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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, May 28, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Free community college worth considering Bills come and go in the Oregon men and women make the wrong State legislature. It is hard to become choice, taking the short-term money too enamored or too frightened ZKLOHODWHU¿QGLQJWKHPVHOYHVVWXFN of one, knowing it can change in a dead-end job with few skills to considerably or never even make it make a career change. WRWKHÀRRU Senate Bill 81 would change But one bill stands out as an the dynamic. It would allow young interesting concept Oregonians to see that if not yet ready a diploma as not for passage, is at end of their Senate Bill 81 the least ready for studies, but the would change beginning. It does deeper study. That is Senate require some buy-in the dynamic, Bill 81, which would from students. They waive tuition at all would pay $50 per allow young Oregon community and also be Oregonians to term, colleges for required to maintain recently graduated see a diploma a GPA of 2.5 or in-state students as not the end of better. who maintain a It’s also respectable GPA. expensive, and their studies, but It sounds too would cost the state the beginning. somewhere between good to be true, right? With the cost $14 million and $16 of college vastly million, depending RXWSDFLQJLQÀDWLRQDWWHQGLQJRQH on the number of students who take RXUVWDWH¶V¿QHVWLQVWLWXWLRQVFDQ advantage of the program. leave a young person saddled with The state just doesn’t have that debt. kind of money, and its current College remains a good philosophy is to invest available investment for nearly all of them, dollars early into the education VLJQL¿FDQWO\LQFUHDVLQJOLIHWLPH system — from preschool to third earnings as you move from an grade — in an attempt to get associate degree to a bachelor’s to a everyone on the same page when the master’s and beyond. But teens have real learning begins. a hard time imagining themselves as It’s doubtful Senate Bill 81 will mid-career professionals, much less pass. But we have to continue retirees. thinking about ways for post- And when they graduate high secondary education to become the school they have two options: earn norm for the majority of Oregon minimum wage somewhere or, if high school students. It’s the only their parents aren’t rich or they’re way our sons and daughters will not an exceptional student, take on a be able to compete in tomorrow’s boatload of scary debt. Many young economy. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS Good prospects for college grads 7KHPRUHGLI¿FXOWLWEHFRPHVWRJDLQ relevant experience, the more valuable that experience is to those who have it. This year’s college graduates will $OORIWKLVPDJQL¿HVWKHLPSRUWDQFHRI enter the best job market since the early internships. And it also puts pressure on stages of the Great Recession, which RI¿FLDOO\VWDUWHGZKHQWKLV\HDU¶VVHQLRUV students to pick a career path early so they know what type of job, internship ²DWOHDVWWKRVHZKR¿QLVKHGLQIRXU or otherwise, to pursue. The implications years — were freshmen in high school. for colleges: Increase counseling and For a 22-year-old, eight years feels beef up internship programs. The good like a lifetime — and in this case that’s news for students: Ann Mestrovich, appropriate since graduating into a employer relations coordinator at welcoming economy can have lifelong EHQH¿WV&ROOHJHJUDGXDWHVZKRJHWWKHLU Portland State University, said that, in ¿UVWMREVGXULQJUHFHVVLRQVHDUQDERXW a shift from recent years, employers are calling her to inquire about offering percent less annually in the early stages internships instead of the university of their careers than do those who enter having to proactively seek partners. the job market when the economy is Speaking of picking a career path, growing, according to a National Bureau the recession didn’t do any favors for of Economic Research paper. It takes those who don’t like math. The top a decade for them to catch up. Other 10 highest earning majors for 2015 studies have estimated the penalty for graduates all require engineering degrees bad timing to be even higher. And some of one sort or another, according to the of the consequences, such as waiting National Association of Colleges and longer to buy a home or start saving for Employers. A state-by-state study by retirement, can last a lifetime. Georgetown University, which looked So the class of 2015 is fortunate in at career earnings rather than just entry many ways. They have a degree, which wages, added nursing, forestry, business, on average is worth $830,000 more in DFFRXQWLQJ¿QDQFHDQGDUFKLWHFWXUHWR lifetime earnings compared with what the best-pay list for Oregon. The lists high school graduates earn, according underscore the need to improve math to the Federal Reserve Board of San education in Oregon, which continues to Francisco. They have a better chance graduate large numbers of students who of getting a job than their slightly older are unprepared to pass even entry-level peers did and probably will get higher starting salaries, too. They are less likely college math classes. The cost of that to start their “professional” lives serving shortcoming will only grow. The Employment Department study coffee or waiting tables. But the post- of young workers highlighted another recession job market is different from area where students need help — job the previous employment landscape. searches. Young workers rarely take 2QHRIWKHPRVWVLJQL¿FDQWVKLIWV advantage of free employment help that has been the increase in the importance is available and, counter-intuitively, of work experience. Employers always over-rely on the traditional resume have valued experience of course. But and application while putting too little the recession and other socio-economic effort into networking. Portland State’s changes have conspired to make it harder to obtain relevant work. From the Mestrovich said students sometimes need to be reminded that networking start of the early 2000s recession to the involves more than updating a LinkedIn end of the most recent one, the