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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
OTHER VIEWS
Can we interest you in teaching?
Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., on Aug. 6 in water
colored from a mine waste spill.
When EPA pollutes,
usual critics remain silent
Imagine the poor dairy farmer
have been shut down. The long-term
who accidentally breaches his
impact of the disaster is unknown.
manure lagoon, sending its contents
For its part, the EPA has taken
down the nearby creek.
blame and has promised to clean up
Environmentalists would want
the mess.
his head on a platter, and state and
Outside local outrage — which
federal agencies would land on
has been considerable — the
him with both
reaction from
feet with ¿nes and
national
potential criminal
environmental
Outside local
prosecution. If it
groups and the
were bad enough,
outrage, reaction political class that
and politically
usually capitalizes
from national
advantageous, there
on such events
might be comment
has been muted.
environmental
from the White
cries for an
groups has been No
House.
investigation,
But what
no calls for
muted.
happens when
resignations or
the polluter is the
prosecutions. The
Environmental Protection Agency?
White House, which seldom lets a
Last week EPA contractors
local crisis it can blame on its critics
working to stabilize an abandoned
go unnoticed, has been surprisingly
gold mine in Southern Colorado
silent.
caused 3 million gallons of mine
Accidents, after all, happen.
water contaminated with lead,
As we say, the locals are a bit
arsenic, cadmium, aluminum, copper more outspoken.
and calcium to Àow into the Animas
“If a mining operator or other
River 60 miles north of Durango.
private business caused the spill to
A mustard-yellow plume has now occur, the EPA would be all over
made its way into 1ew Me[ico.
them,” U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton,
The previously pristine river, a huge R-Cortez, said in a statement. “The
draw for the tourists who are the
EPA admits fault, and as such must
lifeblood of the region’s economy,
be accountable and held to the same
has been closed to ¿shing, rafting
standard.”
and kayaking. Irrigation pumps
Sauce for the goose.
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
Will Obama’s plan to
reduce carbon emissions work?
The (Medford) Mail-Tribune
When Oregon legislators were
debating measures designed to reduce
carbon emissions in the state, opponents
of those bills frequently argued that
nothing Oregon does, with a population
of just 3 million
people, would make
any real difference
in combating climate
change. Solutions,
critics said, needed to
be national in scope.
Don’t look now,
but President Obama
announced a plan last
week that takes just
such a nationwide
approach. And, as a
result of steps Oregon
lawmakers have already taken, this
state is well positioned to comply with
the president’s Clean Power Plan, if it
survives court challenges and is fully
implemented.
Oregon is not among the worst
offenders among the states when it
comes to greenhouse gas emissions.
There is only one coal-¿red power plant
in Oregon, the Portland General Electric
facility at Boardman, which is the state’s
largest emitter of CO2. PGE already has
committed to stop burning coal at that
plant by 2020.
But that doesn’t mean Oregon
is off the hook. Paci¿c Power gets
appro[imately 60 percent of its power
from coal-¿red plants in other states. The
utility has pledged to close 10 coal plants
by 202 or convert them to natural gas.
Carbon-reduction goals the state has
set for itself are far more stringent than
those in the Clean Power Plan, although
slashing carbon
dio[ide outputs may
be delayed if coal plant
outputs are replaced
with natural gas. Gas
emits about half the
carbon of coal, but
methane is a more
potent greenhouse gas
than carbon dio[ide,
and leakage of gas into
the atmosphere from
plants or pipelines can
increase the state’s
carbon footprint.
Ultimately, replacing fossil fuel
power generation with renewable
sources such as solar and wind — to the
degree that’s possible — will have the
greatest impact on carbon emissions, and
Oregon already requires its large utilities
to get 25 percent of their power from
renewables by 2025.
It’s true that Oregon’s efforts,
laudable as they are, won’t have much
effect on global carbon emissions by
themselves. But combined with the other
West Coast states and ultimately with the
entire country, our state’s contribution
will be part of something much larger.
Oregon is not
among the
worst offenders
when it comes to
greenhouse gas
emissions.
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public
issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website.
The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of
private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include
the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not
be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing
Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.
T
eaching can’t compete.
reason not to implement promising
When the economy improves
new approaches or to shrink from
and job prospects multiply,
e[perimentation, it puts an onus on
college students turn their attention
policymakers and administrators to
elsewhere, to professions that promise
bring generous measures of training,
more money, more independence,
support and patience to the task.
more respect.
Teachers crave better opportunities
That was one takeaway from a
for career growth. Evan Stone, one
Frank
widely discussed story in The Times on
of the chief e[ecutives of Educators
Bruni
Sunday by Motoko Rich, who charted
4 E[cellence, which represents about
Comment
teacher shortages so severe in certain
17,000 teachers nationwide, called for
areas of the country that teachers are
“career ladders for teachers to move
being rushed into classrooms with dubious
into specialist roles, master-teacher roles.”
Tuali¿cations and before
“They’re worried that
they’ve earned their teaching
they’re going to be doing
credentials.
the same thing on day one
It’s a sad, alarming state
as they’ll be doing 30 years
of affairs, and it proves that
in,” he told me.
for all our lip service about
He also questioned
improving the education of
licensing laws that prevent
America’s children, we’ve
the easy movement of an
failed to make teaching
e[emplary teacher from one
the draw that it should be,
state to another. Minnesota
the honor that it must be.
recently rela[ed such
Nationally, enrollment
requirements; if other states
in teacher preparation
followed suit, it might build
programs dropped by 30
a desirable new Àe[ibility
percent between 2010 and
into the profession.
