Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Back to school
means back to
unfunded mandates
In politics, it’s easy to pass the
buck — or the blame — through
the age-old practice of unfunded
mandates.
It’s the practice where one
government orders an agency or a
lesser governmental entity to take a
speciic action to ix a problem, but
doesn’t supply the money to make
it happen. The mandate makes the
agency or the community ix the
problem out of their own budgets,
which is often nearly impossible to
accomplish without raising taxes,
cutting services or both.
Even more, this practice usually
rears its head at election time to
give voters the idea that leadership
is truly addressing problems rather
than letting them slide. But the fact
that those leaders have to issue a
mandate in the irst place shows the
problem did slide. And sometimes,
those same state leaders avoid
transparency by using mandates
as a scare tactic to get legislative
or voter approval for unpopular or
controversial legislation that they
support.
That’s the case currently with
two state mandates in the past three
weeks.
And to no surprise, the mandates
surfaced as Gov. Kate Brown
endorsed Measure 97, the highly
controversial ballot measure that
would create a 2.5 percent tax for
some corporations on gross sales
of more than $25 million, rather
than taxing those corporations on
their proits as now is the case. The
measure is expected to bring in
$3 billion to be spent on schools,
seniors and health care, though the
text doesn’t stipulate those uses
exclusively.
The irst mandate came in early
August when the state Treasury
announced that the bill for schools,
cities, state agencies and other
public employers in Oregon will
rise by $885 million next biennium
to fund the state’s public employee
pension system. The $885 million
is much higher than was forecast
and represents a 44 percent increase
from what public employees are
currently paying into the pension
plan to support it.
Next came an order from the
Oregon Board of Education after
it adopted a new, fast-tracked rule
at the behest of the governor that
requires testing for lead and radon
in schools, public disclosure of
problems that are found and the
elimination of each problem when
discovered. School districts are
required by the mandate to have a
preliminary plan in place by October
and a inished plan by January.
While parents and educators all
agree that ixing those problems
needs to happen and happen quickly,
the order came without a funding
mechanism in place. The state
School Boards Association predicts
the mandate could cost districts
hundreds of millions of dollars
statewide. Districts in Eastern
Oregon have ponied up the money
over the summer to test their water
and are expecting the state to cover
the bill for that lab work.
Public schools are also facing
another challenge that was mandated
by the Legislature in 2007. It
requires they provide a minimum of
150 minutes of physical education
instruction per week for kindergarten
through ifth grade and 225 minutes
for sixth through eighth grade.
Schools must meet the standard by
2017, but less than 10 percent of
1,080 public schools with some or
all grades K-8 are in compliance.
School advocacy groups are asking
lawmakers to either push back the
2017 deadline or to allow a phase-in.
Funding for additional PE teachers
is one of the reasons the advocacy
groups have cited for the poor
compliance rate.
Real leadership is needed in
addressing each of these problems.
PERS in its present form simply
isn’t sustainable, and there are a
number of reform options available.
The governor and legislators,
however, have been reluctant to
attack the problem head on. Lead
in drinking water at schools is
curable, and the fact that there
was no statewide requirement for
even testing until 2016 says the
state Board of Education and those
who oversee the board from the
governor’s ofice were asleep at
the wheel. The problem of physical
education for children in K-8 is even
more curable with innovation and
creativity at the local level and the
proper leadership and focus at the
state level.
Each of those problems have their
own individual solutions, and state
leaders, especially those at the top,
should be just that. They should be
visible to the public and transparent
with their motives and actions
instead of using unfunded mandates
as their method of operation.
And importantly, they should quit
looking for the easy cure-all ixes
for problems the state faces. They
should know from experience that
easy ixes aren’t always the right
ixes.
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.
Let them eat trufles
R
ENO, Nev. — Hillary didn’t
But Clinton does not have a normal
hang her head and cry, after she
opponent. She has one who manages
shot a man in Reno just to watch
to self-destruct in every news cycle.
him die.
So instead she was soaring above her
She went outside with a big smile
own paranoia and mocking Trump’s
and sampled chocolate trufles served
paranoia, soaring above her egregious
messes and gamboling through Trump’s
on silver and gold trays by a local
egregious messes.
sweets shop.
In Reno, instead of having to talk
After getting steadily bolder at rallies Maureen
about the email marked “C,” the ones
about puncturing her former friend
Dowd
classiied as conidential, she talked
Donald Trump, Clinton channeled
Comment
about a very different “C”:
Johnny Cash’s song and
She recalled the Justice
delivered a coup de grâce so
Department’s housing
devastating that commentators
discrimination suit against the
predicted it will be known
real estate developer and his
simply as the Reno speech.
father in the ‘70s, charging
A senior citizen in the crowd
that the applications of black
raised his ist as he passed the
and Latino residents were
press pen at Truckee Meadows
“marked with ‘C’ — ‘C’ for
Community College and
colored.”
used a vulgarism to brag that
After the Monica
Clinton had kicked Trump in a
Lewinsky affair, she delected
highly sensitive place.
questions about Bill’s cheesy
“Of course there’s always
behavior by summoning up the specter of the
been a paranoid fringe in our politics, steeped
Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Now she delects
in racial resentment,” Clinton said. “But it’s
never had the nominee of a major party stoking questions about the emails and foundation
ethical tangles by summoning up the specter of
it, encouraging it, and giving it a national
the Vast Alt-Right Conspiracy.
megaphone. Until now.”