number SUR¿OH³5HJDUGOHVVRIWKHWHFKQRORJ\ of teen job seekers without previous and tools we all use these days, personal experience nearly doubled. contact is the best way to understand Once in college, many students have the world of work ... and get you to work to help pay the tuition bill, connected,” she said. EXWWKRVHZKR¿QGMREVUHODWHGWRWKHLU Thankfully for the Class of 2015, an HYHQWXDOFDUHHU²ZKLFKZDVGLI¿FXOWWR increasing number of employers want do during the recession and early stages to make connections with this year’s of recovery — will reap the biggest graduates. EHQH¿WV The Oregonian OTHER VIEWS Talent loves English E ight hundred years ago next as the world gets more middle class, month, English noblemen global immigration would decline forced King John to sign the because of more opportunity at home. Magna Carta. It’s still having amazing In fact, the reverse is happening. As effects on the world today. The Magna the developing world gets more middle Carta helped usher in government class, immigration has increased with a separation of powers. It because educational and income gains helped create conditions in which have led to ever higher aspirations. centralized authority could not totally The situation is complex. Less than David FRQWURO¿VFDOSROLWLFDOUHOLJLRXVRU a decade ago, six Mexicans migrated Brooks intellectual life. It helped usher in the to the United States for every Indian or Comment modern Anglo-Saxon state model, Chinese. But as Mexico has prospered, with its relative emphasis on the open immigration has dropped. Meanwhile, movement of people, ideas and things. as India and China have gotten richer, the The Anglo-Saxon model has its plusses number of Indians and Chinese living abroad and minuses, but it is very attractive to has doubled. people around the world. Today, as always, Some of the Asian immigrants are quite LPPLJUDQWVÀRFNWRQDWLRQVZLWK%ULWLVK wealthy. According to the China International political heritage. Forty-six million people Immigration Report, among Chinese with in the United States are foreign born, almost assets of more than $16 million, 27 percent 1 in 6. That’s by far the highest number of had emigrated abroad and an additional 47 immigrants in any country. percent were considering Canada, Australia and such a move. The real estate New Zealand are also website Soufun.net surveyed immigrant magnets. The 5,000 people and found that British political class was 41 percent of such people a set abuzz last week by a were drawn to move abroad government report showing for better living conditions, a 50 percent increase in 35 percent for better net immigration in 2014 educational opportunities compared with 2013. The for their children and 15 government has a goal of percent for better retirement limiting immigration to conditions. 100,000 a year, but, in 2014, And this talent pool net inbound migration was has barely been tapped. estimated to be 318,000. Britain has the most According to a Gallup survey in 2012, 22 diverse immigrant community of any nation million Chinese wanted to move to the on earth. United States, as did 10 million Indians, 3 Some of the those people went to Britain million Vietnamese and a surprising 5 million IURPRXWVLGHRI(XURSHEXWDJUHDWPDQ\ÀRZ Japanese. from the sclerotic economies in the European In short, it might be time to revise our Union: Italy, Spain and France. Compared stereotypes about the immigration issue. A with many other European countries, Britain is thousand years ago, a few English noblemen a job-creating paragon. unwittingly heralded in a decentralized Across the English-speaking world, political and intellectual model. This model immigrants are drawn by the same things: was deepened over the centuries by people relatively strong economies, good universities, ranging from Henry VIII to the American open cultures and the world’s lingua franca. founding fathers. It’s a model that is relatively The nature of global migration is friendly to outsider talent. We didn’t earn this slowly evolving, too. We have an image model; we’re the lucky inheritors. of immigrants as the poor, huddled masses Meanwhile, globalization, with all its yearning to breathe free. According to this stresses and strains, has created a large stereotype, immigrants are driven from their international class of middle-class dreamers: homes by poverty and move elsewhere to XQLYHUVLW\JUDGXDWHVZKRFDQ¶WIXO¿OOWKHLU compete against the lowest-skilled workers. aspirations at home and who would enrich But immigrants do not come from the whatever nation is lucky enough to have them. poorest countries. Nations like Central African In this context, Hillary Clinton’s daring Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo approach to immigration, supporting a “path and Niger — some of the poorest countries to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants in the world — have some of the lowest already in the United States, is clearly the outmigration rates. Less than 3 percent of their right one. The Republican Party is insane if it populations live outside their borders. Their conducts a 21st-century immigration policy based on stereotypes from the 1980s. citizens don’t have the resources to move. Ŷ Instead, immigrants tend to come from David Brooks became a New York Times middle-class countries, and they migrate to Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. rich, open ones. You might have thought that In short, it might be time to revise our stereotypes about the immigration issue. Senator CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES Bill Hansell, District 29 900 Court St. NE, S-423 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us Representatives Greg Barreto, District 58 900 Court St. NE, H-38 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1458 Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us Greg Smith, District 57 900 Court St. NE, H-482 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1457 Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original let- ters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include a phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
