Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
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OUR VIEW
The value of
showing up
It has been another week of
we can do better.
distressing news for an Oregon
Because what good are these
education system that continues to
tiny data points until we have a
rank among the worst in the country. larger set? And will we ever have a
Administration after administration, large enough set if we continue to
from state government all the way
change how and why we test our
down to local school districts, have
young people? It’s like measuring a
promised reforms and improvement. baseball player on their first few at
Yet new initiatives, new tests to
bats, when it’s only after seasons (or
measure progress,
a whole career) that
new management,
we can accurately
new programs
In Oregon, only measure their true
and new funding
and ability.
67.3 percent of value
sources are always
It can be
stymied — they lack
to
K-12 students discouraging
follow-through and
watch the continual
are classified
soon enough Oregon
revolving door of
education is back
upper management.
as “regular
where it started,
It can be equally
though pointed
attenders” — an discouraging to get
down a different
in the minutiae
abysmally low lost
shady path.
of statistics.
But the one thing
On Wednesday,
percentage.
we’re continually
Oregon’s chief
reminded of
state schools officer
Salam Noor resigned under pressure when we discuss education is the
importance of showing up. Of
from Governor Kate Brown. That’s
attending class. Of missing as little
the same governor who handpicked
time as possible, of not falling
Noor to oversee the state’s K-12
behind.
schools little more than two years
The state defines “regular
ago. According to the governor’s
attenders” as students who attend at
press secretary, Brown said she
least 90 percent of the school year.
was no longer satisfied with Noor’s
Statistics show that students who
ability to execute her vision.
So back to square one for Oregon fall below that mark test well below
those who show up reliably.
education. Back to the back of the
Yet in Pendleton only 76. 2
pack.
percent of students classify as
From a local perspective, school
districts received their “report cards” regular attenders. It’s worse in
Hermiston — only 71.1 percent
on Thursday and they were mixed
attend at least 90 percent of class
bags. Far from straight As, but far
time. And statewide Oregon students
from failing grades as well.
attend an abysmal 67.3 percent of
We spotlighted the results from
the time.
the Hermiston and Pendleton
That’s not good enough. So much
districts, and what is most
of the education system can seem
compelling is the fact that teachers
bureaucratic, generic and random
and administrators are hard pressed
— the success of our children and
to put their finger on why a certain
loved ones are out of our hands once
statistic improved or why another
we’ve taught them to read and write,
dipped.
think and count.
And that’s understandable.
But the best thing we can do
Anyone who has spent any time
to get them through school is to
in a classroom knows that each
get them to school. Accept only
is different, as is each and every
legitimate excuses — contagious
student who comprises them.
illness the obvious one. Get your kid
It makes sense that the numbers
fluctuate, and it will take many years to class and the state’s statistics, and
our community as a whole, will no
and many thoughtful studies to drill
doubt improve. Perhaps the statistics
down to what (if any) progress is
will even bear it out.
being made in our schools and how
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.
YOUR VIEWS
Walden siding with utility
companies and against fish
Columbia River salmon and steelhead
are facing urgent challenges to avoid
extinction.
Last summer the U.S. District
Court determined that the plan that
dam operators currently follow on the
Columbia and Snake rivers is illegal and
does not protect salmon and steelhead
from extinction. The court ordered the
operators and scientists to come up with
a more effective plan by 2021.
A second court finding said the
current plan will do “irreparable harm”
to fish that are already facing extinction
so they ordered the agency scientists to
come up with an immediate short-term
plan to spill more water over the dams
starting in 2018 to protect these fish from
extinction.
However, HR 3144 was introduced
into the legislature this summer and
seeks to overturn both of these court
orders and lock in the current “status
quo” operations. Furthermore, it seeks
to eliminate the required analysis of
management options.
Guess who is one of the co-sponsors
of this bill? Yep, our U.S. Representative
Greg Walden. The same Walden that
received $146,000 from the electric
utilities industry in the last election
cycle.
So, if you enjoy fishing for salmon
and steelhead or you just value
their existence as part of our Pacific
Northwest heritage, recognize that
Walden’s proposed bill will allow these
fish to continue their path towards
extinction.
The challenges of preserving salmon
in the Columbia River involve many
aspects, both in the rivers and in the
oceans. How we meet these challenges
should be determined by those that
understand the science involved, not by
a politician who is lobbied by the utility
companies to keep things as they are.
Things “as they are” are not going to
preserve our salmon. Consider that when
Walden asks for your vote in 2018.
