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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2019)
A4 OPINION Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, February 6, 2019 Education is the challenge for this Legislature E very child in Or- egon deserves an excellent education — regardless of where the student lives or attends school, regardless of wheth- er the student comes from a well-to-do family or an impoverished one, regard- less of academic ability and regardless of ethnicity or race or background. The recent Department of Education report on grad- uation rates shows that is not the case in Oregon. But another report from the Leg- islature’s Joint Committee on Student Success provides a path forward. Across Oregon, high school graduation rates increased by 2 percentage points last year to almost 79 percent. The improvement is wel- come news, but it remains deeply concerning that one- fi fth of public high school students fail to graduate within four years. There also are vast vari- ations among demographic groups. The graduation rate was 82 percent for girls but 75.6 percent for boys. Graduation rates generally were lower for students of color but higher for former English language learners. Only 54 percent of homeless students graduated within four years of high school. As members of the Stu- dent Success commit- tee said, the public has had enough. Oregon has been grappling with these issues for decades, with too little progress. Insuffi cient funding has been a major obstacle, espe- cially since voters’ passage of Measure 5 in 1990 put the onus on state government to fund public schools. But money is not the only issue. It’s how the money is spent. On the one hand, the collaborative approach espoused by the nonprofi t, nonpartisan Chalkboard Project has achieved pro- found academic gains and higher staff morale in partic- ipating school districts. On the other hand, the state’s recent audit report on Port- land Public Schools shows “how a school district should not operate,” accord- ing to Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner. The bipartisan Student Success committee has abundant ideas for reforms — excellent ideas — but with a combined price tag of well over $3 billion. Not everything can be done. The Legislature will sig- nifi cantly increase educa- tion spending. But PERS’ unfunded actuarial liabil- ity will consume a huge chunk of any additional money earmarked for reduc- ing class sizes, extending the school year or making other improvements. The major- ity Democrats and Gov. Kate Brown must face up to their responsibility to rein in pub- lic pension costs, instead of wringing their hands over court decisions that over- turned past reforms. School districts must accept that additional fund- ing will come with require- ments for accountability in how that money is used. Unlike previous political endeavors that chased the educational fl avor of the day, the Student Success commit- tee based its recommenda- tions on reality. Lawmakers visited more than 50 schools — from the coast to eastern and southern Oregon — and talked with hundreds of stu- dents, staff members, par- ents, business people, civic leaders and others. Committee members are working on determin- ing which proposals would achieve the greatest return on investment and how to pay for them. Their top pri- orities include the impor- tance of early childhood education and the drastic need for more school coun- selors, mental health ther- apists and other behavioral health services — through- out the state. In their letter submitting the Student Success report, the committee’s Demo- cratic and Republican lead- ers wrote: “A student’s achievement should be a result of their own efforts, not their parents’ income or their race, ethnicity, or ZIP code. Unfortunately, factors entirely outside of a young person’s control too often determine their access to a high-quality education. Ore- gon’s students deserve a public education system that sets them up for success.” That is the challenge for the 2019 Legislature. That is the challenge for Oregon. Blue Mountain EAGLE Published every Wednesday by FARMER’S FATE Boy Mom: Messy, blessed life I heard it before I could see it. Water poured like Niagara Falls over the edge of the toi- let bowl. I paused in the doorway, unsure what to do fi rst. About that moment, the water reached the tips of my boots. I swiped at the “pretty tow- els” — the ones usually reserved for just looking at — and confi ned the fl ood of water to the bathroom. “What wrong toilet, Mommy?” Parker, my 2-year-old, asked with wide blue eyes. The heaping pile of wadded toi- let paper rose above the bowl like whipped cream on hot cocoa while the cardboard tube fl oated on the fl oor. “You used too much toilet paper,” I answered sharply. This wasn’t the fi rst time this had hap- pened — or the second, or third. It was becoming a frequent occurrence — weekly, if not daily. “Why toilet bwoken, Mommy?” he asked, just as innocently as before. “Because you put too much toilet paper in it,” I sighed with exaspera- tion — more concerned with the job at hand than answering his ever-re- peating question. As he asked yet again, Kea- gan, my 9-year-old, poked his head around the corner. “It’s like when you cram your mouth full of cook- my oldest standing in the bathroom doorway of the wet bathroom fl oor, my youngest in the hallway with a golf club, the toilet plunger fi nally starting to make progress — wait, a golf club? I swung my head back to the hallway in time to see my oldest duck as a plastic ball zinged through the air and brushed my neck as it landed in the bathtub. “No head shots!” I hollered out the door. “Body shots only!” My patience was once again gone. “Sorry ‘bout that, Mommy,” Parker said, with just the right amount of surprise and apology in his little voice. I smiled. I really will miss the rocks in the dryer, tractor toys in the fridge, little muddy, rubber boot tracks on my freshly mopped fl oors, empty rolls of tape next to “fi xed” ladders, chairs and cupboard doors. While pregnant, I envisioned myself to be a Pinterest mother of blonde, book-loving, tractor-driv- ing girls. Well, it turns out I’m more of an Amazon Prime mom of crazy, messy, loud, smelly, emotion- ally unstable, frustrating, boys. