2013-03-18 PPS School Board Study Session, Public Hearing
| District | Portland Public Schools |
|---|---|
| Date | 2013-03-18 |
| Time | missing |
| Venue | missing |
| Meeting Type | study, town-hall |
| Directors Present | missing |
Documents / Media
Notices/Agendas
Materials
03-18-13 Final Packet (eb53c440bc23e5a3).pdf Meeting Materials
Minutes
Transcripts
Event 1: Governor John Kitzhaber and PPS School Board Town Hall 3/18/13
00h 00m 00s
I'd like to thank everybody for
attending uh we are proud to host
governor Kitzhaber and dr. crew this
evening for our town hall meeting we
appreciate their coming out I'm going to
talk a little bit more about the process
in the format for tonight's town hall
meeting in a little bit but first I'm
going to turn it over to superintendent
Smith okay I'm going to just welcome all
of you thank you so much for being here
tonight we have kind of an unusual
format and i would like to say first of
all welcome to Governor John Kitzhaber
and dr. Rudy crew our chief Education
Officer for the state of Oregon and
please join me in welcoming them and
we're looking forward to this unique
opportunity to have a conversation with
them about the future of education in
our state I'd also like to recognize and
thank principal Patrick Allen who's
right here who's the principle of
madison high school Pedro will you wave
so we can tell to you thank you thanks
pedra we also have a number of portland
public school principals in the audience
with us tonight will you all please
stand and wave your hands and just let
let us know that you are here thank you
we have a member of another school board
member Greg Kihn Sue's from the Vernonia
school board thank you for joining us
Greg and we have superintendent hair and
gray from the park road school district
who I would like to recognize
and when Sullivan who is the president
of our portland association of teachers
will you just stand and let us recognize
you we also have interpreters with us
this evening and i'd like to invite our
interpreters to come on up and identify
themselves and introduce themselves and
actually i'll let you have my microphone
right here oh when I studies mean
hombres dmoz Diaz I you so I am going to
speak in Spanish for those the native
Spanish interpretation mean hombres de
mas des you soon interpreting espanol SI
usted necesita me ayuda necesitan k
linter printed esta reunion de y hasta
la otra por favor llame para alla lolo
equipos tatiana furrow russian
interpreter euros keep ravu chociaz
lavannos news loogie rose Paris Commune
tsukuba just a bruschetta scam me and
her juice Posada cannot a spicy ba
jakafi also a lot of acquainting we go
to region with all my unequivocal
completely target with Invicta Kinsella
kk bangin give hi good evening my name
is homely oh I am a Chinese interpreter
and how was Leo home was just on when ye
Lu Han Yi Xie Obama and watching us
watch it yet thank you good evening I'm
Isaac i'ma speak Somali anybody who
needs help with somali i can help them
over there of caribbean up so Malika a
viajar got you a mother Wonka when I
imagine it
and the final comment I'd like to make
before I hand it back to our chair to
get us started it's just a recognition
of the governor and the tone he is set
about the conversation about education
in the state and and the preparation for
this legislative session that's been
qualitatively different than anyone
before it in the holistic look that he
did at putting together his budget that
really looked at all aspects of the
budget the public safety health and
human services and a long-term view of
how we are building back and reinvesting
in education in this state so that as we
enter this legislative session we're
talking about the how not the why of
investing in education we don't have to
build the case about the importance of
it so I'm just going to say this has
been a pleasure and a real partnership
with the governor and with dr. crew and
figuring out how we build back and place
priority on education in this state so
we're really thrilled to have both of
you here with us tonight back to you
terribly thank you so I just want to
give a little information about
tonight's town hall forum if you have a
question that you would like answered
there should be cards that you have to
write down the question and submit them
and if you are a staff member thats
00h 05m 00s
collecting those cards can you raise
your hand so look for these folks and
they will get your questions up here if
you would like it to be there the answer
to be addressed specifically to you so
here's a question from John so and so
please make sure that your names on it
you don't have to write your name on
that your question but if you want to
dress a dress back to you so that you
know your it's your question please make
sure your name is on it and with that I
again also want to reiterate that we
welcome governor and dr. crew here this
evening and with that we're going to
start off with dr. excuse me dr. Kidd
sauber too many doctors on that end of
the table dr. kit Sauber and he's going
to make a couple remarks and then we
will get to the place where we begin
asking
well thank you very much I don't know if
there are any legislators here I just
wanted to make sure we recognize them I
see a number of empty seats up there
hope that's not a statement about our
relationship I do see David Rives out
here David you from the Oregon education
investment board and I don't know if
there's any other members but David's
been doing a great deal of work and
thank you very much for coming I'd like
to take maybe five or six minutes at the
beginning instead of a context here I
know we're going to be talking a lot
about funding and I've been around quite
a while and getting more money is not as
easy as it sounds and I think that it
requires a really strategic plan and so
I wanted to give you just sort of the
bare bones of what I have in mind what
we've been trying to do and then really
looking forward to engaging with you
since I was elected two years ago I've
been focused really on one very simple
premise and that's that every Oregonian
deserves their shot at the American
dream and to me that's a commitment to
equity and opportunity it's a commitment
to jobs and and job security it's a
commitment to safe secure communities
where people have a sense of belonging
and common purpose and concern for one
another and if as I believe that the at
the heart of the American Dream is a
promise of opportunity the promise of
upper mobility the promise that hard
work gets rewarded and that you can
actually leave your kids better off than
your then public education is the
vehicle through which that promise is
most directly fulfilled today so
everything we've been doing over the
last two years is part of a long-term
plan to restore and revitalize a public
education in the state of Oregon and to
be successful we've got to recognize
that this isn't a one or two-year job
this is a six or seven or eight year job
and so we have to move beyond the my
ohmic myopic focus of just how much
money we put into schools each year
which is very important and we will
definitely come back to that we also
have to ask ourselves how the decisions
we made in the last two years in
decisions we're going to make this year
and next year and the year after that
actually help move us towards the the
kind of system that we want and I'd like
to provide a little context by telling
you a bit of my personal history which I
think provides an interesting con
text of what we're doing here today
although i have long deep roots here in
oregon one of my ancestors came here
across the Oregon Trail in the 1800s I
wasn't born here I was born across the
river in Colfax and ended up in Lawrence
Kansas via Pullman in Seattle in Logan
Utah which is another story at a very
early age where my father was teaching
English at the university of kansas in
lawrence and in october of 1957 the
russians launched sputnik into orbit
around the earth and to me this was
pretty darn amazing i can still remember
sitting with my mother in our little
ranch house on the floor watching
coverage of this event on the very first
television my own which is a little
black and white box with rabbit ears
that we bought just to have opportunity
to look at this and i can remember going
out and looking up and wonder at this
little speck of light going across the
broad kansas sky and to me this was
amazing and to america it was terribly
frightening and disconcerting because it
in the depth of the Cold War it meant
that Russian rocketry was was ahead of
ours and so what happened is tremendous
efforts or revamp our curriculum in this
country with a special focus on on math
and science sound familiar mostly to get
ahead of the Russians in the Cold War
and as a part of that the Portland
Public School System embarked upon a
reevaluation of its high school
curriculum and they sent out a request
for someone to come and run the project
and my father applied and was actually
hired and so we ended up here in 1958
that's how we escaped from Kansas having
looked at Kansas and looked at Oregon I
hit the whole statement to Dora this
this isn't Kansas anymore has a new and
refreshing meaning for me and he
produced something called the kid saw a
report on the high school curriculum in
the Portland Public School System in
1959 that was over 50 years ago and I
read a little paper that he left in his
papers here about three months ago
00h 10m 00s
called the short happy life of the
Sputnik education reform movement and
here we are again 50 years later looking
at our our curriculum and looking at how
we teach and learn and it with again an
emphasis on science and math and
technology because of the importance of
technology
in our society and because we're not
turning out enough engineers well I
think that there are lots of good
reasons to keep up with major
international competitors like the
Chinese but I also think that there's a
more important reason to reevaluate our
educational system and that has anything
to do with rebuilding the middle class
in this country and you know the fact is
there's a growing correlation between
educational attainment and economic
attainment and upper income mobility in
a pathway to the middle class when I if
it was first elected from Douglas County
in 1978 kids dropped out a Roseburg high
school in the 10th and 11th grade and
got great jobs in the mills and in the
