Essential education

The economic crisis is hitting hard, especially in Oregon. Due to the current financial woes, lawmakers and economists in the state capital are planning on cutting an average of five school days from this year’s calendar.

This seems unfortunate considering that the Oregon public school year is already one of the shortest in the nation.

Five days may not seem like a lot to some, but if the economic situation gets worse before it gets better, as reports indicate it will, and Gov. Ted Kulongoski insists on leaving the rainy day funds untouched, we could be looking at taking off another week or more in the years to come.

A few days every year adds up to a pretty significant chunk of time and each day is important. This writer missed a week of third grade due to a bad flu and still has trouble with fractions.

Oregon is one of the only states to consider shortening the school year to meet budget shortfalls. Education is not simply a state service to be cut and budgeted like any other—it is, quite literally, our future. Treating it as one would road construction is sacrificing that future.

The other problem with this proposed cut is that it would come in the middle of the current school year. This means that the days that would be lost at the end of the school year were not planned for. Instead of planning for a shorter year and making a lesson plan appropriate for that time, the existing lesson plans for a longer year will have to be cut down.

So now the question becomes, what can we do without? Greek history? Lord of the Flies? I cannot imagine having to make the decision about what our future lawyers, writers and accountants will not learn.

I took a look online to find the schedule for the final week of a third-grade class—the week that could potentially be cut from Oregon schools. This week includes long division, writing with similes and metaphors, a lecture on the U.S. farming industry and reading comprehension. Cutting any of these things would be harmful to the overall education of a third grader.

Even with this in mind, Kulongoski thought it would be a good idea to cut 3 percent from the education budget, as opposed to 2.4 percent cut that the rest of the state’s general fund is getting. Not only is the education budget being slashed, it is being cut more than anything else.

This simply does not make sense. It is not appropriate to treat education as just another thing to cut. This could affect our economy and the quality of Oregon’s minds for years to come and, as I said, this could be just the beginning.

Kulongoski is calling on Oregon’s teachers to mitigate these lost days by teaching a few days for free. Some are less than happy about this prospect. The idea of working for free is not one that appeals to many. This is a clear-cut situation of sacrifice for the greater good. It would be selfish to argue over the pay of one school week, which if these cuts do indeed happen will not be paid days anyway, when Oregon’s future is on the line.

It would be a shame if Oregon schools became a laughing stock to the rest of the country—some say they already are. Education should be a priority, right up there with health care. For the governor to treat education as if it were unimportant is just downright shameful. We can do better.