OTHER VIEWS
We used to build things
T
hey say that fighting a wildfire
the University of Pennsylvania,
is the closest thing to being in
the Philadelphia Fire Department,
combat. The trees explode, the
The Pennsylvania Gazette, The
wind whips down while the oxygen
American Philosophical Society, the
disappears and the fire “sheets” along
Pennsylvania Hospital and much else.
the ground, streaking sideways like
In the 1930s, the alphabet soup of
New Deal agencies were created. The
rushing waters.
late 1940s saw the creation of the big
Today’s California fires remind me
multinational institutions: the United
of the largest fire in U.S. history, the
David
Big Burn of 1910, which destroyed 3
Brooks Nations, NATO, the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund, the
million acres in Idaho, Montana and
Comment
beginnings of the European market.
Washington. One of the towns the fire
When you look around today, you
destroyed was Wallace, Idaho. A lone
see a lot of history-making new companies
train arrived to take people away, and panic
being created, but you don’t see too many
ensued. As my New York Times colleague
big civic organizations. There are some great
Timothy Egan describes in “The Big Burn,”
social entrepreneurs, like Bill Drayton, who
his history of the fire, men yanked women out
of their seats, taking their place.
started Ashoka, but the only vast national civic
The U.S. Forest Service had been created
movements I can think of are the charter school
five years before by President Theodore
movement and the tea party.
Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. The 10,000
We’ve got just as many problems as
men who were rounded up
previous generations
to fight the fire were led
faced — as many as in the
by a small group of young
progressive era, I’d say. Why
foresters, many of them from
has there been this decline in
the Yale School of Forestry,
civic institution building?
which graduated its first
Political polarization has
class in 1904.
got to be a big culprit. The
One of the foresters,
federal government can’t
though decidedly no Yalie,
build anything new, even
was Ed Pulaski. By the time
something as obvious as a
the fire hit Wallace, Pulaski
national service program.
had been up in the mountains
The churches have let us
fighting fires for a month. He
down, too. The Christian
came down to get food for
churches have been behind
his men. “Wallace will surely
most of the big social
burn,” he told his wife and
movements in U.S. history,
10-year-old daughter, before returning up the
such as abolition, poverty programs and civil
mountain to care for his fighters. “I may never
rights. But for the past generation, the church
see you again.”
has been fighting a defensive war against the
Pulaski and his men were soon surrounded
sexual revolution, not an offensive assault for
by flame. Hand on his gun, he forced them
opportunity and human dignity.
to lay face down in the mud of an abandoned
The affluent have also been less
mine tunnel. He covered the small entrance
entrepreneurial. Many civic institutions in past
with a wet cloth to try to prevent the air from
decades were created by people like Roosevelt
being sucked out by the inferno.
and Pinchot, who inherited family empires but
Soon, his face caught fire and he collapsed.
devoted their lives to civic institution building.
After five hours in what they assumed would
But I wonder if there is also a malaise,
be their coffin, the men stirred. Forty-one were a loss of faith in the future and a loss of
still alive, with only five dead.
expertise in institution building, a sense of
Pulaski never received a cent from the
general fragmentation and isolation. U.S.
government for his heroism. But Pinchot used
foreign policy, which used to be about building
the fire to tell the story of the Forest Service,
positive coalitions to make life better, now
the small band of underfunded heroes who
seems to be based on the idea that we should
risked their lives to save others. The fire turned defensively withdraw from things. There has
out to be the making of that new and embattled been a loss of civic imagination.
agency.
The good news is that one could
When you look back at that era, you are
have said the same thing in 1890, when
struck by how many civic institutions were
politics was steeped in corruption and the
founded to address the nation’s problems. Not
economy wracked by crisis. But by 1910
only the Forest Service, but also the Food and
the landscape was transformed. There were
Drug Administration, the municipal reform
new organizations, new movements, a new
movement, the suffrage movement, the Federal mentality and a new burst of optimism.
Reserve System, the Boy Scouts, the 4-H
Even the worst fires clear the way for new
clubs, the settlement house movement, the
growth.
compulsory schooling movement, and on and
■
on. Four amendments to the Constitution were
David Brooks became a New York Times
passed in those years.
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. He
In fact, when you look back on most
has been a senior editor at The Weekly
periods of U.S. history, you see a rash of
Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek
new organizations being created. In the 18th
and the Atlantic Monthly, and is currently a
century, Benjamin Franklin helped build
commentator on PBS.
Hand on his
gun, he forced
them to lay
face down in
the mud of an
abandoned
mine tunnel.
John Schwartz
The Dalles
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.