woods with good benefits and the
expectation that that had last all their
lives well those days are gone forever
today we know that a high school
graduate and a college graduate when you
compare their income level in 1978 the
high school colors graduate made
thirty-five percent more today at
seventy-five percent more and we also
know that most of the jobs are going to
create or we're going to require some
kind of post-secondary education at
least the Technical Certificate arow or
a associate's degree so what we've
embarked upon over the last year's is
nothing short of a committed intentional
eight to ten year plan to restore
revitalize public education in Oregon
that's built around a very strong vision
and the fact that we have a vision is
what I think is going to make this
different than the short happy life of
the sputnik education reform movement in
the past or the one we had in the 1990s
when we developed a sim in the cam and
that vision that north star we call 40
40 20 and when it's aspirational it's
extraordinary but it's very aspirational
and what it says is that by 2025 we're
going to have a hundred percent high
school graduation rate in Oregon in
other words when the children who
entered kindergarten last September
graduate from high school all of them
are going to graduate from high school
and that forty percent will get at least
two years of post secular education
training and another forty percent will
get at least a baccalaureate degree or
higher now that vision is not just a
bunch of numerical targets it's based on
a belief in a commitment and the belief
is that every student in this state can
succeed it's a belief that every student
regardless of their home language their
income
this it either immigration status has
the potential to succeed and the
commitment is a commitment by adults to
those students not just parents and
teachers administrator but every adult
in Oregon has to commit to meet those
young people where they are and develop
a pathway to success in college and
career that's what it's about and I
believe that there are three major
obstacles to achieving this vision the
first obstacle is this pattern of
disinvestment that's been going on for a
decade in the Oregon general fund where
we're spending more and more money on
health care and public safety and less
and less on children families and
education and we've got to turn that
around the second obstacle is I think
the structure of our system of public
education which I don't think was
designed for the realities of the 21st
century and it wasn't built around the
you know the outcomes necessary for
success and the third one is that the
system is absolutely underfunded at
every level those are the three
obstacles and so are our effort has to
address all three of those and I think
that it will take between at least three
biennium to set this state on a
trajectory to actually make the 40 40 20
vision a reality so the first by any was
the one we're just finishing 2011-13 the
next one is the one we're entering 13 15
and the one that's following that is the
is the 15 17 and I want to just before
we get into the conversation I want to
tell you sort of what the objectives
were for the last two years and how we
did and what the objectives are for this
two years and then the objectives for
15-17 so the objectives in the 2011-13
biennium started with a fact that we
faced a three and a half billion dollar
revenue shortfall in this state and our
education budget was propped up with a
lot of one-time money from bonding to
money from the stimulus so the first
objective was to balance the budget and
to get the one-time money out of our
education system so we had a solid
funding base for our schools the second
one is to try to break down the silos
that exist and stop looking at education
as kindergarten and K to 12 and
community colleges and universities but
rather a zero through 20 continuum the
third was to develop an effective early
childhood service and educational
delivery program because right now we
bake in achievement compacts before kids
achievement get a gap before kids ever
get to school we don't have a very
effective or outcomes based system of
early childhood there are some good
elements to it but it's not a system the
third one was to get waivers from No
Child Left Behind to allow us to develop
our own supportive method of school
00h 15m 00s
evaluation and and accountability the
next one was to begin to transform our
health care system to bend down the cost
curve to free up resources to invest in
education and the last one is to try to
rebuild the business labor coalition
that was torn apart with 66 and 67 as a
first step in revisiting the whole
question of public finance in the state
of Oregon so how do we do we went from a
three and a half billion dollar budget
deficit to a balanced budget today
that's a little bit actually on the on
the upside we took all the 12 almost all
the one-time money out of our out of our
educational budget we have a designed a
new Early Learning a program that we
hope to implement this year performance
based program we achieve waivers from No
Child Left Behind and have developed our
achievement compacts as a step towards
that new system of evaluation and
accountability we have begun to
transform our health care system and
have in place now a coordinated care
organizations providing health care
services to 600,000 people on the Oregon
Health Plan received almost two billion
dollars from the federal government
towards that effort and broad
flexibility and how we design that
system we received a 20 million dollar
race to the top early childhood
challenge grant to support our early
childhood efforts and finally we have
rebuilt I think to a large extent that
important coalition they have done
polling joint polling and focus groups
and are prepared to move forward so
that's actually quite a bit in two years
and I think we should feel proud about
that now in the current biennium we have
a number of objectives and this gets
right to the heart of the funding
question first of all we have to
continue to implement the healthcare
model that has saved us a hundred
million dollars this biennium it will
save us two hundred million dollars next
biennium and four hundred million
dollars in the 15-17 or 17 19 biennium
it and the second thing we need to do is
with our health insurance exchange
lay the groundwork for teachers and
public employees 40 eben peb to have the
option of choosing this high-quality
low-cost option for their health care if
state employees if oh evan peb basically
were in a health care delivery model
that grew at three point four percent a
year which is our commitment of the
federal government the ten-year savings
are five billion dollars that's another
billion dollars in the general fund per
biennium it's not pocket change secondly
we have to take on reforms in our public
safety system to avoid building another
2300 beds at the cost of six hundred
million dollars over the next 10 years
so health care and public safety reforms
have everything to do with school
funding they free up resources on the
back end to invest on the front end we
need to we hope to pilot a regional
achievement compacts and as a way to
really engage the larger community and
supporting our school system we need to
launch our performance base early
childhood initiative and finally we
didn't need to begin to reinvest to
stabilize our school system through a
combination of general fund savings from
from health care and some changes to
pers which we I'm sure we'll talk about
the co-chairs budget has a school number
for K through 12 at six point seven five
billion which for most districts will
allow us to begin to turn the corner on
the cuts that we've been experiencing
over the last five years I think it's
absolutely important that we hit that
number and I'm very committed to working
with the legislature to make sure that
we we do do so and then finally the
business labor coalition needs to
produce a proposal a a time frame and a
budget that's the short list of things
we want to get done here in this
biennium and then finally the the the
final by any of the 15 17 biennium
hopefully with a revisitation in 14 or
15 of our system of public finance of
the accelerating savings from healthcare
and public safety changes we can develop
a true education growth budget funded
with real dollars not one-time dollars
that can allow us to
make the kinds of investments that are
necessary in in our education continuum
to achieve those 40 40 20 objectives so
I know that's a long introduction but I
think it's really important to recognize
that you know what we have done many
times and what I have done many times in
the past as a member of the legislature
is to come in and view each biennium as
a separate two-year budget balancing
exercise rather than a strategic set of
building blocks to move us towards our
goal so it takes a lot of discipline to
do this I think we're well on the way
and I'm looking forward to working with
you too to get there I have just
received a note from that from there
from the front office senator Jackie
ding Felder has arrived senator and
representing Michael dem bro key player
00h 20m 00s
in the educational date thank you
Michael thank you we've set aside some
time the board members have some
questions and then we'll open up to the
field just a reminder that if you have a
question make sure to write it down wave
it up in the air one of the staff
members will be around to pick it up
because we're only accepting written
questions I also want to let people know
I forgot to mention this that we are
streaming live both on channel 28 as
well as on the Internet our website and
just a reminder for those who are
watching us via the website that you can
still submit questions via PPSS facebook
page those will be incorporated into
into our work here today as well so with
that we are going to move on to some
questions from our board governor
kitzhaber with that I'll turn it over to
co-chair Gonzalez and just to add a
little bit more to the context to what
governor you said you know in December
you propose a budget there was an
increase over the previous panels budget
but with all due respect will have
resulted in significant cuts in
education and this from what we have
seen and we have been you know fiercely
advocating for increased budget during
this legislative session and we are