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. Unless I sit on a wet toilet seat — then I have momentary visions of Pinterest. Brianna Walker occasionally writes about the Farmer’s Fate for the Blue Mountain Eagle. GUEST COMMENT Improving Oregon cougar management By Jim Akenson To the Blue Mountain Eagle The fatal cougar attack on a hiker in the Mount Hood National Forest last year was a tragic thing. Evidence evaluation indicated the cougar was a female in good health. Is this a surprise? Not really. Cou- gar numbers are at all-time highs for our state, and the distribution of these cats encompasses the entire state. What has accounted for this cougar population expansion from an estimation of less than 3,000 in the mid-1990s to well over 6,000 today? Some of the answer is biolog- ical, some is social and much is con- nected to management capabilities and practices. We need to fi nd a way to return to this socio-biological bal- ance, and looking to the recent past might just be the best bet — back to a time when hound hunting was a legal and effective management tool in Oregon. What are the consequences of there being double the number of cougars in Oregon? These effects are best described as alarming and pat- tern changing. One such pattern is for prey animals, specifi cally deer, relo- cating to human development areas to avoid a higher predation risk. This relocation is also drawing in cou- gars that will go where the next meal can be found. Many hunters and state wildlife managers report that deer are now less abundant in the wilder mountain, high desert and canyon regions of our state. Meanwhile, Oregon cities are wrestling with the number of deer inhabiting city limits, and cougars are showing up in back- yards and schoolyards. As cougars become more com- fortable in human-altered landscapes, the probability of negative encoun- Publisher............ ......................................Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com Editor & General Manager ...............Sean Hart, editor@bmeagle.com Reporter ...................................................Richard Hanners, rick@bmeagle.com Community News .................................Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com Sports ........................................................Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com Marketing Rep .......................................Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com Administrative Assistant ..................Makenna Adair, offi ce@bmeagle.com Offi ce Assistant .....................................Alixandra Hand, offi ce@bmeagle.com ters with humans, as well as pets and livestock, increases. So, what is the solution? Biologi- cally, it is plain and simple: more inten- Jim Akenson sive cougar man- agement through various hunting techniques. With an estimated population of 6,400 cougars, and roughly 14,000 peo- ple hunting cougars and harvesting from 250 to 300 cats per year, this only equals a harvest rate of 4 per- cent, which is not enough to even fl atten the ever-rising cougar popula- tion curve. Reducing human threat, increas- ing deer and elk survival and bring- ing a cougar population back in bal- ance with other interests in our state will require increased management action and effi ciency. According to the 2017 Oregon Cougar Manage- ment Plan, the success rate for 2016 cougar hunters was 1.9 percent, with 13,879 people reporting that they did hunt cougars. Contrast that with 1994 data, the last year that dogs were allowed in conservatively controlled, limited-entry cougar hunting, show- ing 358 people hunted cougars and harvested 144 for a success rate of 40.2 percent. Bottom line: Hunting effi ciency with dogs is dramatically higher and provides wildlife manag- ers a reliable tool for maintaining the cougar population within its manage- ment objectives. Oregon’s cougar management and record keeping are divided into six zones, each of which is assigned a desired harvest quota to keep the population in balance with the varied activities of all Oregonians. Employ- ing the current limited management methods, only one of the six zones 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION RATES (including online access) Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION ies,” he explained. “Your mouth is so full you can’t get them down your throat. It’s like that with the toilet.” I stopped plung- Brianna ing for a minute so Walker I could watch this conversation. My 2-year-old looked up at his brother and was silent a moment as he seemed to process the simile. Then he wrinkled up his little nose. “That gwoss, Keagan!” he responded animatedly. “Parker not eat toilet paper!” Keagan responded with more patience than I had while he repeated his analogy. Again, Parker shook his head with a look of dis- gust. “Gwoss, Keagan! Parker not put cookies in the toilet!” The corners of my lips were twitching in a smile. Friends had told me that being a mom of boys would consist of cleaning pee off the toilet seat and listening to gig- gles over body functions. What they didn’t tell me is that those same boys (my husband included) would take me right to the brink of insan- ity, then melt my heart with a sweet kiss — and a perfectly timed fart. “You’re going to miss this,” I whispered to myself, taking a men- tal picture of this moment in time: Grant County .........................................$40 Everywhere else in U.S. .......................$51 Outside Continental U.S. ....................$60 Online: BlueMountainEagle.com Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery Periodicals Postage Paid at John Day and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER send address changes to: Blue Mountain Eagle 195 N. Canyon Blvd. John Day, OR 97845-1187 USPS 226-340 Phone: 541-575-0710 has met the harvest quota in recent years. A criterion for quota estab- lishment is complaint frequency. By far, the most cougar complaints are recorded on the west side of the Cas- cades, including the coastal region, in Zones A and B. This is also where the bulk of the human population lives. More than 350 cougar complaints per year were received during the last decade in these two zones. Unfor- tunately, this recording system was not initiated until 2001, so we don’t have data for the time before the dog ban of 1994. We do have records for administrative actions connected to human safety and pet confl icts before and after the dog ban of 1994. For eight years before the ban, they aver- aged only four per year, and then seven years after the dog ban, these complaints increased to 27 per year — nearly a seven-fold increase. Oregon does have a legislatively authorized agent program wherein highly vetted houndsmen are permit- ted to lethally remove cats to reduce human confl ict and bolster deer and elk survival. These agents work closely with ODFW district biol- ogists. Even with this program in place, cougars are steadily increas- ing in Oregon, where hunting them is very impractical without the aid of dogs. At present, the law authorizing the use of agents is up for renewal, and hopefully it will receive legis- lative support and then be applied more broadly for both reaching zone harvest quotas and to help curb the upward statewide population trajectory. Jim Akenson is a wildlife biologist, book author and con- servation director for the Oregon Hunters Association. He invested much of his career in researching the Northwest’s predators. Copyright © 2019 Blue Mountain Eagle All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher. facebook.com/MyEagleNews @MyEagleNews
