A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
Governor
needs a plan
for education
O
regon does not have a detailed plan of
how the state will improve K-12 educa-
tion.
Let’s repeat that.
Oregon does not have a detailed plan of
how the state will improve K-12 education.
Plenty of goals, plans, programs and initia-
tives are out there. Almost every legislative
session something new and different gets
passed. State employees and school district
officials then go off to add the latest churn
on top of the churn.
Having a broad, statewide plan is no guar-
antee of success. But Oregon does need a
long-term approach to education goals. It
needs measurements. It needs reporting re-
quirements. It needs specifics about how
funding gets us to goals and how new initia-
tives fit in.
Much of that exists. What is missing is how
it all fits together in a detailed road map for
the future. Any state plan should be heavy
on goals and providing performance data
and easy on district flexibility to reach goals.
There would also need to be a mechanism
for accountability.
What are our candidates for governor go-
ing to do? They can reflect parental dissatis-
faction easily enough. What are their plans
for statewide improvement? Do they believe
Oregon needs a statewide education road
map?
Oregon’s public education is far from a
mess in every classroom in every school dis-
trict. It succeeds for many students. And not
every education problem is directly related
to bad teachers, bad curriculum or poor ed-
ucation investments.
But Oregon’s public education system does
have problems. Here are some facts from a
new state audit of public education:
Less than 25% of Oregon students meet
proficiency standards in math in 11th grade.
Oregon’s graduation rate may be improv-
ing. It has still been near the bottom in
the nation.
A statewide review in 2020 found only a
third of Oregon children eligible for early in-
tervention special education programs had
access to them.
And many of the students who are per-
forming poorly in the system are minorities
or low income.
Oregon is getting its level of performance
with more recent investment in education.
Measure 98 was passed in 2016 to increase
graduation rates and career readiness. It was
essentially another $800 per high school stu-
dent per year. Oregon also established a cor-
porate activity tax in 2019 to bring in what
was hoped to be an extra $1 billion a year
to improve education in early childhood
and K-12.
We are going to have that new governor in
not so very many months. It looks like Or-
egonians will have three major candidates
to choose from: Democrat Tina Kotek, in-
dependent Betsy Johnson and Republican
Christine Drazan. Which one would be the
most likely to deliver a plan for improving
K-12 education and pull it off? We don’t see
anything like that on their campaign web-
sites. Should it be?
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the
Baker City Herald. Columns, letters and car-
toons on this page express the opinions of
the authors and not necessarily that of the
Baker City Herald.
COLUMN
Feds set up economy for disaster
BY E.J. ANTONI AND CHARLES BEAUCHAMP
For over a year, the Federal Reserve ig-
nored myriad warning signs and continued
injecting money into the economy. The re-
sult was the appearance of robust economic
growth and a surge in demand, especially
in the labor market, which ushered in de-
cades-high inflation. But as the Fed be-
latedly raises rates, the veil is falling, and fi-
nancial markets with it.
Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian
Gray” offers a striking parallel to our situ-
ation. The novel’s eponymous protagonist
has a portrait that ages and decays while he
remains youthful and vibrant. But his health
is an illusion, while his portrait — hidden
from view — contains the truth.
The massive liquidity infusions by the Fed
have created a mirage of economic health.
Large nominal gains in corporate earnings,
asset values and even wages made the econ-
omy appear healthy. But after adjusting for
the inflation caused by creating too much
money, these economic figures are at best
disappointing and at worst negative.
That adjustment for inflation is the real
picture of the economy, much like the por-
trait of Dorian Gray. It lays bare all the sins
of the past. As evidence, in the first quarter
of this year, the economy nominally grew
at a robust 6.5 percent annual rate, but af-
ter adjusting for inflation, it really fell by
1.4 percent.
As reality sets in across financial markets,
investors continue their selloff. Equities con-
tinue to fall, with stocks experiencing the
most consecutive weeks in the red since the
Great Depression and seeing their worst
losses since the panic-induced selloff at the
beginning of the pandemic.
Inflation has robbed consumers of their
purchasing power, causing savings to be
depleted, consumer debt to increase, and
future spending projections to precipi-
tously drop. It turns out corporate earn-
ings will not continue rising ad infinitum
as the Fed’s sins have now at last caught up
with everyone.
Creating trillions of dollars out of thin
air certainly provides a temporary boost
to the economy. But that easy money and
cheap credit creates an addiction with
painful withdrawal symptoms, which the
nation is experiencing right now as mar-
kets are brought face-to-face with the real
portrait of the economy. This merely ex-
acerbates the boom-bust cycle instead of
smoothing it out.
Since the Fed cannot actually create
growth, let alone wealth, the best it can do
is play the man behind the curtain, creat-
ing the chimera of money-fueled growth in
place of the real McCoy. That is precisely
what we have seen for the last year and a
half — what might be dubbed the economy
of Dorian Gray. In its errant quest to sup-
port the appearance of growth, the Fed set
the real economy up for disaster.
The Fed’s excuse for fueling this inflation
over the last 18 months has been its “dual
mandate,” under which it aims to simultane-
ously maintain stable prices and the amor-
phous target of full employment. Flooding
the financial markets with liquidity for more
than a year made for a seemingly robust la-
bor market, creating so much labor demand
that unfilled jobs are at a record-high 11.5
million and nominal wages are rising fast.
However, just like other sectors of the
economy, the real labor market is not as
healthy as it appears. Prices are rising
faster than wages, making workers de-
monstrably worse off today than they were
18 months ago.