heartened by the increased propose to
set 6.75
in by the co-chairs budget however even
this increase will simply maintain the
program we are offering today and really
won't allow us to be truly begin to
invest in students so governor do you
think that the legislative leaders are
move in the right direction with the
state school fund and do you support
their increase over your proposed budget
I definitely think they're moving in the
right direction and I do support the
increase over the budget I think that
the objective this this year is to
essentially stop the hemorrhaging if you
will of teachers in school they used to
set the platform for a deeper
reinvestment I think you do need to
recognize that this isn't going to be
easy because the co-chairs budget calls
for about 275 million dollars in new
revenue which I'm very supportive of
that does require a supermajority it
requires 36 votes in the in the in the
house and acquires 18 votes in the
Senate so this budget cannot be passed
without some support from the Republican
caucus so I think it's very very
important that we begin very very soon
to have serious sit-down meetings
between the house and the Senate and the
Republican and Democratic leadership
about how we're going to put this
together it's very it's doable it's
possible and and I'm very supportive of
the direction that you're moving in
governor and dr. Cruz thank you so much
for being here today just following up a
little bit with some background I'm an
Oregon native and a graduate of our
public school system as are my three
sons and I believe like you do and
influence my decision to run for the
board that education is the key to
success for every child and I do mean
every child so following up on that I'm
going to ask that short-term question
instead of the long one I recently
returned from the Council of great city
schools meeting in Washington DC
sequestration was what was on the top of
the list at the conference and its
effects on early childhood special
education pre-k English language
learners and on and on and on all of
these programs are supported by a
federal dollars through title
one two and three I'd like to ask you
about how you see as minimizing the
impact of the federal cuts that we are
likely to face from the sequester it's
if it is fully implemented on public
schools will see at least 2.5 million
dollars in cuts to our programs like
Head Start and special education and
early childhood and many of these
programs have rules that prevent us from
back filling them with the general fund
dollars so governor does the state have
a plan for responding to these very
damaging federal cuts well as you
pointed out some of these programs have
federal restrictions around them that
that sort of tie the state's hands I
mean should the sequester go forward I
clearly I think that we have to have a
discussion in the legislature about to
the extent that we can do some
backfilling you know how it would go
about that particularly in the early
childhood special education space but I
think the most important thing that
first remember is the sequester is an
example of failed governance it should
never have happened and it shouldn't go
forward and the fact of the matter is
that the cuts that they're looking at
the 1.2 trillion dollars and cuts are
restricted to defense and what's called
non-security discretionary domestic
spending which is nineteen percent of
00h 25m 00s
the federal budget and includes
everything that's important education
transportes surface transportation
infrastructure research and development
it is mindless and I have said before
and I will say again that if every state
in this country adopted the care model
that we've developed here in Oregon for
their Medicaid program of the dual
eligibles the savings is about 1.5
trillion dollars over five years
reducing costs making people healthier
so I think we just need to continue to
raise our voices to our congressional
delegation and to the President and to
the leadership of Congress that this is
not acceptable this is a failure of
governance it's no way to run the show
governor could suffer is Bobby briga and
I'm the longest-serving member of the
Portland school board and I'm also on
the executive part
the Oregon School Boards Association so
I want to thank you first of all for
your previous remarks about the need for
broad-based tax reform in Oregon to put
the state on more secure revenue footing
and we're very open to that conversation
in the meantime Portland Public Schools
has been advocating for modest reforms
to our property tax system that would
begin to bring some measure of
rationality to our broken system as well
we're specifically calling on the
legislature to send to voters to
measures one would deal with local
option levies and the fact that they
don't collect the full amount that
voters approve due to compression and
the other would reset property values at
the point of sale while maintaining caps
for growth of value for homeowners so
governor do you support these efforts
and in what way can you help us
encourage legislators to put the
question to voters I think the I think
the real issue is the second part of
your question I'm very supportive but
both those measures I just met with the
league of Oregon cities just today on
this you know thing well over half of
our cities are in compression and you
know it's it's you can view it in a lot
of ways I think you can do it as a jobs
issue you know if you don't have basic
infrastructure in your cities and
counties it's pretty hard to get
companies to expand or to come in there
so it makes sense on a lot of a lot of
levels the there seems to be a
reluctance to even both these things to
the voters which I have real trouble
understanding no one is imposing a tax
on anyone we're simply giving people the
opportunity to be heard on these two
constitutional measures so I will
continue to be a vocal advocate of those
I think we need to you know lean on the
committee's for those votes those bills
are at least get them out to the floor
let them die up or down on the floor
rather than languish in committees
because this is a problem is not going
to go away and it really is is a an
impediment to the long-term vision that
we're trying to achieve I'm governor
thanks so much Ruth Atkins I wanted to
just actually then turn to the longer
term question of broader tax reform in
addition to the pieces that on this
year's legislative agenda can you give
us more specifics I mean really there is
this sense of not just
see but I think desperation for that
vision and leadership to get us to a
more sensible tax system so I know
you've been engaged with in discussions
with business and labor but can you give
us more of a some more specifics or more
of a sense of when you're going to be
what you're looking for in terms of a
long-term vision and how we as the
public and community can support you in
that and get it get us there so it's a
very interesting question I've been
involved in two major efforts to reform
our tax system probably the best crafted
bill was the 1985 sales tax proposal
that was locked in the Constitution and
reduced income taxes for every dollar of
sales tax and I think it lost four to
one so my efforts have been
spectacularly unsuccessful but we do
have to take a run at it again and I
think they what may make this different
hopefully we'll make this difference I
think what happened in the last time is
the the you know labor and business and
the folks who fund these sorts of
campaigns got together and put down what
they thought made sense without really
checking to what people who have to vote
on it thought was important and there
was a they did some very interesting
polling and focus groups and it was real
wake-up call that the things that labor
thought people were ready to vote for
and the things that business up people
reasonable for really didn't make much
difference so for example there was a
lot of support for a reduction in our
capital gains tax most Oregonians don't
know what it is don't really care one
way or another you could tack it on to
something else but right now people are
really concerned about more immediate
sort of Maslow hierarchies things like
you know where's the next meal going to
come from and you know where's you know
what's going to happen to my job so what
we're doing is a very deep dive over the
next six months to really find out what
the pathway is without a preconceived
you know measure but obviously we want
to do these three things we want to make
sure that we have a progressive and
equitable system and we want to make
sure that our system is stable or stable
00h 30m 00s
than it is right now and we want to make
sure that the tax code reflects the
kinds of economic activity that we want
to produce in the state but so we're
hoping to have something by earlier
midsummer that we could actually look at
as a proposal then we
then I think it's really a strategic
question of how we you know when we put
it on the ballot and and what that
campaign looks like I'll just close by
saying I in the same box of papers that
I found my father's story about this
Sputnik reform movement I found the
entire campaign for the 1985 ballot
measure which was a comic book produced
by I think mark Nelson was hired to run
the campaign lit it literally is a comic
book and we kicked this out in the
legislature in March and it went on the
ballot in September and we circulated
this comic book and we lost four to one
before I ask my question representative
elicit Kenny Guyer has arrived hello
welcome so governor and dr. crew you
have asked to be allocated funds to
strategically target investments to help
improve student achievement can you give
us a sense of how these targeted
investments will help a district like
ours which is right around forty five
percent students of color and growing
rapidly close our racial achievement gap
I'm going to just take a set the tone
I'm gonna hand it over to dr. crew I'm
really glad there's a question here that
was directed to both of us because we
hired him to work not to just sit there
in the corner so I think you need to
understand if you look at the magnitude
I think we need to separate the the 120
million we were hoping to get for
teacher teacher quality that's very very
important foundational but the money
that's actually in the budget at this
point is about 38 3 million dollars for
third grade reading for post-secondary
