Radio talkshow host, Gregg Clapper said, “They’re just brainwashing the little buggers.” (April 30, 2003, 4:25 P.M. PDT on KTLK (620 Amplitude Modulation)  Clapper was referring to a “town hall” visit to a Sherwood elementary school by a state representative from Wilsonville.

One of the sixth graders said, “I feel my right to a good education has been taken from me.”

Now, think back to when you were in the sixth grade.  What did you know about the world?  What kind of questions did you ask adults?  Clapper is right.  They’re (the teachers) just brainwashing the little buggers.  That has to be one of the reasons why state senator, Charles Starr, says that people should run, not walk, to remove their children from public schools. 

Some legislators, including some Republicans, have suggested that Starr should be forgiven for making that remark.  This magazine thinks he should be given a medal for heroism. 

Why did the government cut the education budget?

It didn't.

Did you know that per-capita spending on Oregon students is the highest in the NW? Higher, some people say, even than California. (The way we run the numbers, it comes out to seven grand apiece.  We've heard people say it is nine.  They may be averaging and amortizing the cost of facilities in their method.  Our figure of seven doesn't factor in the cost of the school buildings.)   Did you know that the money budgeted for schools this time is more than the money budgeted for schools last time? (In fact the overall state budget is larger this time than last time.)

Yet, your big city newspapers and your television stations keep talking about shortfalls and cuts.  Why is that?

Simple.  In the case of public schools, it is due to the cost of teachers.  Every year, their salaries go up, these days faster than inflation.  Portland school teachers above the novice rank make from sixty to ninety thousand dollars a year, including perks.  That pay is based on a work "year" of some 180 days.  Six months contain about 180 days.  Every year their perks (non-salary benefits amounting to an additional third of their salary) jump up dramatically. . PERS, the public employee retirement system, covers teachers and most other government workers, and guarantees an 8%  per year minimum gain on any investments (like those in your private retirement investment account), even if those investments (often private company stock) go down in value.  Would you like it if your bank paid 8% interest on savings accounts?  That's what you pay those who work for the government in Oregon -- and government is today the number one (largest) employer in the state.

In the employer-paid health care department, to use the Portland school system as an example, again, the cost to the taxpayer is $800 per month, per teacher, at present.

Multnomah County voters supported Measure 28. That proves they care more for kids than the rest of Oregon.

Well, it proves the voters of Multnomah County care more about their kids than the kids of people elsewhere in Oregon.

The soon-to-be-voted-on Multnomah County special tax measure (ballots went in the mail around the last day of April) is four times the size of Measure 28, the measure Oregonians statewide defeated handily a few months back.  The reason it is four times as big a tax should generate a question in your mind.  The most likely answer to your question is, yes.  Measure 28 was designed to funnel money from the rest of Oregon right into Portland coffers.

Not that it matters to teachers and school administrators, either way. 

If Portland voters do not pass this new one, the school system will still pay more for salaries and perks by taking money from non-education school programs (sports, for example) and redistributing it to the teachers, and of course the administrative people.  And if that doesn’t provide the additional money they want for their salaries and perks, they’ll cut back on education, itself, by shortening the school year. By eliminating facility care salaries and supply costs, not cleaning all the rooms, halls and bathrooms for a half a month,  you "save" money.

Some teachers are bamboozeling the press and the people by "volunteering" to work during those "no pay" days.  That is absolute balderdash. Pure spin. They are working the same number of days for the same or more dollars -- and that, friends, isn't a gift to the public!  It's a public relations gimmick, nothing more. And, hundreds of simpletons who vote are already praising the teachers for doing it.  One moronic Oregonian said recently, "It proves they care about the children."

Let's cut the crap and openly go socialist.

But, that is the way government goes, if the people allow it.  In Oregon, the salary for someone who repairs lottery machines runs from sixty to ninety thousand dollars.  In Oregon, we hear, the head of SAIF (the state accident insurance fund) makes three hundred thousand dollars a year.  Why some of you continue to vote for people who create this sort of quagmire is a mystery to me.  Perhaps someday, Oregon Magazine will sponsor an initiative that turns over everything of value, businesses, property, bank accounts, everything, to the state.  Just get it over and done with.

Then, they’ll have all the money, and can take care of this state full of childish voters the way the old Soviet Union did,  and present day North Korea does.

(LL)

For an in-depth look at one Oregon school district, read Tillamook Schools
http://oregonmag.com/TmookSchools.htm
 

© 2003 Oregon Magazine