Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
EO MEDIA GROUP
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MIKE FORRESTER
STEVE FORRESTER
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Pendleton
Chairman of the Board
Astoria
President
Pendleton
Secretary/Treasurer
CORY BOLLINGER
JEFF ROGERS
Aberdeen, S.D.
Director
Indianapolis, Ind.
Director
OUR VIEW
Looking forward to 2016
breaking through the bureaucracy
What a year 2016 is shaping up
which, now two years in, it has
to be. Though having just arrived,
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there is enough on the calendar for
have to deal with housing, jobs and
everyone to have something to be
infrastructure problems or Pendleton
excited about.
will continue to shrink both in
The biggest event in this country
population and prestige. No more
will be the presidential election in
kicking the can
November. Yes,
down the road.
still eleven months
Editorial writers
away. But at least
If we could
are rarely good at
that’s something
pick some of
prognosticating,
to look forward to.
but we thought we
After Election Day,
the headlines
would look into the
we will only have to
in 2016, this
future for headlines
listen to one of these
we would like to see
jokers, and can let
is what we’d
appear on the front
the other dozen or so
choose.
pages of the East
fade away.
Oregonian in the
On a local level
next year.
there is a lot to look
Here’s a few we came up with:
forward to, too.
Hermiston, Pendleton play for
Decades in the making, the
state football title
plan to pull more water from the
Horse racing, roughstock cowgirls
Columbia River into the Umatilla
return to Pendleton Round-Up
Basin may take solid steps to
Excavation at EOTEC site
fruition, and the water itself may
uncovers $2 million cash
trickle its way onto Umatilla and
Obama will retire to North Hill
Morrow county farms. It needs
mansion
to, if the Northeast Oregon Water
Boeing tests pilot-less commuter
Association wants to keep their
plane in Pendleton
coalition together and see this
Wet spring follows snowy winter;
potentially game-changing project
drought broken
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Governor Brown follows through
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on transparency pledge
construction and public relations
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino to star
problems in the last year, will look to
in Happy Canyon centennial
rebound. In the midst of a last-ditch
Watermelon returns to Hermiston
effort to raise private funds, much
water tower
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Two brokered conventions cap
in 2016. It’s possible the center will
begin hosting some events this year. wild 2016 campaign
Money trees sprout along
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Umatilla River; a bounty for all
chance to see where their money
Compromise found on Blue
went, Hermiston and Umatilla
Mountain Forest Plan
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Olive Garden coming to
get a better idea on annual costs,
downtown Hermiston
and EOETEC can see what kind of
Qatar out, Pendleton chosen as
events it can attract.
site of 2020 World Cup
In Pendleton, the nascent drone
Wolves, cattle sign peace accord
range will need show some sign of
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
Achievable education goals
The Oregonian
I
t’s a good thing that Oregon set the
year 2025 as its target for achieving
its “40-40-20” aspirations. Because
setbacks this year are compounding the
state’s already slow progress toward its
goal of getting 40 percent of Oregonians
to earn a bachelor’s or advanced degree,
another 40 percent to earn an associate’s
degree and the other 20 percent to have
at least earned a high school degree.
Consider that 10,000 students drop
out of Oregon’s high schools each year.
Nearly 94,000 students are chronically
absent, missing more than 10 percent of
school each year. Not only is Oregon’s
overall graduation rate the fourth-lowest
in the country, but white students’ rate
is the worst and black students’ rate is
second worst.
Meanwhile, with the resignation
by Gov. John Kitzhaber in the face of
ethical allegations mounting against
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momentum for education reform stalled.
State leaders, with new Gov. Kate
Brown’s blessing, spent much of the
year more focused on unwinding some
of the efforts, dismantling the powerful
Oregon Education Investment Board,
which had been charged to build a more
rigorous education system to carry
students from birth to age 20. Legislators
also narrowed the role of the Kitzhaber-
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There were other leadership changes
as well: Deputy superintendent for
public instruction Rob Saxton, who
advocated for Oregon schools to adopt
and teach to tougher standards, retired
from the state to take a position with the
Northwest Regional Education Service
District. Salam Noor, who previously
worked for the Higher Education
Coordination Commission and served
as assistant superintendent for Salem-
Keizer schools, was tapped to take over.
But he has largely kept a lower and less
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Students taking the Common-Core
aligned Smarter Balanced exam for the
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but backlash over testing led to passage
of a bill, signed by Brown, that allows
Oregon families to opt their student out
of standardized testing for any reason.
This could bode poorly for Oregon
which, like other states, faces federal
mandates requiring participation from at
least 95 percent of students and various
subgroups of students. The state recently
received a warning from the U.S.
Department of Education that it could
lose federal funding if it doesn’t improve
its participation rates which fell short
in many schools and districts across
Oregon, according to a report by Oregon
Public Broadcasting.
Still, the state notched a few wins.
The Legislature funded full day
kindergarten for students across the state,
broadening access to early education for
students regardless of household income.
The state, which had slashed per-student
funding for higher education more
than nearly every other state over the
previous 14 years, dramatically boosted
investment to pre-recession levels.
And there’s signs that Brown is
paying more attention to education.
She recently announced that she will
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to her administration who will focus on
improving high school graduation rates,
although there’s been little information
since on what that will entail.
But clearly, the state needs someone
to push the effort to move ahead in
education. Oregon, not the federal
government, will be responsible for
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it will hold schools accountable for
students’ progress. How will a state
that has lagged the rest of the nation
in accomplishing one of the most
basic elements of public education
— graduating students — perform?