aspirations for underserved particularly
students 62 tenth grade who are likely
to fail or drop out and then science
technology engineering arts and math so
obviously if with a six point seven five
billion dollar budget 38 million is not
a whole lot and we're not going to be
able to allocate that to every district
the idea is to use that essentially a
seed money to pick a few places where we
believe we can really move the dial by
changing the way we approach these
issues so the idea is taking a small
amount of money that doesn't just
sustain the current system it seeks to
transform it and demonstrates that where
you focus money you get real results to
help us make
larger case not just to the education
community but to larger the larger
population that ultimate is going to
have to vote on the revenue reform
measure that this is a system worth
funding and if we target these these
investments who can really move the dial
on student achievement the I think that
if I were still a superintendent and
somebody said here are some additional
monies off on the side not part of my
regular funding base but here's some
additional money and I want you to
choose things that you would want to do
but you essentially don't have the
startup money to do them I would
particularly if it was in the area of
wanting to focus on low achieving or
under achieving students there'd be a
couple of features to this notion that i
would be serious about one who's in this
ball game with me who could i get to
partner with me what university what
business what philanthropy who is it
that actually has a track record at
doing some of this work and actually
doing it fairly well secondly where do i
get a bang for the buck where do i
actually get something which I if I do
this I'm going to see a return rather
quickly now that second category in my
mind leaves open a variety of areas that
one could actually sort of select you
could actually spend some time on The
Early Learning side of this and say wow
we're going to spend a lot of money
being able to invest in kids who come to
school without pre-literacy skills at
all I would argue that would be an area
for closing the achievement gap that you
will get a bang for the buck right off
the bat literally working with families
and children and focusing on
pre-literacy skills the likes of which
they walk in the door and then have
versus didn't have in the prior in the
prior term a secondary of for discussion
if you will would be you know III would
argue that there are an awful lot of
kids who when you talk about this third
grade reading issue there an awful lot
of kids who are right LG right
the cusp of being able to be third grade
readers but for the fact that they
really need more time and in some of the
lowest performing schools what they
really need fundamentally is a different
structure of time maybe a different day
maybe a different year maybe a different
00h 35m 00s
use of summer maybe a different way but
a different utilization of time
different if you will opportunities for
teachers and for students and parents to
really get together plan in New York and
other places we did libraries in school
libraries the city libraries as an
extension of the day and so on and so
forth so i guess i would say to you that
you know you can pick lots of areas
Carol and I had a conversation not too
long ago about really onboarding if you
will brand new students particularly
young women and particularly students of
color who heretofore are not doing very
well in science have a notoriously bad
record of doing well in math and science
and as a result there's absolutely no
way no matter how much stem
opportunities we provide if they don't
have foundational skills in this they're
not ever going to be able to even on
board even with the best of intentions
so we have been talking about you know
where and who are the partners
potentially that would essentially help
us at being able to do this so I think
that this is as the governor said this
is seed bunny it's not intended to be
the full monty there's really an
opportunity for us to kind of think
about this as money that would actually
give birth to ideas and strategies that
heretofore we either no work would build
collaboration and ultimately give us an
opportunity to focus in on places where
we think we can get a real good return
for that in terms of student performance
Trudy Sargent I'm at the end of my
second term on the school board at eight
years and I'm not running for reelection
so my last few months of service here
and I want to ask you a little bit about
your budget and our budget at PPS and in
most school districts the cost of
employee retirement as you talked about
is very high
approaching 25% of payroll combined with
health care and other benefits and it
exceeds 50 percent of an employee's
compensation so both health care and
pension benefits are protected to
increase at a rate vastly in excess of
the rate that tax revenues are projected
to increase over the coming years and
you've talked a little bit about purse
I'm going to go to the health care issue
and ask you about the Oregon education
benefits plan that was created in 2007
to control rising cost of employee
health insurance to just just school
districts and of that that plan has not
met its goal of controlling skyrocketing
cost of health insurance in fact the
premiums have increased more rapidly
than the premiums under the Portland
Police schools health insurance trust
which we still have in this district so
I have a two-part question for you one
would be would you support allowing
districts to opt out of that plan if
they can offer their employees health
insurance and a more cost effective rate
well or two and you start it a little
bit in your comments earlier about could
you elaborate on your thoughts about
reforming Oh AB so that we can really
bend that that cost curve down and talk
about a cost rate of cost increase that
would be more similar to the rate that
we're going to see in our tax revenues
so that that isn't causing the reduction
in the programs that we can offer in our
districts yeah i think you know to the
there's a there's a big and sort of a
relentless drumbeat about the public
employees retirement system but health
care is a much bigger much much bigger
cost and it's growing a lot faster so i
think it's important to put that into
perspective so the state revenue is
growing at about four and a half percent
a year health care is growing at about
five point four percent a year so you
can you can just do the bestest overall
it is just the Medicaid so the state has
to responsible as one is obviously the
social safety net through through
through Medicaid and 600,000 people we
also purchase health care four if you
include school teachers as since we're
obviously seventy percent state-funded
and our state workers it's about another
300,000 people so in answer to your
first question I
not support opting out because that
helps you in the short term but it
decreases the purchasing pool which is
what's going to actually drive change in
the delivery system that is about the
with the assuming that the CCOs are a
meet their health outcome and cost
reduction metrics and the commitment of
the federal government is will be
growing at three point four percent at
the end of next year and that will
continue to go just at three-point-four
percent into the future that's sick
that's 600,000 people that's that's
basically about twenty percent of
insurance market it's a pretty big dog
when you add Oh Evan peb in there we've
got one out of every four cover lives in
Oregon is in that purchasing pool so the
idea is to then offer on the exchange a
00h 40m 00s
a similar care model as a low-cost
high-quality option for school teachers
and public employees have had extensive
conversations with SEIU on this they're
very interested in looking at it there
they recognize that the cost of
healthcare is squeezing out wages and
all sorts of that it's not that so it
says everybody has an interest in this
and so I'm very concerned I just went
through this to the oregon university
system if we basically fragment that
purchasing pool we're not going to have
any kind of leverage purchasing leverage
to actually force the kinds of changes
that we want in addition if we reduce
costs on the public side those costs
will be shifted to private employers
through increases in their premiums
unless they also align their purchasing
patterns with those of the states so
this is a pretty intentional effort to
really get our arms around healthcare
costs in the state of Oregon and so far
it's it's going very well and by the end
of this month we should actually have
some outcome metrics which will which
obviously people are interested in if
they want to get into a new care model
they want to know that it's going to
work I'm encouraged by your plans as a
as an employer and as a self-employed
person I buy my health insurance
individually I'm wondering where in the
picture there might be opportunities for
individuals because honestly healthcare
for small businesses
and for individuals is very expensive
very difficult to get as well and so
we're in your plan here that will take
some time to roll out well there'd be a
place for individuals and small
businesses have the numbers here but I
probably can't find a much just had a
conversation about this the other day in
next year because of the Affordable Care
Act will be adding about 180,000 people
who will become eligible for the
Medicaid program so they're going to
push the income level up and basically
individuals and small groups will be
able to go on to the exchange and
there's a whole host of subsidies to
help the smaller businesses what you're
going to see initially in April you're
going to see a big rate bump in the
small and individual market because
you're taking all these people who have
been in high risk pools or work covered
now they all have courage and so we're
going to have to do some reinsurance and
some other things to try to mitigate
that cost for about two years until the
system stabilizes but at the end we'll
have essentially a giant community rated
system which will work like insurance
auto work you know if you if you look at
home insurance or a car insurance you're
insuring against something you don't
think is going to happen you don't think
your house is going to burn down and so
everybody pays a little bit and then if
