News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The can-do spirit displayed by Sisters in building four elementary school classrooms without government assistance sets an example for the rest of Oregon.
That was the message Governor John Kitzhaber delivered at a celebration held Wednesday, April 22, at Sisters Elementary school.
Hundreds of area residents turned out to enjoy the festivities honoring those who volunteered time and expertise and contributed materials and cash to the nearly $500,000 project.
Kitzhaber drew a proud cheer from the celebrants when he said that "it would be nice if some of the larger areas in the state would stop whining and follow the example of Sisters."
In an interview earlier in the day, Kitzhaber told The Nugget that education is one of his top priorities as he swings into his re-election campaign.
He said one of the things the state must do immediately is make sure schools have the tools they need to implement Oregon's Education for the 21st Century program. According to Kitzhaber, districts may require more time to refine the way they evaluate students to see that they have reached new, higher performance standards.
Kitzhaber also wants to spark a serious discussion about stabilizing school funding, which has been largely disconnected from local property taxes by Measure 5 and Measure 47/50 rollbacks.
"If this economy coughs," Kitzhaber warned, "the schools are going to get hammered."
Education is one leg of a three-part agenda Kitzhaber intends to pursue in his re-election campaign. He said he hopes to make the election a mandate on education, public safety and growth.
Regarding public safety, Kitzhaber hopes to shift attention and resources toward dealing with juvenile offenders before they become hardened, chronic threats to the community.
He said that authorities know how to identify troubled youths who are likely to end up in the juvenile system, and he believes public safety funds should be used to intervene early.
"The next dollar we spend on public safety should be spent on keeping a kid from walking through a prison door," he said.
Kitzhaber hopes to focus heavily on "how... we maintain our economic growth and preserve the integrity of our community and our environment."
He said he opposes voter-controlled annexation initiatives such as the one passed last year by Sisters voters.
He believes that making annexation tougher, as such measures often attempt to do, either squeezes development out of one area into another, or contributes to growth outside urban areas.
"It increases the cost of extending infrastructure," he said. "It's not compact growth, so it creates sprawl."
He also noted that making annexation a political test instead of a deliberative land-use decision "undermines land-use planning, too, ironically. It sort of unbundles it at the end," he said.
The governor acknowledged that, in balancing economic well being and environmental concerns, "a lot depends on the county commissioners, because they make the exceptions and set the zoning.
"The politics are extraordinarily intense at the local level, and money is a big factor," Kitzhaber said. "It's like being on the local school board - there's no DMZ" between public servants and their constituents.
Kitzhaber said communities "basically... need to decide whether you want to grow up or you want to grow out. It's cheaper to grow up. But you're going to grow," he said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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