Cascade CounterPoint

Full Text: This week, ballots for the November election will be mailed to Oregon voters. It’s become clear that no one is happy with the status quo in Oregon, and Portland in particular. Voters are clamoring for change. But, what kind of change?

For people who want to see a change, you can put them into two categories: Yearners and Burners.

Yearners hope for change that will restore Oregon’s status as one of the Most Livable Places in the Country. They hope the candidates and measures they vote for will bring down crime, end homelessness, bring back businesses, improve our schools, and reduce taxes and burdensome regulations.

On the other hand, Burners have lost hope. They’ve witnessed decades of voters electing—over and over again—the politicians who have sent the state into a spiral of crime, drug addiction, homelessness, failing schools, and a downright hostility to business owners trying to make an honest buck. They’ve taken a “let it burn” attitude, believing that the only way for the state to bounce back is when it’s hit rock bottom. They echo the words of the famous curmudgeon, H. L. Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

If you have to choose, be a Yearner, not a Burner. Oregon’s best days may be ahead of us.

Full Text: In just a few weeks, Oregon voters will be getting their ballots in the mail. In addition to voting for a new governor, legislators, and members of Congress, Oregonians will face several ballot measures. There are always a bunch of bad ones, and Measure 113 is one of the worst.

Measure 113 amends the state constitution to punish legislators for 10 or more unexcused absences from floor sessions. Any legislator with 10 or more unexcused absences would be banned from holding office in the next term.

Measure 113 is designed to put an end to the legislative walkouts that have succeeded in stopping odious bills from passing. The majority party gets mad when the minority party stands in the way of ramming through their agenda and Measure 113 is seen as a way to clear the path.

This measure should offend anyone who cares about the exercise of freedom of expression and election integrity. A walkout is one of the clearest forms of expression, and should be protected under the state’s constitution. Perhaps more importantly, many constituents want their legislators to walk out if doing so serves those constituents. The legislators who walked out were serving their constituents effectively and were rewarded by being re-elected. Measure 113 doesn’t just punish legislators, it punishes the voters of their districts.

Full Text: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is accepting public comments on proposed regulations that would ban the sale of new gasoline or diesel-powered cars and light trucks after 2034. The only new cars available would be electric vehicles (EVs).

These regulations were first adopted by the state of California on August 25. Now Kate Brown wants Oregonians to live under them as well.

There are many flaws in the proposed rules. First, the average cost of an EV last year was $66,000. Most people won’t be able to afford one.

Second, EVs need regular charging. The Oregon charging network barely exists, especially for apartment dwellers. This will make EVs inconvenient for most drivers.

Third, the primary reason for the regulation is to reduce “greenhouse gases” in Oregon, but the commercial electricity grid is powered mostly by fossil fuels and will be for decades. Shifting from internal combustion engines to electric motors will simply move vehicle-related emissions from cities to the countryside.

The rules will also prove to be unenforceable. While the government can require manufacturers to offer EVs for sale, it cannot force consumers to buy them. Traditional cars will continue to be available, either as used vehicles sold in Oregon, or new vehicles purchased by Oregonians from another state.

This proposal, which DEQ plans to adopt in December, is now being circulated for public comment. Voters should express their concerns to DEQ by email at the following address: [email protected]. Comments will be accepted until 4:00 p.m. on Friday, October 21.

Full Text: The Heritage Foundation recently released its first Education Freedom Report Card. The report analyzes and ranks each state’s “education freedom” according to factors related to school choice, transparency, regulatory freedom, and spending. The report seeks to assess what states do well, identify where they can improve, and help policymakers achieve real reforms.

Florida takes first place as the state that most “embraces education freedom, respects parents’ rights, and provides a decent [return on investment] for taxpayers.” In second place is Arizona, which just expanded its now-universal Education Scholarship Accounts program.

Where does Oregon rank? 40th overall, 37th in return on investment, and 49th in regulatory freedom.

According to the report, Oregon “spends $15,404 [per student] in cost-of-living-adjusted terms annually,” while coming in 32nd in its fourth-grade and eighth-grade average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. The state employs “0.76 teachers for every non-teacher in its public schools,” and its “unfunded teacher pension liability represents 8.7 percent of its state GDP.”

Oregon would improve its education freedom ranking by expanding education choice for all families, increasing academic transparency, “stopping the growth in non-teaching staff,” “addressing its considerable unfunded teacher pension liabilities,” and improving academic outcomes in the early grades. These goals should be at the top of any Oregon education reform agenda.

Full Text: This summer, Arizona expanded the nation’s first Education Savings Account (ESA) program. Every child in Arizona is now eligible to choose an Empowerment Scholarship Account. Parents who want to opt out of their zoned public schools can choose to receive 90 percent of the state’s per-student base funding (about $7,000 in 2022). They may use their Empowerment Scholarship Accounts for tuition, homeschooling, tutoring, online education, education therapy, or other services.

State-level education funding in Oregon is allocated per child and paid directly to district schools, regardless of poor outcomes or parent dissatisfaction. It’s time Oregon provided parents with a “money-back guarantee” for education. Converting a portion of state-level funding to portable education accounts for students would empower parents to find the best fit for their children to succeed.

Families increasingly believe one-size-fits-all public schools don’t work for all children, and recent polls show an overwhelming majority of voters support school choice. A program like Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts would increase Oregon students’ opportunities, improve outcomes, reduce burdens on struggling districts, and make schools accountable to the parents and students they are meant to serve.