your house burns down you know that pool
funds we paying your house with health
care we're funding actually buying
insurance or something no is going to
happen we're all gonna get old we're all
going to get chronic diseases and the
game in many parts of the insurance
industry isn't spreading risk it's
avoiding risk or shifting risk that's
why some companies dropped kids when the
ACA said you had to drop you know so
this with the changes in the AC that
will change that and if you go onto the
website for the state health insurance
exchange you can actually get the the
detail on the role in of the small group
and individuals thank you and before we
get to our final question with our
student representative Garcia again just
a reminder folks that if you have
questions write them down as you're
hearing the governor and dr. crew talk
write them down wave them around staff
will come by and we'll get them up here
so our student panels can can read your
question but I just wanted to ask real
quick before before we move on to stew
representative Garcia's question you you
briefly mentioned purrs and there's a
lot of discussion as you mentioned it's
getting a lot more attention than health
care can you talk about whether or not
the current legislative proposal goes
far enough in your perspective to give
us long-term sustainability how that
fits into your 10 year plan and how
you're working with organizations like
the Oregon School Board Association
which were a member of to come to find
to come to a solution because it's not
easy compromise not easy at all and you
know it's speaking as a tier 1 put
public employee retiree so here's the I
mean here's the situation and I think
people can argue with this but here's I
didn't just wake up one morning last
summer and say oh let's do something
about purrs I met with leadership of
every public union in Oregon from OA to
nurses to firefighters to SEIU etc and
said we have a cost problem and we need
to figure out how to do something about
it i also met four times of the pers
coalition and i was looking for
alternatives here's the situation and
this is not a pejorative it's nobody's
fault it just is what it is because of
the the market crash in 2008 and the
loss of value that increases employer
contributions and in there will be about
a thousand dollar increase per pupil in
our public school system over the next
year and about half of that is the pers
increase and there are other benefits
00h 45m 00s
that account for the rest of it so my
point is that the the the crisis and
school funding and the crisis in funding
things like protective services for kids
and important other elements of our
safety that is no longer just a revenue
problem it is certainly a revenue
problem it's also a cost problem and the
question is how you can balance the
retirement system in a way that still
allows you to make investments in the
classroom today to ensure that those
students are are successful tomorrow I
don't question that it's a commitment
it's it's simply a matter of
sustainability and having the freeboard
to to make some investments and I so my
proposal attempted to have retirees
contribute to the solution whereas most
of the things that have happened have
been on the backs of current workers and
you know many of them are funding
tournament system they're not going to
see so i am not too sanguine about a lot
of the elements of the school board
proposal because they sort of whack
existing workers who you know quite
frankly have been whacked enough and
they're working really hard they're
stressed out there you know in the
classroom the people who were just
overloaded with child protective cases
and we have to remember that so I
thought that you know we that since
two-thirds of the cost in the system or
the legacy costs folks who retired
that's why I went there my proposal
reduces the unfunded actuarial liability
by about twenty-five percent so it
really does take a big bite out of the
long-term problem and I would craft it
in a way that as the ual goes down the
cola comes back because this is really
trying to work through this
extraordinary event that happened in
2008 the legislature has essentially I
think there is about 450 million as
opposed to 850 and what they did is they
they took the rates what's called
colouring right now we have a five
percent rate increase and then there's
supposed to be a two percent next
biennium they're proposing three three
and one so you're pushing some of the
rate increase down the road a bit but at
the same time so that gets that on the
purse piece that's about the same dollar
figure as the one I put on the table but
they added about you know three or four
hundred million dollars to keep truffaut
budget which I'm very supportive of
there's about a hundred and twenty
million dollar unfunded whole and human
resources and 40 in Corrections that we
don't know about and then 275 million
dollars we have to get some Republicans
to vote for so I just think it's
important to put the first thing into
perspective fixing the the retirement
system doesn't fix all the problems that
face public schools of the state of
Oregon I think there's some prudent
things we can do but we need to
recognize that these this isn't about
the value or quality of our our teachers
or public sector workforce I see a sign
over there let me speak to it cut
corporate tax loopholes there are in my
estimation on the revenue side that we
need to do something that is very
progressive that balances this out and
the three things I've proposed and
whether the legislature will do them
around I don't know is reducing the
schedule a deductible t on your federal
income tax form it's a hundred percent
now if you begin to reduce
at the ninety percent or eighty five
percent that is a progressive reduction
and capping the the total deductions and
a certain dollar figure and the third
one I put on the table and I may not
never get out of here live is capping
what's called a senior medical
deductible deduction and right now if
when you turn 65 whether you are making
40 million dollars a year or twenty
thousand dollars a year you get that one
hundred percent of your medical expenses
it seems to me that in these
extraordinary times means testing that
might be a way to do it so I think your
point is right we need that we need to
have a balance I know that the
legislative co-chairs budget seeks to
strike that they haven't yet rolled out
with that to wear that 275 is going to
come from but I think I think that we're
you know I think the ultimate trade-off
to make this legislation this budget
work is that is purrs Burke furs and the
revenue what that balance is I don't
know but that's where the sweet thoughts
going to be and what's going to get us
out of the building hopefully with the
resources that we've talked about for
schools my name is lexi i c'n i'm a
senior at Lincoln High School and first
I have a special request for you both so
in Providence Rhode Island the
Providence Student Union requested that
their public officials try out their
high school standardized kneecap test
and a few students in Portland were
pretty moved by this action and so
members of the PBS in Portland student
unions would like to request
respectfully request that you governor
kitzhaber a new chief Education Officer
dr. Rudy crew as well as Deputy
Superintendent Rob Saxton the members of
the Oregon education investment board
the State Board of Education both the
Oregon house and Oregon Senate's
education committees the Oregon business
associations board the portland business
alliances board and our own PPS Board of
Education and anyone else who's
00h 50m 00s
interested take the four high school oak
state standardized test
yeah or the Common Core State standard
pilot tests just to get an idea of what
our students are facing in public
schools today there's a question what
happens if we fail they were out huh so
with that well I if I'm gonna be
evaluated I want to take it now and next
year see what gross I've made during
their you know okay so with that we
would like to try to set up a time to
see if we can make that happen but I do
yes you know the legislature I'm happy
to take the test if you have to take the
test with MacArthur crew all right okay
so I do have another question though so
in drafting this question I took the
liberty to look into your high school
experience and I found that out of the
out of 25 the notable alumni on South
Eugene's high schools Wikipedia page 13
I recognized for the excellence in
humanities so your curriculum probably
included funding for teachers music art
and other humanities and most assuredly
did not include funding for multiple
state mandated standardized tests the
achievement compacts the achievement
compacts the common course and soon the
Common Core State Standards so with that
how many of my alumni or how will my
alumni have a chance to look like your
alumni when we're spending millions of
dollars on standardized tests the
achievement compacts and soon the common
core state standards instead of on
teachers and electives that can enhance
and diversify a public school learning
environment
so you asked that question about six
different ways in the course of your
statements very good message received so
there are there I think there's two
parts to this I think all of us agree
that you know you need some kind of
common barometer for student performance
but clearly it shouldn't come at the
expense of instructional time and
squeezed out and just increase or
narrowing or narrowing the curriculum so
how do we get there we do currently
federal law does require a testing for
math and I think language arts in what
three through eight and eleven now we
could I think when we get a little
further down the road on our our own
evaluation system we could perhaps apply
for a waiver a traditional federal
waiver so that's I think 11 Avenue we're
stuck with the federal law until it's
changed or we request a waiver but I'm
all about waivers we've got healthcare
waivers and NCLB waivers so that's the
possibility we we have reduced modest
but i think the number of oaks
assessments by about ten percent in
2010-2011 because of legislation we
passed last session so your message is
received loud and clear and i think the
question is how do we actually how do we
actually move from where we are now two
more rational system of evaluation that
doesn't take as much time and it's
