Cross posted at www.wiseass.org
Oregon Speaker of the House Jeff Merkley, who is running to replace Republican Gordon Smith as Oregon's Junior Senator in the United States Senate, unveiled a robust education plan this morning.
More below the fold.
Some of the highlight of his plan are:
- Undoing the drastic cuts in funding to the Department of Education by the Bush admsinitration and ensure such cuts never happen again.
- Calls for full restoration of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act to improve education and honor the deal struck between Oregon’s timber counties and the federal government.
- Change No Child Left Behind so test scores which students are taught to are balanced with other factors, such as a students’ improvement over time, attendance, graduation rates and other standards that states themselves determine.
- Improving and funding the arts in schools so that all children have a well-rounded curriculum, instead of being taught for a test.
- Stresses the need for efforts to reduce class sizes.
- Provide states need the flexibility to adopt practices appropriate to each school district.
Improve teachers salary, and support and resources they deserve, focusing particualry in their first three years in the classroom and in hard-to-staff schools.
- Fully fund Head Start Programs to give young children a fair chance
I.
- Increase the size and number of Pell Grants available to students.
- Calls for a broad-based college tuition tax break for all Americans by providing a deduction of up to $10,000 for college tuition, or a credit of up to $3,000.
- Creating a G.I. Bill for the 21st Century that helps our men and women in uniform returning from Iraq and Afghanistan go to school.
- Tying in making sure children with the health care they need which has an impact on their education.
- Create opportunities for parents to be as involved in their child’s education as they are able.
- Fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
This is the type of change that needs to happen, and the kind of change which Jeff Merkley has shown he can deliver through his leadership in the Oregon Legislature in 2007 where he had success in bringing change with:
- Passage of a a landmark bi-partisan education budget which increased K-12 and higher education funding by 18 percent over 2005-07 levels.
- Increased funding for Oregon's pre-kindergarten/Head Start Program which will allow 75 percent of eligible children to enroll, up from 50 percent at previous funding levels.
- More than doubled the funds available for student financial aid and made financial aid available to part-time students for the first time in Oregon’s history.
- Passed the largest investment in community college and university facilities and repairs in Oregon’s history.
- Added $28 million for university research and development in wave energy, nanoscience, and biotechnology.
By comparison, in the last several years Gordon Smith repeatedly voted against increasing Pell Grant funding while also voting for tax cuts for the wealthy and it took a Democratic controlled Senate and an election year reversal. Yet even as recently as this past session before the holidays, Smith has voted time and again and thereby canceled out Oregon's Senior Senator Ron Wyden's vote to improve education, voting
against increasing Pel Grants for college students,
voted against loan forgiveness for public service employees,
canceled out Senator Wyden's vote to permanently extend numerous several education-related tax incentives...
and on and on it goes.
We know that Oregon can do much better, and with Speaker Jeff Merkley being a strong voice for change in the United States Senate, and not canceling out the votes of Senator Wyden, we will do better and get the needed change in our education system we can no longer ignore.