MARCH 3, 2017
ANOTHER RELATIVELY QUIET WEEK
I have
received a large number of emails over the last couple of weeks, many of them
from people who are new to communicating with me. Therefor I thought I
should explain how I handle all of this. Unlike some up here I do all of
my own email. I do read them all, but do not have the time to respond to
all of them and I will not send out a “generic” response. I add anyone
who has sent me an email to this list, because I am assuming they might like to
know what I am thinking on various subjects. I may not get to everyone’s
concerns immediately, but eventually most subjects will be covered.
This week I
want to talk about education, specifically the structure, or lack of it, in
Oregon. Several years ago, when Kitzhaber was Governor, the Legislature
eliminated the position of Superintendent which made the Governor the head of
education. At that point a board was also created with jurisdiction over
the K- 20 system that was basically a rubber stamp for whatever the Governor
wanted. This has turned into an absolute train wreck and two years ago we
eliminated the Board. It was our intention to make some significant
changes, but so far that hasn’t happened. In a couple of weeks, we will
be having hearings on some legislation to accomplish what we haven’t been able
to up to this point. I will describe what the plan would do and I would
welcome any comments you might have.
This is a
design to give us for the first time a true K-20 system by creating a Board
where all parts of the system are represented. This is also an attempt to
take politics out of education. We would be creating a 12-person
board. Three members representing the universities, three members representing
community colleges and six members representing K-12. In the case of K-12
there would be one member from each congressional district and one at large,
with the assumption that Oregon will get an additional Congressional seat in
the next redistricting cycle. The Board, as is usually the case will be
appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. But here is where
we find a significant change from the way things are usually done.
The Governor
would be restricted to making appointments from lists provided by the various
elements of the Board. For example, the 17 community colleges would get
together and nominate a list for the Governor to choose from. The same
would happen for the Universities and K-12. By creating a Board in this
fashion we would ensure that each area would want to have their best and
brightest representing their interests on the Board. For the first time
we would have a board overseeing our education system that was fully informed
as to the system and could hopefully make the changes necessary to make
education in Oregon top notch again.
This leaves
only one piece left to fix and that would be the superintendent. With an
elected superintendent or the governor, we really don’t have a person in charge
that is accountable to the system they are overseeing. We think it is
time for a change and the superintendent should actually be accountable to the
system they are in charge of. To do this we would need a Constitutional
Amendment. Currently the Constitution says the Superintendent will either
be elected or the Governor will be the Superintendent. Time has shown
neither option to be the best for the system. We are proposing to change
the Constitution so the Superintendent could be hired by this newly created
board. This way we would have the Chief Operating Officer of the most
important enterprise in the state (the education of our children) directly
accountable to the system they are in charge of. This would help take the
politics out of education and get us refocused on the real mission of a first
rate education system.
I personally
think this would be a very positive step for our state, and would welcome your
thoughts on the issue. It is time to get out of the rut we find ourselves
in and move in the right direction.
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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