actually more productive in terms of the
outcomes for students I was a little
troubled only by one thing that you said
and that was that you want to look like
the alumni of like south eugene high
school like myself which means you spend
14 years and a lot of money going to
school and becoming a medical doctor
that never use it i'm not sure what kind
of utility that is so did so i I'm you
know every time I come to these meetings
I always think to myself you know the
way do I try to get out safely with
questions like this so I I wanted I want
to first of all I want to say that I
don't I I think that we are at a point
in time in the history of public
education in this country where we have
been essentially sort of in this
knee-jerk reaction that stems from
federal mandates under No Child Left
Behind we essentially genuflected at
that for the better part of two decades
in those two decades everybody had to
drink that kool-aid that was called
statewide testing as a way of being able
to measure student growth the genesis of
that was that there were large numbers
of children for whom growth was exact
was was the exact opposite that was
happening for them in schools and the
country essentially said you know we've
got to really take a look at this
question and see how we can instigate
greater degrees of growth it couldn't
have picked a worse tool could not have
picked a more unintelligent use of a
00h 55m 00s
tool in the sense that this is a
high-stakes one-time test that
essentially becomes a number the likes
of which define what a student is in a
school or in some cases in my case in
Florida it defines the whole school and
a a b c d or an F what a sham that has
been to public educators who really do
understand that the real value of
assessment is in being able to
understand not just growth over time but
how a student ultimately can demonstrate
that growth in a myriad of ways and we
ought to be moving more toward that sort
of system where we are seeing multiple
measures at multiple ways by which
students demonstrate their knowledge of
this in the context of a more sane and
civil and if you will educationally
valuable assessment system the prop the
problem is moving from where we were in
this last iteration of maybe two decades
maybe even more
to what we think of as being a more sane
and civil assessment process is noisy
it's going to be a very noisy process
people essentially are saying largely
and we heard the students I heard them
all the way down and in Salem you know
stop testing us and as the government
said you know heard it loud and clearly
but we're still under a requirement to
do some testing on the other hand we're
now in the process of trying to say
listen we know that there's a better way
of being able to do this and that there
is a smarter way of being able to think
about assessment in the hands of
teachers who essentially examine ways by
which students know something and how
they've come to know it and we want to
ultimately ask through this legislative
session through some of the initiatives
that we're talking about here relative
to I don't know it's off the table right
now for discussion but it's very much in
my mind as a part of this but we want to
ask for the support to help teachers
actually use new and different kinds of
assessments as a way of being able to
determine growth over time whether or
not that will ever satisfy the the feds
and all of that is a whole nother
question many of them have their own
point of view that this really has to be
a standardized test it has to be a test
that has a number or rubric and a whole
host of other things that make it a test
that they legitimize and so on I you
know I can't speak to that that remains
to be part of the national discourse but
I can only tell you that Oregon is about
to lead the way we are on the cusp of
being able to both ask and answer the
question about how we shift to a more
sane civil and effective and ultimately
more professional use of assessment not
only for understanding what students are
growing but how we as adults are growing
as well and to then be able to use that
in a meaningful way to drive not only
good instruction but to really drive who
wants to teach anymore because they're
an awful lot of people look at this and
think this is teaching by the numbers
right
and I didn't sign up to do that so I
would just simply say to you I think
you're right about you know sort of
raising the question I don't I don't I'm
not one of these people who's an anti
test people I do believe that there is a
reason to test someone I don't think
that I think we have just gone
completely crazy with Tasmania and we
have no real value for even what we get
when we do test it the numbers are in
many cases almost useless and people are
trying to make huge decisions about this
and sadly in some cases they make
decisions about whether a school is a
good school or bad school by that so we
just have to kind of shift our brain to
thinking about a new and different way
being able to do this work thank you
we're now going to move on to the part
where we get to take questions from you
our audience again a reminder that we're
taking written questions only written
questions so please write them down and
wave them around if you have a question
that you want to make sure to get
answered remember write your name on it
if you'd like address addressed back to
you specifically we're doing this in an
effort to try to get through as many as
we possibly can so that we can move
through them find similar themes and I'd
like to introduce our student panel this
evening we have four students here we
have deja Brooks for Wilson High School
we have Marty burger from lincoln high
school and we have Andrew Davidson from
Grant High School and ngoc trong here
from madison high school three of them
are members of the superintendent
Student Advisory Committee also referred
to as super sac we thank you for joining
us this evening they will be reading the
questions and helping filter through the
questions and organize them and just a
01h 00m 00s
reminder that will also take questions
from Facebook if you are streaming us on
or live or if you've already submitted
one we will get some from there so with
that I will turn it over to the students
hi mita governor kids opera and hi
everybody thanks for being here today in
at Madison High School
so I have a question like can you please
comment underneath to increase
vocational and technical schools yeah
let me again I'll just make a quick
comment and hand it over to Rudy this is
extraordinarily important obviously it's
a function of resources as you know but
I think for too long not only do we need
to increase those kind of CTE
opportunities but we need to get rid of
what I think has been in sort of an
artificial distinction between CTE and
stem they are both critical pathways to
to a career which is really what this is
all about and we know that in this
economy there are significant jobs that
are going unfilled that would probably
be filled if young people had access or
exposure to those jobs through those
kinds of programs I'm actually speaking
tomorrow morning at the to a group of
employers who are actually seeking to
provide those connections school to work
connections we have some resources in
the budget to to try to address that as
part of our target investments but this
needs to be a a major commitment as an
offering in our public school system if
we truly want to meet our 44th learning
objectives and ensure that all of our
kids have a pathway to to the middle
class one of the things that I'm really
very glad for your question because I
think that we have for a very long time
in this country really understood or at
least thought that if you didn't go to
college you really really didn't have an
opportunity to be employed and that
frankly you weren't capable somehow or
another we actually associated the
absence of going directly to college
right out of high school or something as
being something that was uh for
unintelligible non college bound
students and I I want to say a I don't
think necessarily everybody has to go to
college be I think those people who
want to and those people who actually
know enough about what they think they
want to do should have that choice and
that what we have to do is prepare we
have to start laying out a new set of if
you will sort of lanes in schools roads
highways call them pathways whatever you
want to call them but a way that
everybody has an opportunity to see
themselves as being both gainfully
employed gainfully employ a bowl and
learn it and smart and capable and
confident and I would argue that this
one track system does not get us there
that high schools that essentially say
it's one way or the highway does not get
us there schools that say you know what
there's only one way of being able to
demonstrate your smarts your
capabilities don't get us there so we're
having to really finely and I'm glad to
say embrace vocational programming CTE
opportunities internships externships
community-based learning all these
different things represent new pathways
that we are really trying to very
quickly put in place to be able to give
students the opportunity to go through
and find their dreams desire you know
their life their life's dream so my hope
would be that we'd see many more
opportunities in these schools that
you'd see the dollars that we're putting
aside now as part of the initiative
money to give us models for what that
could look like in the middle school in
the high school some of them related the
stem some of them related to CTE and and
stem some of them related to the arts
they're just can be any number of ways
but all I do know is that there is no
one best system there is no one highway
that is going to meet the needs of every
single student in the aspirations and
the dreams they hold for themselves
thank you so much this next question
comes from Kiyoshi taylor mays with
almost fifty percent of students
eligible to receive free and reduced
lunch how do you realistically propose
to have a one hundred percent graduation
rate without first addressing the
issue of poverty and the ability for
families to meet their basic needs you
01h 05m 00s
know son I cannot see your name cuz I'm
old I'm sorry kiyoshi Kyoshi hi oh so
it's your question thank you very much
Kyoshi but I was trying to see this
young man's net Marty Thank You Marty
and thank you Kyoshi and stop yelling at