2014, as Rich reported.
Teaching also needs to
To make matters worse,
be endowed with greater
more than 40 percent of
prestige. One intriguing line
the people who do go into
of thought about how to do
teaching e[it the profession within ¿ve years.
this is to make the requirements for becoming
How do we make teaching more rewarding, a teacher more dif¿cult, so that a teaching
so that it beckons to not only enough college
credential has luster.
graduates but to a robust share of the very best
In the book “The Smartest Kids in the
of them?
World,” Amanda Ripley noted that Finland’s
Better pay is a must. There’s no getting
teachers are revered in part because they’re the
around that. Many teachers in many areas
survivors of selective screening and rigorous
can’t hope to buy a house and support a
training.
family on their incomes, and college students
Kate Walsh, the president of the National
contemplating careers know that. If those
Council on Teacher Quality, told me that
students are taking on debt, teaching isn’t
in this country, “It’s pretty ¿rmly rooted in
likely to provide a timely way to pay it off.
college students that education is a fairly easy
The average salary nationally for public
major.” Too often, it’s also “a major of last
school teachers, including those with decades
resort,” she said.
in the classroom, is under $57,000; starting
Dan Brown, a co-director of Educators
salaries in some states barely crest $30,000.
Rising, which encourages teenagers to
There’s also the issue of autonomy.
contemplate careers in the classroom, said
“The No. 1 thing is giving teachers a voice, that teaching might be ready for its own
a real voice,” Randi Weingarten, the president Fle[ner Report, an early 100s document that
of the American Federation of Teachers, said
revolutionized medical schools and raised the
to me this week.
bar for American medicine, contributing to the
Education leaders disagree over how
aura that surrounds physicians today.
much of a voice and in what. Weingarten
He also asked why, in the intensifying
emphasizes teacher involvement in policy,
political discussions about making college
and a survey of some 30,000 teachers and
more affordable, there’s not more talk of
other school workers done by the AFT and
methods “to recognize and incentivize future
the Badass Teachers Association in late April
public servants,” foremost among them
showed that one large source of stress was
teachers.
being left out of such decisions.
There should be. The health of our
Others focus on primarily letting teachers
democracy and the perpetuation of our
chart the day-by-day path to the goals laid
prosperity depend on teaching no less than
out for them, so that they’re not just obedient
they do on Wall Street’s machinations or
vessels for a one-size-¿ts-all script. Hold them Silicon Valley’s innovations. So let’s make the
accountable, but give them discretion.
classroom a destination as sensible, e[citing
The political battles over education, along
and ful¿lling as any other.
with the shifting vogues about what’s best,
Ŷ
have left many teachers feeling like pawns
Frank Bruni has been a columnist for The
and punching bags. And while that’s no
New York Times since 2011.
Better pay is
a must. Many
teachers in
many areas
can’t hope to
buy a house
and support a
family on their
incomes.
YOUR VIEWS
Council not responsible for
Pendleton’s roads problems
Reading the editorial of Aug. 6 makes me
wonder where is the honesty you so blatantly
demand of the city council. The paragraph you
select as the reason for our present situation
— “It took decades of mismanagement, poor
budgeting and bad leadership to get us to this
position” — leads me to ask, is that really
an honest appraisal of this council or is there
something else going on?
I read that the great city of Portland
is looking for 1.3 billion to ¿[ its street
problems; that the city of Bend has postponed
its Yote on a gas ta[ to ¿[ its streets; that cities
all oYer Oregon are trying to ¿[, paYe and
patch their city streets and nobody seems to
haYe the money to ¿[ the problem.
How is it possible that so many cities
suffer from the same fate? Surely not all of
the councils in Oregon are guilty of the same
folly of mismanagement, etc. Perhaps we
should look elsewhere for answers to how we
got here. Some of the standard reasons for the
situation in Pendleton and most other cities
were never even mentioned in the editorial,
such as a lot more cars and many miles more
driven, greater mileage per gallon, much less
revenue distributed from the state gas ta[
fund and the much greater cost of materials
and maintenance, to note a few. The opinion
Tuite dishonestly offers a public Àogging for
a crime not committed. You unjustly attribute
the local problem to many councils past and
present when in fact the problem is systemic
to most of the cities in Oregon, the U.S. and
e[acerbated by inaction on the local, state and
national level, and is growing worse.
And in the same editorial we ¿nd the
words “:e¶re going to ta[ you an egregious
amount.” Does the editorial crowd understand
that the council doesn¶t ta[ without the
consent of the ta[ed? That¶s us. The council
only sets the rate. We the citizens of the city
approve or not approve the ta[. It is our
collective responsibility to ta[ ourselves to
pay for the services we want. If a gas ta[ levy
fails, you can hardly blame the council if
the citizens of the city who keep crying “¿[
our streets” turn down a 5 cent gas ta[ levy
designed to do just that.
Larry O’Rourke
Pendleton
Walking tour a reminder of
Pendleton’s interesting history
Anyone interested in Pendleton’s history or
curious as to why tourists come to Pendleton
should go on the walking tour “Robbers,
Reprobates and the Red-Light District.” The
one-hour tour is every Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
and starts at MaySon’s Old Fashion General
Store at the corner of Main and Emigrant in
Pendleton.
The tour is led by Keith May and is
insightful, fun and real. I highly recommend
it. Pendletonians, we live in an e[tremely
interesting town.
Fritz Hill
Pendleton