Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Issues linger
around bill
By HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
SALEM — For the next
five years, an Oregon high
school diploma will be no
guarantee that the student
who earned it can read, write
or do math at a high school
level.
Gov. Kate Brown had
demu r red earlier this
summer regarding whether
she supported the plan
passed by the Legislature
to drop the requirement that
students demonstrate they
have achieved those essen-
tial skills. But on July 14, the
governor signed Senate Bill
744 into law.
Through a spokesperson,
the governor declined again
Friday, Aug. 6, to comment
on the law and why she
supported suspending the
proficiency requirements.
Brown’s decision was not
public until recently, because
her office did not hold a sign-
ing ceremony or issue a press
release and the fact that the
governor signed the bill was
not entered into the legisla-
tive database until July 29, a
departure from the normal
practice of updating the
public database the same day
a bill is signed.
The Oregonian asked
the governor’s office when
Brown’s staff notified the
Legislature that she had
signed the bill. Charles
Boyle, the governor’s deputy
communications director,
declined to answer.
Boyle wrote in an emailed
statement that suspend-
ing the reading, writing and
math proficiency require-
ments while the state devel-
ops new graduation standards
will benefit “Oregon’s Black,
Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indig-
enous, Asian, Pacific Islander,
Tribal, and students of color.”
“Leaders from those
communities have advocated
time and again for equitable
graduation standards, along
with expanded learning
opportunities and supports,”
Boyle wrote.
Lawmakers and the gover-
nor did not pass any major
expansion of learning oppor-
tunities or supports for Black,
Indigenous and students of
color during this year’s legis-
lative session.
The requirement that
students demonstrate fresh-
man- to sophomore-level
skills in reading, writing and,
particularly, math led many
high schools to create work-
shop-style courses to help
students strengthen their
skills and create evidence
of mastery. Most of those
courses have been discontin-
ued since the skills require-
ment was paused during the
pandemic before lawmakers
killed it entirely.
Democrats in the Legis-
lat ure over whelmingly
supported ending the long-
time proficiency requirement,
while Republicans criticized
it as a lowering of academic
standards. A couple lawmak-
ers crossed party lines on the
votes.
Proponents said the state
needed to pause Oregon’s
high school graduation
requirements, in place since
2009 but already suspended
during the pandemic, until at
least the class of 2024 grad-
uates in order for leaders to
reexamine its graduation
requirements.
Much of the criticism
of the graduation require-
ments was targeted at stan-
dardized tests. Yet Oregon,
unlike many other states, did
not require students to pass a
particular standardized test or
any test at all. Students could
demonstrate their ability to
use English and do math via
about five different tests or by
completing an in-depth class-
room project judged by their
own teachers.
A variety of factors appear
to have led to the lack of trans-
parency around the gover-
nor’s bill signing decisions
this summer.
Secretary of the Senate
Lori Brocker said a key staffer
who deals with the governor’s
office was experiencing medi-
cal issues during the 15-day
period between when Brown
signed Senate Bill 744 and the
public database was updated
to reflect that.
OREGON
East Oregonian
A9
Risk of large fires to stay high into fall
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
SALEM — The risk of large fires will remain
high through November in much of the West thanks
to widespread drought, dry fuels and above-normal
temperatures, the National Interagency Fire Center
predicts.
With more than 95% of the West in drought,
timber, brush and grass are “exceptionally dry,” said
Jim Wallmann, meteorologist with the NIFC-tied
National Interagency Coordination Center. Some
recent rainfall helped, “but we would need some-
thing much longer-duration than we’ve seen to really
make a large impact on the rest of the fire season.”
A strong start to the monsoon season returned
fuels to normal moisture levels in Arizona, New
Mexico and parts of Colorado, he said. Near-term
risk in the Four Corners region should drop to
normal or below normal.
But in much of the West, “every fuel type is avail-
able right now given the drought,” Wallmann said.
Bootleg Fire Incident Command/Contributed Photo, File
A DC-10 tanker drops retardant on July 15, 2021,
over the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. The
risk of large fires remains high into the fall.
Fire-ready fuel is available “from California right up
through Oregon and Washington, through Idaho and
into Montana and Wyoming.”
Temperatures were well above normal in July
across the West and Northern Plains.
Wallmann said above-normal fire potential is
expected through August in Northern California,
Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and into the
Dakotas and part of Minnesota.
Exceptional drought and “any potentially strong
wind events, which become more frequent in
August,” are among reasons, he said.
Large-fire risk should lessen gradually in the
northern U.S. as fall unfolds, and return to normal
by November.
“But for much of California, we are expecting
above-normal potential to remain through Novem-
ber due to a delayed start to their rainy season,” Wall-
mann said.
NIFC said climate outlooks indicate warm-
er-than-normal conditions are likely for much of
the continental U.S., especially the West, into fall.
The drought is likely to expand and intensify.
Most California mountains and foothills
should have above-normal potential for large fires
through September, with areas prone to offshore
winds likely to retain above-normal potential into
October and November in the state’s south, the
report said.
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