Bruunschools

J. Graber

Most of Oregon’s 561,698 K-12 students returned to school Sept. 7th. Not all, but most.

“I know of about 6,000 kids in Oregon city schools who don’t get that first day because it’s been cut from the budget,” school funding advocate Liz Kaufman said at a recent press conference to illustrate how gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley’s tax dodges as a Portland Trailblazer has affected our schools.

But Duds isn’t the only Republican candidate running this fall who seems to be comfortable with the cuts to Oregon’s K-12 school budget, which climbed to $243 million this year. State Representative Scott Bruun, who is running against incumbent Kurt Schrader for the 5th Congressional district appears to be fine with them too.

Scotty went on KGW’s Straight Talk month opposing emergency funding to halt cuts in education and Medicare spending by asking multi-national corporations to be responsible citizens and pony up their share of the tax load. “It is paid for by permanent tax increases, and so where, here’s a, here’s a temporary, once again bailout for the states, that’s paid for by permanent tax increases,” he said.

First of all, that doesn’t even make sense. Is it temporary or permanent? You were aware you were being recorded weren’t you, Scotty?

Second of all, PRIVATE CORPORATIONS ALREADY GOT THEIR BAILOUT! Remember that little $10 billion check we citizens cut to them (which, by the way, Schrader voted against)?

If it is OK to bail out the private sector, isn’t it reasonable to ask for a little return on the investment? I mean, it’s not like we’re asking for gold faucets in public washrooms here. We’re talking about providing for people’s basic needs, like education and healthcare.

No, it appears Scotty would rather increase class sizes, cut school days and ask teachers to pay for their students’ books themselves, than close a couple of tax loopholes for his corporate buddies on Wall Street. Think I’m exaggerating?

“As an English teacher I can tell you the nice thing about the Hillsboro School District is that there are four high schools and they each have bookrooms, but if there aren’t enough paperbacks, frequently I and other English teachers go down to Powells’ and buy them ourselves so these kids can have their own books,” Liberty High School teacher Janet Van Wess said during the same press conference.

It doesn’t stop there either. Scotty also opposes extending unemployment benefits while Oregon’s unemployment rate remains well above the national average at 10.4 percent because he feels “we’re encouraging people to stay out of the workplace longer.”

So Scotty is asking students to go back to school and study their three Rs; reading, writing and a strange kind of arithmetic that only seems to work right of the aisle where subtracting school days and books, and adding to class sizes equals an adequate education for our kids.

All I can say is, it better because if they’re not prepared for the work place, they won’t be able to count on much help from their government if Scotty gets his way.

By J. Graber Sept. 27, 2010