Full Text: The ballot for November’s election is filling up, and a lot of local governments are trying to reach into your pocket for more of your tax dollars. Some of them are real doozies, like Portland Community College’s construction bond measure.

In 2017, PCC voters approved $185 million in new property taxes for construction projects. In that Voters’ Pamphlet, PCC boasted it had 78,000 students.

Five years later, PCC now wants another $485 million of your money. In this year’s Voters’ Pamphlet, PCC reports it has only 50,000 students. In just five years, PCC has lost 28,000 students. It shouldn’t be expanding; it should be shutting down campuses.

PCC says some of the money will be used for “flexible hybrid learning options.” That means more online instruction and less in-class instruction. OPB reports 50% of PCC classes this fall will be a hybrid format.

PCC doesn’t need fancy building remodels if enrollment is down and many of its classes are taught online.

PCC spent more than $6 million from the 2017 taxes to remodel a welding shop at its Rock Creek Campus. The welding shop remodel was completed just last year.

Now, according to The Portland Tribune, PCC wants to use your tax money to tear down and rebuild the entire building. Apparently, that $6 million remodel was a waste of money.

More money for modern buildings won’t save PCC from declining enrollment. It’s got bigger problems, and money management is one of them.

Full Text: Oregon soon will have new statewide leadership. Oregon’s education policies need to catch up with students’ learning needs, and fresh leadership provides opportunities to respond to parents’ demand for more choices in K-12 education.

Here are three ways Oregon leaders can improve education in 2023:

1. Support Oregon’s thriving public charter schools by raising the legislative cap on charter enrollment. Removing the enrollment cap would allow successful charters to meet student demand.

2. Expand district transfer policies so parents can choose among public options. This would create incentives for schools to respond to families’ needs and concerns, and reward public schools that achieve better outcomes.

3. Convert a portion of state-level funding to portable accounts for students to use where they learn best. Education funding is allocated per child and paid directly to district schools, regardless of student outcomes or parent satisfaction. Allowing some of this money to follow the child would empower parents to find the right fit for their students to succeed.

Shifting from top-down mandates to expanding options for families would work miracles for students and promote improvement in Oregon schools. Thirty-two states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have enacted student-centric educational choice programs. Oregon should join them, so families can match their children’s needs and goals with the educational environments that will serve them well.

Full Text: By now you’ve heard of President Biden’s student loan orders. You’ve probably also heard some say they provide life-changing relief, and you’ve heard others say they’re a fiscally reckless assault on personal responsibility.

But, there’s another issue that’s not getting much attention: The orders are bringing massive chaos to the millions of families who have kids in college right now. I should know. My daughter starts next month.

The question that I and other families are facing is: How much should we borrow? Tuition, room, and board at an Oregon public university is about $30,000 a year. Before Biden’s order, the choice was easy: take out a small amount of loans and pay the rest out-of-pocket.

Now, Biden has offered huge incentives to max out on student loans. In addition to canceling up to $20,000 in debt, there are new rules regarding income-based repayment plans. People on these plans won’t have to pay interest on their loans, plus they’ll get the opportunity to have much of their debt wiped out after 10 years of payments.

Here’s where the chaos comes in: Will any of this still be true when my daughter graduates?

Biden’s plan is an executive order. It wasn’t passed by Congress, and there’s a big chance much of it is illegal. Will a court toss it out? Also, because it’s an executive order, the next president can rejigger or reverse it. Will that happen? No one knows.

Bad policies are bad, but they’re made worse when they come with so many question marks. President Biden’s student loan orders are going to bring years of chaos to college students, their families, and the courts.

Full text: If you feel like Oregon politicians are spending more, but you’re getting less, you are not alone and you are not crazy. State spending has spun out of control, and we have little to show for it.

According to the state budget office, spending from the state’s general and lottery funds has doubled since the Great Recession. That’s a huge increase, especially since Oregon’s population has only grown by 11% since then.

The biggest growth has been in the human services budget, driven by Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. On top of that, Governor Kate Brown has successfully pushed to expand the Oregon Health Plan to include people who are “not legally present” in the United States. The feds won’t pay for that expansion, so Oregonians are on the hook for these extra costs.

The area that’s seen the lowest growth: public safety. The most recent budget cut nearly half a billion dollars from public safety. It should come as no surprise that we’ve seen a huge spike in crime over the past few years.

Sure, budgets are boring, but a budget is the best indication of politicians’ policy preferences. It’s clear that our politicians prefer spending more money expanding expensive entitlement programs to a few at the expense of providing public safety for all of us. Keep that in mind when your ballots land in your mailbox this fall.

Full Text: In less than two weeks, Oregon students will be heading back to school. Most parents have hopes for an engaging, educational school year. But unfortunately, some kids get in trouble. Under the Biden Administration, schools could have their discipline policies controlled by the federal government.

Catherine Lhamon is the head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which is the second time she has held this position. Last time she was there, her department observed that certain racial groups seemed more likely to be suspended than others. In response, she opened investigations into hundreds of school districts. The schools were told to get their racial disparity numbers down.

This policy had disastrous effects. For example, as part of its agreement with the federal government, the Minneapolis Public School District set goals for how many students of each race could be suspended.

Portland Public Schools also used race-based goals, setting a goal of reducing the amount of minorities being suspended compared to white students by one-third.

Regardless of racial disparities, quotas are not a good way to run a classroom. Teachers and principals are in the best position to judge how students should be disciplined. A top-down approach from the federal government is inappropriate.

We should let local school districts determine discipline, not the feds.