all of us — have a great deal at
stake in u tility issues. A C U B can
help assure that consumers have an
effective voice and strong represen
tation in rate cases. 1 look at it not
as a duplication of the PUC staff,
but a much-desired addition to what
we currently have. Recent experi
ence has shown, for both private
and public utilities, that when citi
zens are actively involved in the
process, you get better public policy
in the end.
CUB has a very valuable role to
play in making the utility rate-set
ting process more fair, equitable,
and open. That's why I ’m proud to
join House Speaker Grattan Kerans
and many other legislators as a
sponsor of this very important bill.
Thomas Edison and his staff at Menlo Park invented
something new every ten days.
•
A skywriter travels about twenty miles for a three
word advertisement.
One fourth of the body's bones are in the feet.
•
Snails and slugs have a remarkable homing in
stinct. Each has been observed to return to the same
area, even the same plant, from which it was
removed.
as
We do oot do business w ith South Africa
America n State
B a n k
-
Street Beat
by Lanita Duke and Richard Brown
To tha Editor:
Lately, Governor Atiyeh has been
pushing for the re-instatement of
the death penalty. For government
officials and Correctional Officers,
only.
In addition to this Bill, Governor
Atiyeh and other agencies through
out the State are pushing, for
another penitentiary. Eastern
Oregon State Hospital is the main
focus of attention, and in the eyes of
the government, this new facility
would provide an economic up
swing for the city o f Pendleton,
while presenting nothing more than
a temporary patchwork solution to
the long range problem o f over
crowding; as will the 200 man dor
mitory that is still under construc
tion here at OSP.
There are ironies involved, that
you, the public should become
aware of:
I j O n t w occasions the Prison
Bond Iss
nas been voted down
by the public. The Legislature, how
ever, has the power to provide the
funds for the acquisition of another
penitentiary. I f this is in fact, true,
then what purpose is there — in
voting?
2) You, the public, are being
asked to reinstate the death penalty.
But only for the purpose of protect
ing those whom you have elected to
public office; who in turn, have
hired family members and friends as
Correctional Officers, to insure that
whatever policies and standards set
forth are enforced. Why not provide
the same protection for one and all?
Or, why at all?
3) Predicting the over-crowding
problems, as they now exist, as well
as the results o f having these
problems, took place in 1977, or, at
the same time the M a trix System
(Parole Standards) was first intro
duced into Oregon. Government
Officials were aware then, that these
predictions held tru th , and yet,
ignored them anyway, and instead,
threatened the life of this writer if he
continued to challenge the political
aspirations of the Corrections Divi
sion for Oregon.
I am 31 years young, and already
I have been threatened for my life
on three occasions, fo r my out
spokenness, and for my affiliation
with the Native Americans. I have
been paralyzed in one leg; the result
of a shotgun blast while trying to re
solve a situation initiated out o f
frustration. And, I've been vindic
tively sentenced for an unlawful act
Jarry L. Albera
Commissioner Charles Jordan an
nounced his decision not lo run for
m ayor. The Street Beat team w on
dered how his announcement wen,
over with the public with, "H o w do
you feel about Commissioner Jordan’s
decision not to run for mayor?”
Paulatta Davis
CSD
"Charles feels that he was so
railroaded last time when they
put him into the frying pan and
forced him into the fire. I don't
think (hey would have given
him the chance to win. In cam
paigning the d irt would have
been worse than what was
thrown in Chicago.”
Ron Vandyk
Manufacturing Englnaar
I committed after being denied com
pensation and the physical and
emotional stress that I yet endure, as
a result of being shot.
I am only one inmate among
thousands, lucky enough to be
gifted with 'insight.* There are
programs that have been im ple
mented w ithin the C orrectional
System, that has an inmate's signa
ture stamped on the program ’ s
origin. These programs, however,
are only accepted if they provide a
step toward the ultimate goal of ex
panding the Corrections System.
I have a story to tell that w ill
prove (beyond a reasonable doubt)
that the problems, you, the public
are confronted with, were premedi
tated in their implementation by a
number o f Government O fficials
and Agencies.
I am frightened by what I see
taking place, in the Corrections
System. Most people could care less
what happens to a prisoner, until
that prisoner becomes one of their
own. There is a great deal o f pro
gressive thought within the minds of
the inmates, but it requires the at
tention of you, the public to under
stand the reality o f what is going on.
Head Ottlcs
2737 N. E. Union
Portland, Oregon 97212
&
Letters to the Editor.
Prison practices bring fear
AN INDEPENDENT BANK
" H is decision is based upon
his own personal situation at
home. I kinda wish he had ran.
He would have made a good
mayor.”
/
f
W.W. Simmons
J. Ovarland
Houaawlfa
" I l ’ s nice. He's concerned
about his fam ily. I felt his
chances to win were fair.”
1
Ratlrad
" T h e reason I understood
him giving was that his wife was
ill. I think that is reason enough.
He has done a pretty good job.
He would have given the other
candidates a run for their
money.”
Lillian Ball
Taachar
" I accept it with regrets. He is
a wonderful person. I believe
his type of leadership is badly
needed right now in Portland,
O r."
L
Bob Rogara
Prlvata Conaultant
" I t was a tough decision for
Jordan. He did the right thing
by considering the health of his
wife. He was the best one for
the jo b and he would have
beaten Ivancie.”