The Oregon Education Investment Board hosted a community outreach event at Lane Community College that focused on questions regarding Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s@@http://www.johnkitzhaber.com/@@ new statewide education plan Thursday night.
The meeting was one of seven that the Board is holding across the state this month in order to spread awareness about current proposals and also to get feedback from local community members on current problems and future programs.
The Oregon Education Investment Board@@http://www.oregon.gov/Gov/OEIB/OregonEducationInvestmentBoard.shtml@@ is proposing a new system of organization for Oregon education that the board calls the 40/40/20 goal.@@http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/11/gov_john_kitzhaber_oregon_educ.html@@
Specifically, the 40/40/20 goal refers to trying to get all Oregonians to earn high school degrees, with 40 percent going on to earn an associate’s degree or its equivalent and with 40 percent earning at least a bachelor’s degree.
“What’s working is not enough. One-third of high school graduates are not graduating on time … Today’s young adults aren’t likely to be as educated as their parents,” said Tim Nesbitt, the project manager of the Oregon Education Investment Board, a Kitzhaber-appointed advisory board.@@http://www.eastoregonian.com/free/kitzhaber-pushes-compacts-to-focus-schools-on-results/article_4ddbcbda-4788-11e1-8289-001871e3ce6c.html@@
“The governor says that education is underfunded at all levels. But we want to learn what’s working so that we can bring up all schools to the same level of success.”
Nesbitt explained that a main objective of the 40/40/20 plan is to create a series of regulations to replace No Child Left Behind’s standards. @@http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml@@While the details are still being drafted, the state hopes that the federal government will agree with the new standards and exempt Oregon from federal policy.
Nesbitt outlined the three major focuses of the proposed 2012 legislation.
First, the legislation plans to align early childhood services. Second, the legislation will coordinate the education from preschool through college and career schools. Third, that the legislation will establish partnerships between all levels of Oregon publication through achievement compacts.
“We are very concerned that if we do not get the waiver from the government — not only will schools be unfairly labeled, but we will lose funding,” Nesbitt said.
Sonya Christian@@http://www.oregonbusinessplan.org/About-the-Plan/Summits-and-Meetings.aspx@@, an education official present at the event, explained part of the challenge that the Oregon higher education system faces.
“(There are) huge variances in those attending throughout the education system — of these are returning vets, Ph.D. students, community college students and more,” she said.
According to Christian, there are currently 97,000 students in the OUS system.@@http://www.ous.edu/news_and_information/news/111110.php@@
During the discussion that ensued, audience members raised questions, including that the plan has no mention of increasing funding for schools, and that the way the plan could measure success of institutions might only be a state-run version of the No Child Left Behind Act.