And as it created extraordinary quantities
of money to support full employment, the
Fed effectively served as the implicit financ-
ing arm of a Congress that recklessly shirked
its fiscal duties and relied on the hidden tax
of inflation to pay for trillions of dollars in
unfunded spending.
For those who previously sounded the
alarm on this inflationary incubus, it is a
hollow victory. There is no joy in seeing the
fruition of impolitic policies impoverishing
one’s fellow citizens. But the reality is that
these effects have been hidden for years in a
portrait out of public view.
— America was built on Christian princi-
pals.” Hmmmm? The author waxed poetic,
blaming our country’s unrest on the lack of
widespread belief in his beliefs? He cher-
rypicked historical quotes to fit his fanati-
cal rhetoric, his fear and concern with our
country’s and its government’s lack of Godly
Christianity. The Thomas Jefferson quote
was especially ironic, the gist being that “all
of our liberties are a gift from his God,” a
quote from a Christian “slaveholder” deny-
ing freedom and liberty to a people violently
ripped from their country, separated from
family and children? Oh yes. ... those fabu-
lous Christians.
With God in their hearts they marched
across this country, killing, raping and
stealing from the natives, perpetrated the
torture, imprisonment and killings in the
Salem witch trials. These same Christians
started a civil war over the right to own an-
other human, treated women, blacks, and
any non white in this country as a secondary
life form. The Christians that consistently
prioritize land grabs and money ahead of
their God. The Christians that persecuted
others for their “different” religious beliefs?
Listing all historical atrocities carried out by
these so called Christians would be an end-
less, sad and tiring exercise.
Pilgrims came because of religious perse-
cution and soon became masters of it. From
the beginning of Christianity in America it
has been used as a weapon to discriminate,
suppress and kill the “unbelievers.” It con-
tinues nonstop. So yes, using Christianity
in our government as a tool to explain the
unrest in America is apropos, but most cer-
tainly not the lack of it?
Without hypocritical, pretend Christi-
anity (“my god is better than your god”)
America and the world would be so much
more peaceful. The entire world is mired in
perpetual unrest as a result of this skewed
ideology claiming to be Christianity. There
is no mention of God in our Constitution
for a good reason.
Mike Meyer
Baker City
It’s time for all of us to stand firm to
preserve our rights
█
E. J. Antoni is a Research Fellow for Regional
Economics in the Center for Data Analysis
at The Heritage Foundation and a senior
fellow at Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
Charles Beauchamp is a Professor of Finance at
Mississippi College.
YOUR VIEWS
Preserving city’s ambulance service
is most important
Cannon described the situation as a
“pivot point.” He said the city can’t afford
to continue to operate ambulances because
the gap between what the city spends (and
bills) and what it collects. This appeared
in the 5/28 edition of the Herald’s Opin-
ion page. I agree we are at a pivot point, but
I say Baker City “can not” afford to break
up the fire department and the ambulance
service. What price does the City Council
place on your home, what price on your
ailing mother? The fire/ambulance depart-
ment function as a team protecting lives in
Baker County. When you all ran for and ac-
cepted your positions on the city council, it
was intended you would take the responsi-
bilities of running our city, not forming vot-
ing blocks and infighting. How many deci-
sions have been made, changed, forgotten,
I don’t know if it is the leadership, or the
indecisiveness that leads to an undecided
or incorrect decision, but none of this helps
the city residents feel secure in their leaders.
Right now the most important thing on the
minds of folks is to keep dependable ambu-
lance and fire protection intact for the next
year, then get information to the residents
about paying for this service. It is my guess
that most of them will be more than willing
to help pay for this service. I do agree with
one thing, it is easier to “pass the buck” in-
stead of biting the bullet and doing what is
needed to accomplish what is best for the
community. Just my opinion.
Don Worley
Baker City
Hypocritical Christianity has been a
stain on U.S. history
I was unfortunately subjected to some-
one’s revisionist religious historical rant in
a recent issue of the Herald. A strange let-
ter indeed. ...
It starts with a grandiose statement “For
over 200 years the historical record is clear
Good morning and memories of a sol-
emn Memorial Day weekend to us all.
It seems as though the very skies were
crying in sympathy for all who died in all
the battles for our right to enjoy God’s gifts
to mankind. Those gifts are, perhaps likened
to a beautiful shiny watch, presented to us
for its utility and the joy its amazing preci-
sion gives life.
Those who are now posturing as the rul-
ers of mankind are the deranged children
who would smash that gift to pieces to ex-
amine and pervert its inner workings.
We think of all who stepped into the bat-
tles and fell, knowing full well that battle
must be joined lest all the good in mankind
be lost. Young men, perhaps 17 to 21 years
old, joined the older more experienced to
fight that we might gain and retain simple
human dignity and freedom. Rather than
thank a veteran survivor of those battles,
show your gratitude by restoring our free-
doms, by standing for the principles for
which so many served and so many died.
The battle is ongoing and as close as your
community. Speak out against the insan-
ity that issues from the State Capitol, from
County and City offices, from the School
Board, anywhere you find it. Our state and
federal constitutions acknowledge our right
to be heard. We are not subjects, we are the
financiers of those who seek to rule and im-
poverish us all.
Time has come for all decent, knowledge-
able people to stand firm against the gib-
bering masses who work for our downfall
and the enslavement of God’s children —
we are all God’s children. We can speak out
firmly without hate against all the insanity
they can muster, but we must do it in unifi-
cation. Now is the time. Too many children
have been damaged, too many service peo-
ple have served and died. Their spirits will
haunt us if we fail them now!
Rick Rienks
Baker City