Extremists always ride to Hillary’s rescue.
In this insane campaign year, Clinton
Just as Ken Starr and impeachment-crazed
doesn’t even need an oppo-research team
conservatives in the House pushed it way too
digging up nasty stuff about her opponent’s
far and made laughingstocks of themselves,
record. She just has to stand there and wait
succumbing to Clinton Derangement
for Trump to open his mouth. Or wait for his
Syndrome, so the alt-right allows Hillary to
wacky entourage to weigh in. Asked on CNN
have an easy target that occludes the Clintons’
about his undulating immigration position,
own transgressions.
Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson offered
It’s a symbiotic relationship: The Clintons
this classic bit of spin: “He hasn’t changed his
beneit, hailed by many Democrats and
position on immigration. He’s changed the
Republicans who regard them as the white hats
words that he’s saying.”
who will keep out brownshirts. And the alt-right
In Reno, Clinton simply pointed out the
is jubilant at being given a bigger platform to be
obvious: Trump, who has no ixed ideology of
his own except winning, has let himself become sulfurous.
“Thanks for the free PR Hillary,” tweeted a
a host body for an ugly mélange of people and
self-described alt-righter. “The #alt-right will
groups that spew poison, from Breitbart News
long remember the day you helped make us
— its chief, Stephen Bannon, is now helping
run Trump’s campaign — to white supremacist into the real right.”
The only one who doesn’t beneit is Trump,
David Duke to radio host Alex Jones.
who has been seduced by the roar of the crowd
When Anderson Cooper asked Trump on
and hijacked by a dark force he doesn’t seem to
Thursday if he was embracing the alt-right
fathom. Ultimately, the stain will extend beyond
movement, Trump replied like a perfectly
oblivious vessel: “I don’t even know — nobody a campaign loss to damage his business brand.
Clinton is more easily able to continue
even knows what it is.”
to cold-shoulder the press on serious issues,
In the same way that the neocons used the
which really is an outrage and will hurt her
uninformed George W. Bush as a host body to
in the end, because she’s building up a giant
instigate the Iraq War, the alt-right has staged
bubble of hostility that will follow her into
an Occupy Trump movement, purloining his
unmoored campaign as brazenly as cat burglars. the White House. When reporters approached
Clinton after her Reno speech, she ignored the
“Racists now call themselves ‘racialists,’”
questions being served up and told the press to
Clinton said. “White supremacists now call
have some of the chocolate being served up.
themselves ‘white nationalists.’ The paranoid
“Love the trufles,” she said in a condescending
fringe now calls itself alt-right. But the hate
let-them-eat-chocolate moment.
burns just as bright.”
Many people believe that Trump is so
She read some headlines from Breitbart,
demented and dangerous that any criticism of
including “Birth Control Makes Women
Clinton should be tabled or suppressed, that her
Unattractive and Crazy” and, to the gasps of
audience members, “Gabby Giffords: The Gun malfeasance is so small compared to his that
it is not worth mentioning. But that’s not good
Control Movement’s Human Shield.”
for her or us to leave so many things hanging
She noted that Trump has retweeted from
out there, without her ever having to explain
white supremacists and she ran through his
herself.
greatest hits of bigotry.
Letting her rise above everything for the
If Clinton had a normal opponent, her
good of the country is not good for the country.
vulnerabilities would be more glaring. She
■
would have spent the last week getting
Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer
peppered with questions about how the FBI
Prize for distinguished commentary, became a
discovered 14,900 more emails from her
columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page
private server, which are going to drip out
in 1995.
through the fall.
Letting her rise
above everything
for the good of
the country is
not good for the
country.
Culture Corner
‘Fourth of July Creek’
P
ortland-based writer Smith
Henderson’s debut novel, “Fourth
of July Creek,” was published
in 2014. But thanks to the
current presidential race,
this year’s occupation at
the Malheur refuge and the
growing tension between
government and those who
wish not to be governed,
the book seems all the more
timely right now.
Set in the backwoods
of northern Montana, it
could just as well take place
anywhere in the American
West where those living
on the land — and those
making the rules on that
land — ind themselves at odds.
The main character is a government-
employed child welfare worker with a
knack for the job, who sticks his nose
into the homelife of the American
fringe. We see disturbing vignettes
of those who need help, and we see
vulnerable families go without any. We
also meet a mountain man (imagine a
long-haired, antisemitic John Wayne)
who leads a mysterious family through
the wilderness and threatens society both
literally and iguratively.
Henderson’s writing is
sharp and clear throughout,
but also reined. You’ll
hear rural rhythms in the
dialogue. And the narrative
moves breathlessly, with
Henderson navigating some
sharp plot twists without
even tapping the brakes.
It might seem unsavory
to have a Wieden+Kennedy
Portlander tell this sort of
tale — of the poor and hurt
and paranoid and forgotten.
Of those content with a cabin
in the woods, who could take
it or leave it on the running water. Of
those scared of vaccines and airplanes
and government schools.
But Henderson navigated the
potential pitfalls to create something
engaging and empathetic, something
brimming with moral quandaries and
light on the easy answers we hold dear.
— Tim Trainor is opinion page editor
of the East Oregonian.
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
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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.