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Stand for Children in Oregon
July 01, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 06:14 AM
More from Oregon, where the Democratic governor has just rammed through more than a dozen substantive education bills over the not-yet-quite-dead bodies of their teachers' union opponents. The passage of these bills is significant for two reasons - first, of course, because they figure to improve public education, but also because they demonstrate that the teachers' unions are no longer invincible.
The article is also interesting because it highlights the important support of a grassroots group called Stand for Children, saying that the group used to mostly advocate for more funding for public schools but now have evolved into a real force for change. You never know, maybe Ontario's People for Education will follow the same path!
I’ve commented before that I’m originally from Oregon and did not follow through on my dreams of becoming a teacher there thanks to the OEA. Also, being a life-long Republican, I am gob-smacked that Kitzhaber not only pulled this off, but didn’t oppose it in the first place.
Having just received a significant stab in the back from our own public school board and how they are (not) finishing the retrofit of our now one and only school, I needed this good news.