Hopefully 2016 will show some more
encouraging signs than 2015.
OTHER VIEWS
The juicy subplots of 2016
I
n American politics, one narrative
All Eyes on New Hampshire. I
— one question — eclipses all
don’t mean the state’s Republican and
others: Who will become the 45th
Democratic primaries in February.
president?
I mean the U.S. Senate election in
But there are dramas within that
November. The balance of power in
drama. There’s also suspense aplenty
the chamber could hinge on the battle
beyond center stage, and much of
between the Republican incumbent,
it does notinvolve Donald Trump, a
Kelly Ayotte, and her Democratic
third-party candidacy or the specter
challenger, Maggie Hassan, the state’s
Frank
of a brokered Republican convention.
governor.
Bruni
This column, in the spirit of the
It won’t look like many other
Comment
holidays, will be a Trump-free zone.
Senate contests. New Hampshire’s
Some of the following subplots
peculiar political realities mean that
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neither candidate is likely to be especially
presidential contest while others have big
nasty or ideologically strident; each may well
implications for the sway and the health of the emphasize consensus-building and look for
Republican and Democratic parties.
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They’re just a glimmer of what 2016 has in party that’s paradoxically pumping enormous
store.
resources into her race.
Barack Obama
And their matchup
Unbound. He’s zipping
will underscore New
down the road with Jerry
Hampshire’s encouraging
Seinfeld. He’s unzipping his
record of electing
lip with Steve Inskeep of
women to prominent
National Public Radio. He’s
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they’re still frustratingly
climate change.
underrepresented
As Obama pivots into
nationwide.
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A Tale of Two Mayors.
presidency, he seems to be
The Democratic mayors
heading in a new direction,
of two of the nation’s three
toward greater candor, fewer
most populous cities are
inhibitions, no apologies.
under enormous strain, their
He has felt muzzled and
approval ratings low, their
misunderstood for much of
approaches to governing
his time in the White House.
under attack. I speak of Bill
I sense a catharsis coming.
de Blasio in New York and Rahm Emanuel in
And it could complicate the inevitably
Chicago, each of whom has acknowledged the
strained etiquette between him and the
need for redemption in 2016.
Democratic presidential nominee, meaning
But while de Blasio’s greatest problems
Hillary Clinton. She’ll have to defend many
are with white voters, Emanuel has lost the
aspects of his legacy and disparage others
trust in particular of minorities, who are justly
as she does and doesn’t campaign for a third
outraged by the deadly actions of his city’s
Obama term. He’ll react to this as someone
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who’s losing his limited patience with political
The methods and success with which
gamesmanship, who’s tired of playing the
these remarkably different men chart their
punching bag and whose aides and associates
comebacks warrant scrutiny, harboring lessons
are sometimes aghast at the Clintons.
about the Democratic Party’s ability to bridge
Side note: Watch for Joe Biden, by design
diverse constituencies and about the most
or accident, to blurt out something harmful to
effective style of leadership for fractious, tense
her at some point.
times.
Bill Clinton on the Loose. Until recent
Religion on the Run. Same-sex marriage
weeks, it was almost possible to forget him as
became the law in 50 states despite the
presidential-race factor. Then Hillary Clinton,
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in the last Democratic debate, tagged him as a The percentage of Americans who don’t
key economic adviser in any second Clinton
subscribe to any organized religion steadily
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grows.
that he’d be popping up more often on the
And that means that whoever winds up
campaign trail. And references to his Oval
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out how to play down the primary’s degree of
psychodrama started to creep back into the
God talk and moralizing without alienating
news.
voters on the so-called religious right, who
All of that was a fresh reminder that his
could cause a distracting scene, impede the
proper role in, and impact on, his wife’s
party’s outreach to moderate and younger
candidacy is unsettled and unclear. He remains voters, and decide to sit out the election.
both wildly charismatic and maddeningly
Can the party soften its image, adapt to the
undisciplined. He connotes both prosperous
times and expand its appeal while satisfying
times and cynical scheming.
evangelicals? Its success in presidential
There’s no legitimate worry that his
contests could hinge on that.
presence might eclipse and diminish hers, but
Ŷ
the two of them together root her candidacy
Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for The
as much in the past as in the future. So how to New York Times since June 2011, joined the
deploy and integrate him? Is it controllable?
newspaper in 1995.
Watch for
Joe Biden, by
design or by
accident, to blurt
out something
harmful to
Hillary Clinton
at some point.
YOUR VIEWS
Liberalism driving state into
castes, unbending systems
The problem with Oregon being a so-called
“nanny state” has to do with the creation of a
caste system. Liberalism fails to comprehend
why unchecked agencies are so dangerous to
our way of life here in America.
Our schools cater to those seeking degrees,
which set people up for careers in civil
service, social work, psychology, etc. We have
college graduates seeking professional status
working for what is known as “the system.”
So what could possibly be wrong with so
many educated people entering the workforce?
Vested interests.
Our healthcare is suffering due to
unnecessary government entanglement. Do
we realize how many people are working for
the state of Oregon and the agencies thriving
here? It is truly a booming industry.
We have a ruling class of liberals who
sustain themselves by pulling more and more
disadvantaged people into the vicious cycle
that is welfare dependency and foster care.
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people out of the system, as these industries
survive on the addition of more human lives.
Human life is a commodity in liberal America.
We the people are footing the bill for this
chaos. Tyranny is growing when really that
growth belongs in the private sector.
We the disadvantaged need to stand up for
ourselves alongside leaders who care about
the future of America.
Oregon, it’s time for a change.
Carlin Sacco
Pendleton
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.
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