EDITORIAL: Indecent Proposals

Through the gloom of this darkened time in U.S. history is the one oft-forgotten source of light that is the guiding force out of the shadows: education.

Most people agree that education is a right. In President Obama’s Feb. 24 address to Congress, he declared the “urgent need to expand the promise of education in America.”
Yet, here in Oregon, the policies currently being discussed in Salem are sliding in opposite direction.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski has proposed cutting a week out of the school year for K-12 students, and has also asked teachers to work for free on some of the days remaining.
While it was noble that the governor stated he would take a salary cut as well, it by no means makes what he is proposing acceptable.

Slashing the school year by one week is a hastened solution to a problem that inherently lies with an already underdeveloped school program. Cutting a week at the end won’t make up for the losses already in place, and it will only further the growing gap of the quality and quantity between Oregon’s students and the rest of the developed world.

President Obama stated, “In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity—it is a pre-requisite.”

Why are our legislators not providing the tools necessary for the next generation to fix the problems we face today?

Comprehensive education is an essential tool, one that doesn’t falter in the wake of economic strife.

Asking teachers to work for free, for the sake of all and in the name of altruism, is an undue burden on what should be one of our most valued institutions. This includes the people that make them invaluable: our educators.

For the most part, teachers are already underpaid and overworked. The proposed policy of working for free is basically kicking them while they are down. The attempt by Oregon lawmakers to improve the system only wounds an already demoralized population.

Oregon politicians are sending a very scary signal to future educators. If we, as a nation, understand the importance of education, then it is logical to conclude that education hinges upon the next generation’s willingness to take the reigns and lead the country to success. That can only be achieved with a new and increased crop of teachers.

Yet, who will be eager to join the ranks of educators, if they are not guaranteed some sort of economic stability?

When communities, schools and families are in desperate need for more money, taking it out of teachers’ pockets, and subsequently, out of their family’s and their community’s pockets is a backward move in trying to stabilize a system that has more financial problems than cutting teachers’ salaries can solve.

Like trying to stop a sinking ship with a cracked plug, Gov. Kulongoski’s recommendations are inadequate, discriminatory and detrimental to the overall goal of increased education.

In President Obama’s speech he affirmed, “It is our responsibility as lawmakers and educators to make this system work.”

Perhaps his words fell on deaf ears in Salem, but they were not lost on the rest of us, and we, as the next generation, should be asking our politicians for better options than the ones Gov. Kulongoski is offering.