me I could hear you all the way up here
might appreciate your rating her
question but at least having this on the
floor so when I came to Orion one of the
things that I did was to start really
looking at things that I would have been
concerned with if I had gone into
another big urban school system
someplace in America Detroit again New
York City or wherever it may be and one
of the things that I found that was
fascinating and we are going to have to
really sort of grapple with this as a
state is exactly your question which is
what's the relationship between poverty
and learning and there are really
important questions embedded in that
that have to do with exactly the
conversation we were just having about
how do kids get what they need in order
to be able to be in the school how do
they avoid being absent from school how
do they get the dental care that they
need to be on time and able to come and
function in school the food that they
need and their families the sustenance
that they need all of that is an
economic question and for too long the
educational questions have existed on
the one side of the ledger and the Ekka
de and the and the edge and the economic
questions existed on the other we've now
live in a time when we aren't able to
see them as separate questions at all we
actually have to start thinking about
them in an integrated collaborative way
and that's why when I came here and I
saw where we stand with our poverty
index in this state I was frankly blown
away I would never have guessed that and
largely it's rural poor it is largely
rural poor huge urban poor but it's in
that I knew about but
it's also very densely rural poor as
well so how we then build reading
programs how we use technology as a way
of being able to reach and be in the
communities that need these services how
we wrap around a lot of those services
from healthcare to vision screening food
and other kinds of resources and human
service that's why I came here because
at least in this model that we're in
right now for all the ills that it still
may have but in this model it is
contemplated that these agencies have to
talk with each other share resources
create new and different ideas about how
to respond to them there's no family in
this state that if they're hungry and
their children are not well fed prior to
coming to school that they will be able
to do what we're talking about visa V 40
40 20 this is not happening so we've got
to be able to really see this as a
holistic approach to community building
that then has a whole lot of
implications for student building just
add one thing really quickly I just want
you to start thinking about it because
there's another side of this handshake
if we create this amazingly well
educated workforce let's say we hit our
40 40 20 goals if we don't think under
if we don't rethink our fundamental
economic paradigm there aren't going to
be the jobs for those young people to
fill we lost seven and a half million
jobs during the Great Recession we're in
and fifty percent of those jobs pay
between thirty and sixty thousand
dollars a year we've gained about forty
seven percent of those back and only two
percent of them pay between thirty and
sixty thousand dollars a year what we've
lost is people who are taken out by
automation by technology the millennial
generation thirty-six percent of the
workforce today fifty percent in 2020 a
lot of them are working at Starbucks a
lot of them are working at jobs it
didn't require the kind of training that
they had so the other side of this
conversation which I'm going to really
start pushing over the next year's we're
going to have to not let down at all and
making sure that there's a direct
relationship between family stability
and poverty and hunger and educational
attainment but we also have to make sure
if we're going to make this huge effort
to train
our young people that we have an economy
that's turning out the kind of jobs not
just an urban oregan but urban and rural
Reagan that actually can give them the
kind of income they need to live a
middle-class lifestyle thank you so as
we go on I just want to remind folks we
really do want to read as many questions
as we can so the applause I know is just
short but if we could hold the applause
so we can try to get through it and if I
could ask the governor and dr. crew to
be succinct with your answers so we can
get through as many but that would be
great I don't want to cut it short if
it's a thorough answer but we want to
get to as many as we can Andrew why is
there so little emphasis on reducing
class sizes I teach English in a public
01h 10m 00s
high school I have 42 students in my
classes yeah why not enough money that's
just ain't enough thank you well what
why why is there not more emphasis
though not more emphasis on on reducing
class size reducing class sizes well I
think there is a there's a great deal of
emphasis on reducing class size as that
is obviously one of the reasons we need
to recapitalize our system of public
education we need to be hiring teachers
not laying teachers off we need to
actually have the resources to to ensure
that that we have appropriate class
sizes I think that whether you're on the
tag end or whether you're looking at the
some of the students that are the
furthest behind we're going to have to
have increasingly customized teaching to
reach this 40 40 20 goals and you can't
do that in a large class size so again I
think that's when we hear and we know I
think the real issue it really does get
down to a resource question and that's
why we're engaged in a really hopefully
very strategic effort to to
fundamentally reinvest in our in our
entire system of public education thank
you this question was sent in by Debra
Clemens I'm absolutely a PPS supporter
with two kids at SS and grant I want to
see more money for K through 12 because
the education of our kids is critical to
our future and there's but I'm very
worried that higher education won't get
its do
education educating our kids doesn't end
at 12th grade how can my family of four
college if increased cost of tuition
fees books is on the backs of a young
adult and Families if Oregon's public
universities keep increasing tuition how
does Oregon plan to invest in pre-k
through 20 education I think that when
we've talked about this issue first of
all whoever it is the last question
years it's a spot-on question because we
when the governor said we've basically
you know so we're not invested in this
across the board he's absolutely true
and that's particularly true in higher
ed but when we think about a solution to
it you have to think about this in
multiple in multiple layers or multiple
years and so the first cut of this
obviously is going to be trying to put
as much money in the in the total
education bucket as we possibly can and
I think that's what is being discussed
right now secondly it's going to be a
matter of being able to really look at
issues of tuition costs the rising costs
overall of going to college or post any
two-year or four-year institution and
then what is it that we need to do both
in the realm of providing scholarship
dollars or if you will eight dollars
that help student get over the initial
hump of at least seeing the first one or
two years as being eligible them being
eligible to actually a complete one of
the things that we're hoping is that
will see greater numbers of students who
can actually acquire credit while
they're in high school essentially
deferring that first year's cost so the
greater of those opportunities the more
students would be able to avail
themselves of those opportunities in
thus have fewer dollars that they have
to commit to first year college the
first year or even for that matter in
many cases the second year so we're
literally looking at where and how we
can put the dollars in the most
meaningful places where students be able
to get post-secondary if you will both
credit and then ultimately dollars to
support their their their their tuition
costs
go ahead with the next question
government the capital of our education
system the condition of our school
buildings do not get a lot of public
attentions how can the state help make
the investment we need to make in energy
in earthquake safety and in 21st century
learning environments that are student
deserve well I'll just try it because
the capital side of this has actually
been rather interesting to me because
every place I've ever worked we had huge
numbers of state capital dollars as a
way of being able to you know develop
schools clean them up maintain them make
sure that they were essentially
earthquake proof and so on and so forth
or tornado-proof as the case may be I I
do think that there's going to have to
be some prioritization as we think about
money coming into public education for
both capital side in the program side
we've at least in my mind so far most of
the conversation has been about how to
improve program how to expand it how to
provide it how to get some of the the
things that we aren't able to provide
now or providing at a high cost how to
get those things under under under under
wraps but when you talk about the
capital side the buildings itself the
lighting itself the more efficient use
01h 15m 00s
of and the more ecological use frankly
of of different kinds of of building
materials and and lighting and so forth
it really is going to come down to have
state having a capital plan for this and
that capital plan has to ultimately be
in concert with a district capital plan
and that i'm aware of i'm sure districts
have that for themselves but it is in
many cases not a matter of you know a
tremendous amount of dollars that the
state puts towards that at least as I
understand that at this juncture we do
have our cool Schools program that we
started two years ago I think there are
19 school districts that are taking
advantage of that so essentially what
we're doing is coming in and doing your
energy efficiency retrofit that then is
paid for by
future energy energy savings and we're
essentially it's a very data intensive
process because we want to prove up that
what we want to do is get institutional
capital and private equity capital into
that and really scale it up and so I
think that's a very promising possibly
aft actually nationally has put some of
their pension money into this because I
think this is actually a pretty good
