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FEBRUARY 24, 2017
TIME FOR SOMETHING POSITIVE
We have had
another week in which not a lot has happened at the committee level. The
Ways and Means road show, as I have previously mentioned is designed to
increase the demand for more taxes, is meeting in Ashland and Eugene. The
road show finishes next week and we are expecting the majority party to start
going public with their plans by the middle of next month. I have had
very little things to say that have been positive up to this point, and when we
look at the big picture nothing has changed. But I thought maybe I would
share with you something I have been working on that I am actually getting
excited about.
Well over a
decade ago I teamed up with President Courtney to expand new born screening in
Oregon. The expansion of that program has had some very positive results
for a lot of children in our state. That work encouraged me to look at
screening and testing from a more global perspective, which lead me to the work
I have been doing over the last couple of years. In Oregon we have a
patchwork for screenings we do for children when they enter the education
system, and it seems that we should be doing a more comprehensive job in this
area.
To that end
I began having conversations with people who have expertise in this area.
My thought was we could do a better job of ensuring good outcomes for children
in the education system if we could deal with these potential problem areas on
the front end with a comprehensive screening program. The areas of
interest here are vision, hearing, dyslexia and autism. With the help of
the Oregon Pediatric Society and a group of experts we believe that within the
next couple of weeks we will be able to bring forward to the Legislature a real
plan.
Clearly the
devil, as always, will be in the details; but we believe this will be a very
positive improvement in the system for a lot of children. Our ultimate
goal is to have age appropriate testing as a requirement for attending
school. For those who would object to “another government mandate,” I
would point out there may be no other way to ensure all kids are
screened.
As we
continue to look for solutions to Oregon’s high dropout rate, this may in some
ways help find part of the solution. We know if kids fall behind in the
early years in most cases they may not be able to catch up, which may cause
them to give up. Identifying problems early and being able to address
them will help make the education of a lot of kids much more successful and
allow them to have a brighter future.
Sincerely,
Senator Jeff
Kruse
email: Sen.JeffKruse@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1701
address: 900 Court St NE, S-205, Salem, OR, 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kruse
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