Students join local campaign

With a $548 million bond measure on the line, the Portlanders for Schools campaign has recently reached out to students at Portland State to recruit advocates.

On May 17, Portland voters will decide on a half-billion dollar bond measure intended to upgrade and refit the Portland Public Schools (PPS) system. The bond comes at a time when Oregon is demonstrating an inclination to disinvest in education, though that hasn’t stopped activism here at PSU.

According to Student Leadership and Outreach Programs Adviser Amanda Newberg, Portlanders for Schools contacted her with an interest in disseminating information about the campaign to student groups.

“Not only is this an amazing opportunity to get hands-on political organizing experience, but interns can simultaneously receive political science credit as well,” Newberg said.

Though the campaign has only recently appealed to PSU students, several have already volunteered and are currently employed as interns. According to Portlanders for Schools representative Ben Unger, the campaign has enlisted the aid of four student interns, as well as a handful of volunteers.

Nate Brauer-Rieke, a PSU senior studying political science, is among the interns working with Portlanders for Schools. Though Brauer-Rieke is enjoying the benefits of receiving credit for his work, the issue is equally personal.

“I came from a small town in eastern Oregon…and our school building was constructed in the early 1900s,” he said. “Several bonds to rebuild the school were struck down.”

According to Brauer-Rieke, many students reportedly became sick from the pigeon feces that collected in the school’s attic.

“This is something I’ve seen firsthand and lived through,” he said. “These kids need a decent place to go to school.”

This, he admitted, was his inspiration for working with Portlanders for Schools. Currently, his duties are mainly focused on student outreach while he attempts to recruit others to aid in the campaign.

Along with campus outreach, interns are expected to assist with phone banks and data entry.

Alex Cator, another political science major, is also actively working on the campaign, though she has a decidedly different set of duties than Brauer-Rieke.

Much like her fellow intern, Cator is responsible for gathering support, though her focus is on outreach to parents at individual schools rather than assembling potential interns.

“One of the things I’ve been focusing on is making sure parents of incoming kindergarten students are attending roundups,” she said. “These are people who are going to be affected by this in the long run, these are people who are going to vote on this measure.”

Unlike Brauer-Rieke, Cator said she elected to undertake the internship without the credit option because the experience is rewarding enough in itself.

“Once I graduate, this is essentially what I want to be doing,” Cator said. “There’s no real class that can teach you how to do this; it’s just something you have to be involved in.”

The intent of the proposed bond, officially known as ballot measure 26-121, would be to refit and replace outdated and damaged schools around the Portland area. Overall, 85 schools would receive some form of modernization or repair.

However, the majority of the bond would be applied to a handful of schools that are categorized in a state of serious disrepair. Of specific interest for revamp are boilers in several schools that have been labeled as a serious fire concern.

Also, according to the PPS website, the bond will update nine schools that currently fail to meet modern seismic code.

A $19 million levy option is also on the ballot, which if passed, would preserve over 200 teaching jobs from budget cuts this fiscal year.

PPS is facing a $1.1 billion budget deficit for 2011–13. The de-funding of Oregon’s public education has been an increasing trend in the past 15 years. ?