investment so we are beginning to turn
the corner I think on the energy
efficiency side of this problem what
should be prioritized at the state level
to ensure that the most effective
teachers are hired and retained in every
district I think a priority should go to
how we essentially provide some kind of
a network to support teachers and how
that excuse me and how they get to do
their work people do not want to come
into any profession where they are not
going to receive the tools to be good at
what they want to do it's just that
simple and we have walked away from that
responsibility for a year and year and
year and years prior and hopefully not
in the future but the first thing that I
would prioritize is create a network
that essentially provides opportunities
for people to really get the kind of
feedback a teacher to teach your
feedback secondly provide opportunities
for them to have a mentor someone who is
a teacher who may even teach their own
grade level or their own content area
and they then can have an opportunity to
really learn from someone particularly
as their new coming into the profession
thirdly give opportunities for us to
really bring in excuse me bring in
universities and other institutions and
other partners who frankly have
something to say about this and relation
the relationship between the services of
the universities and other other
institutions and the training or if you
will the practitioners work in their
day-to-day that relationship is a really
powerful relationship if in fact it's
built I would argue right now it's very
very episodic it's very fragile that you
in some cases doesn't
exists at all and people are essentially
brought in they start teaching and
they're on their own the enemy of really
effective high quality growth of
teachers is isolation is people trying
to do the best that they can do but they
have absolutely no one there to help
them no resource available to them to be
able to make sense out of things like
new assessments and you know all the
other things that are coming down the
pike thank you this is from Susan a PPS
parent when I've gone to the capital to
advocate for adequate funding I see a
lot of professional education lobbyists
but not parents do you think that
parents can actually make a difference
in Salem you actually think they they
can I mean I've been around a long time
and some of the education lobbyists that
were there when I left or still there
and they do it they do a good job but I
do think they are they are seen as
education lobbyists just like the
lobbyist for the Oregon Medical
Association is seen as the lobbyist for
the Oregon Medical Association I think
to some extent they're seen as
Association representatives and that's
not a pejorative statement but I think
the more actual parents can come down
and tell their personal stories and make
the the need for funding real and human
put a face on it I think that is
extraordinarily effective thank you your
budget identifies education as a key
area of investment that is currently
under footed underfunded how will the
new proposed educational govern
governance structure address the problem
of under investment well let me take a
real quick cut up as an attorney I don't
think that the structure itself directly
affects under funding what it's seeking
to do is to intentionally both in
funding and in policy recognize the
connection and the relationship between
01h 20m 00s
early childhood nutrition and
kindergarten readiness kindergarten
readiness and third grade reading the
relationship between 3rd grade reading
and and you know ready for college in
ninth grade and
in the relationship between that and
degree attainment and degree attainment
in an economic opportunity so it's
trying to get us out of the silos it's
trying to actually get more people
around the table I will just say that
the idea of a regional achievement
compact is to essentially let's say go
to the Central Oregon and get not just
the school districts but the Community
College the branch university campus the
business communities that faith
communities that community-based
organizations all to basically make a
commitment what they're when is their
commitment going to be to achieve a
common common set of goals so indirectly
it's it's it's more about coordination
and an alignment I think then then
really funding I would just simply say
that part of the problem has been it's
just exactly what I was talking about
with teachers working in isolation is
that we've actually asked the schools to
do it all all of it make sure my kid
gets up make sure my kid does well make
sure my kid comes graduates from school
make sure if my kid is eligible to go to
XYZ place after school make sure that
there's somebody available that can
actually watch him or her until I can
get off from work all of those things
there's not an illegitimate requests
really from a parent it's just that the
schools can't do it all on their own and
we are so reluctant to try to say that
every teacher every principal every
superintendent thinks that somehow or
another they can make this dollar
stretch across every one of those needs
and they cannot even in the best of
years they cannot and so what we find is
that there is now a need for us to
actually say let's admit that we can't
do it all alone we have to work with
partners we need to have other people
wrap their services in a thoughtful way
around the needs of families and
children and neighborhoods and then you
degree to which we're able to do that is
going to have an awful lot of impact on
not just the budget but it's going to
have a lot of impact on students in
their own growth and their development
as well
the question were submitted original
leaf in Spanish form length ka so is
there a strategy to reduce the level of
bullying in schools or online bullying
is everything you know I think this is
this is one of these areas where I know
that this the the districts and super
and certainly superintendents and school
boards have had an awful lot of
conversation about this as it relates to
bullying that's happening cyberspace
bullying is happening in in their
schools obviously now they're starting
to be federal attention being paid to
this and that federal attention is going
to draw down if you will on districts
and localities to actually start making
sure that there are policies about this
and that there are real teeth and
consequences to people who participate
in any form of bullying overall the
place where I go with this personally is
I honestly think that we actually have
to start talking about not so much just
bullying although that's an obvious
outcome but we have to really start
talking about personal and civic
literacy now what does it mean to be a
human being and how do i exchange myself
as a person in the context of my
community or in my school we don't talk
about those things you're getting
bullying in large measure in my mind
because we actually have allowed all
behaviors to essentially ride they get
they get a pass and in my judgment too
many of those behaviors over too long a
period of time have gone unchecked and
now we're seeing the most perverse form
of them and the saddest of consequences
as a result so I I think both at a state
level certainly at the State Board I
know that they've taken action in this
regard I know that local boards have as
well but I think the approach to this is
not necessarily just to focus on the
outgrowth of it but to really deal with
the core issues of how do people feel
about themselves in the cons and how do
they learn to manage themselves in a way
that leaves all of that empties
social ugly heinous behavior to the side
and is really and it's really completely
eliminated from schools and the
community at large thank you so before
we move on to our last question this
will be our last question if you have a
question that you submitted and the
topic area didn't get covered or you
have another question is even listening
tonight there the governor has brought
his citizen liaison team if you if
you're a part of that team can you raise
your hand so people know how to connect
01h 25m 00s
with you so if you connect with them and
get them your question they will get you
a response for your questions so we
don't want to leave the response is
undone it's been a very engaging
conversation so we thank you but this
will be our last question for the night
for the panel and then again if you have
an additional question make sure you
connect with the governor's citizen
liaison team to get that answered this
final question comes from Amy governor
your approach to healthcare has valued
freeing resources to invest in
prevention do you foresee being able to
invest education dollars in successful
models like open meadow that identify
kids at risk of dropping out and are
effective of getting them to graduation
and post-secondary success absolutely I
think that it's a remarkable model and
there's actually models around the state
that are doing incredible naya has a
great another great example of a school
that's really been in the bending the
curve so I think we have to be very open
to a variety when I said at the very
beginning we need to meet these young
people where they are it means we're all
going to meet them in the same place or
the same way and I think that really is
what we're striving to do at the end of
the day what we're trying to do is
create a pathway to success for every
young person in the state of Oregon and
I think we have to be have to have the
courage and the flexibility to evolve
our thinking about what that looks like
so yes thank you so I would like to
thank Governor Kitzhaber and dr. crew
for joining us here today
and I'd also like to thank you all for
joining us this evening when we think
about the room full of people here and
who they represent who weren't able to
join us tonight please remember that
your voices are important that this is a
community engagement public education is
our education so please make sure that
your voices are heard and again I want
to thank our legislative representatives
who are here this evening for joining us
as well thank you all our next board
meeting is monday April first at six
o'clock in the board auditorium at bes
Sources
- PPS Board of Education, Archive 2012-2013, https://www.pps.net/Page/2225 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:54.937864Z)
- PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)
