Op Ed: Educational Funding Deeply Researched; Foundations Lead The Way

(SALEM) - You’ll recall from schooldays that the chalkboard was chosen when the teacher had to “really lay-it-on” for complete understandings of any complexity.

It’s happening again right in our media classroom with The CHALKBOARD PROJECT, a report on rational, reasonable well-documented realities about our Oregon educational system.

With more than 100 pages of professionally-revealing data and information Internet-accessed, CHALKBOARD proves itself deeply researched and rationally impossible to ignore. (See at www.chalkboardproject.org)

Its entire fund of Oregon-built background accumulated in three years of probing work with Oregon groups, documented and analyzed with recognized-authoritative professional help, “tells it like it really is” for many Oregonians including educational leaders.

Its five foundations lead the way out of massive educational-funding misalignment, manufactured over the past twenty years of “campaign contributions”, with solid work even the lackadaisical Legislature must now take into solid account.

Thursday’s editions (8/10/06) of both The OREGONIAN and The STATESMAN JOURNAL carry some slight “good news” about progress in fundamentals among Oregon schools.

Recent news that independent candidate Westlund had quit the campaign only emphasizes the inevitable confrontation, now, of Saxton-silence vs Governor K’s open stance on major issues including primarily corporate tax reform and educational funding.

No longer can corporate counselor Saxton stay mute whenever mention is made of corporate contributions to Oregon budget chaos, but he must propose a plan full of detail and declaring war on unwise and lavish lobbying to retain that terrible tax-shift.

Which makes one wonder: “Where’s corporate concern and concentrated effort supplying cooperative tax-reforming results, paralleling this CHALKBOARD process?”

This rational, professional process closely parallels the one-on-one impact gained when a dedicated instructor stands right out there in front of everyone; to make the many-written-words of most complex explanations truly meaningful; with memory-prompting detail firmly added so you can “see with own eyes”.

That’s “the art of teaching” --the real reason most teachers chose classroom-encounter: For satisfactions of what happens with learners.

Nothing is more powerful than precise personal explanation for unavoidably complex circumstance; which surely reflects for most Oregonians “where we really are” in this most demanding and decisive of State programs.

It is complexity which prevents so many from understanding necessities never negligible to guide young minds in developments demanded for maturity.

Complexity shapes and controls precise, proven educational procedures and potentials, managed meaningfully as demanded by cost-effective considerations at all levels.

Unless you are participating personally to provide “what it takes to do that job”, there’s no way in the world to perfect those understandings demanded --except by just such a project as CHALKBOARD

That’s what The CHALKBOARD PROJECT clearly provides here. They move aside massive misunderstandings, build on common concerns, consolidating a range of experiences --making their materials plainly potent right when needed. Class-size reduction, teacher preparation --and essential support-- from administration. all demanding money, are essentials unavoidably essentials stressed both in Thursday’s news reports and by CHALKBOARD, with its full documentation.

CHALKBOARD provides demanded-now correction right “on the public record” for wildly-distorted, propaganda-perverted pronouncements from political-gain procurers.

Those provocateurs seek NOT progress and further power for Oregon’s educational system; but continuation of massive corporate tax-payment shift to individual Oregonians.

Make no bones about it -- the major issue in this campaign is corporate tax reform. Without it there’s NO dollar-hope left to alleviate ”slight corrections”, “small”-then-crushing cuts, “silent”-slashes, and huge give-backs creating unconscionable budget-chaos, felt across-the-board in every part of the State budget.

Major past manipulations are wreaking damage-delivered by corporate “campaign contributions” empowering further division, divergence and more depredations.

That political-cult ping-pong proceeded for decades while perpetrators stole away our attention by charges of educational-system irregularities, ineffective decisions, and incompetent ineptitudes.

“Run things like a business !!” they proclaimed; but never with prosecutable details a la Enron: Corporate business practice itself suddenly suffered fully-revealing enlightenment.

With direct connection to Oregon, please note: We still await refunds for taxes-paid but never passed to the proper agencies. Our PUC fights deficiencies for any rational resolution of inequities via proven principles and new-law provisions.

Similar devastating situations and charges involving ongoing legislative procedures followed, surely indicating political-cult attitudes and other disturbing symptoms behind devastating damages to statewide program-choices, shaping biennial budgeting.

“Degraded-education” is part of the pattern from Norquist et Cie and other national cabal-members attacking normal governance--it is inevitably the largest budget-target in every state.

That fact makes clear why “campaign contributions” create “situations” --now being termed “transactional lobbying” !!-- from which arises deliberate degradation of Oregon’s education.

It is simple and only-sensible to understand realities which surround the Saxton candidacy; and surely also explain continued corporate silence on both “education” and “corporate tax remediation”: Better left to those lavish lobby operations”, it would seem.

Nothing even remotely like CHALKBOARD is under way by corporate consortium members -- open to the public eye via independent reporting-- for any comparable media-message

Wonder why those impressively-paid CEOs are patently very silent about inevitable impact of Court decision on that billion-dollar suit, threatening still further budget-chaos in Salem ?

“Constitutional deprivation” of educational rights MUST have had some causes other than only simple circumstance --and Courts pursue just such facts in facing up to commonwealth decision based on legal responsibilities.