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Public Comments - Speeches
Joint Committee on Ways & Means Public Hearing
Oregon State Capitol, Salem OR
April 19, 1999Mdm/Mr Co-Chairmen, Members of the Committee, Concerned Citizens, I feel honored by the opportunity to come and give my testimony before your distinguished body. For the record, my name is Paul Evans and I reside at 744 E. Main Street, Monmouth.
I come here today to talk to you about opportunities lost and the need for all of us, to learn from them. Like many of the folks in this room, I am here in support of the so-called 'new funding model'. However, instead of trying to focus on the numbers, the relative advantages of this new funding model or upon the need for increased flexibility in the changing market, I want to talk to you as an alumni who is worried about where we've been and what we've lost. I attended Western Oregon State College, a place you now know as Western Oregon University. Quite frankly, Western is a very good regional university - it has a specialized mission, a focused clientele and a heritage of helping generations of 'ordinary Oregonians' attain their goals - if it sounds like I am proud of Western, it's because I am. I am one of the ordinary folks from a working/middle class background that was able to have a better life because of the opportunities Western provided. In the fall of 1988 my mother's illness revisited our family and I decided to attend WOSC because of its location, accessibility and relative cost. Some of you know all too well that life-ending diseases are rarely cheap, nor quick - and for me, Western meant the difference between getting to finish a degree and not. At any rate, Western allowed me to begin and then complete a four-year degree without amassing a lot of debt. I worked my way through and am proud of that fact; in my family work was a value. However, my story is the end of a chapter.
For not long after I chose to attend WOSC, the People of Oregon passed Ballot Measure 5 and the landscape was drastically changed - for the worse. The great equalizer, education, became in many ways the whipping post for decades of frustration with 'government'. Courses were cut, tuition skyrocketed, old fees were increased and new ones were crafted. The 'Bottom Line' replaced the 'Finish Line'; people became so enmeshed in the present they forgot about its effects upon the future. Much like a survivor of the Titanic, I got off just before the boat began to sink. Many of us believed that after an initial 'tightening period' the inefficiencies (if there were any of them) would be found and we could go forward, rewarding the good things that education did. As you know, this did not happen.
The truth is that after the first wave, came another - and then still more. What was absent from the debate was the recognition of loss and its impact upon us; yes the institutions lost but more importantly, the People of Oregon - and our posterity, lost. To continue the story, I graduated and then began my professional life.
Five months following graduation, I entered active duty service in the United States Air Force. I spent four years, plus - doing my part to help ensure the security of my community. When I returned home, I saw the illusion of an economy in full swing, a fast growing population and a region of the world known for its quality of life. I could not help but recognize the excitement in the air and share the feeling that Oregon was going places; but then I found out the dirty little truth. That truth is this: the changes being made in education were rapid, short-sided and debilitating. We forgot that the workers of tomorrow are the students of today; we forgot that a highly productive economy was the result of a highly productive and secure workforce. By the time I returned home, students were leaving college indebted to a degree previously unimaginable - quite frankly, debt that was and is obscene. The very people that our increasingly complex economy depends upon were and are being saddled with a five to ten year 'earning/spending cap' because of the debt required just to graduate. I know cops, teachers and business people that are $30,000.00, $50,000.00 and even $60,000.00 in debt - out of the gate, from public institutions. I'm not talking about 'career students' or law school and medical school graduates. I am referring to folks that have a BA or BS that had to go five years instead of four because they had to work their way through - because they couldn't afford to do anything else. I'm talking about the kind of people that 'will find a way' even though sacrifice is mandatory to do it. People that value work, responsibility and personal achievement. I'm talking about students working while going to school and still amassing incredible amounts of debt - because we have priced them out of opportunity. In short, I'm talking about the kind of people we should want to reward in our society - those that will play by the rules, be good neighbors and care about their community. My friends will tell you that I am not a rocket scientist but even I can recognize that this is not a sustainable practice if we intend on our posterity to ever realize an economic liberty that most of us have been blessed with. People cannot win a race when they aren't allowed onto the track.
Public education, K-16 is a continuum of opportunity for those without any other means. It's always important to remember that government doesn't exist for the 'haves' - it exists for the 'could haves'. Government does those things the most can't do for themselves - it should be a tool for people to work their way up. While I am adamantly opposed to guaranteed success; I am absolutely committed to the concept of guaranteed opportunity - and that in a nutshell, is what education is all about. Education should be about providing people an opportunity to build a life for themselves through accessible means of learning. Education should be about investing in our people so that they can in turn produce the most successful, competitive and productive economic environment imaginable - and then do better. When one citizen in our State is denied an opportunity to realize their full potential through education and training than all of us are denied the kind of future we could have. Since the cuts in the early 90s, we lost something important, in fact, irreplaceable: we lost a portion of our future. More and more Oregonians opted out and found another place to go to school and many of them have not, and probably will not, return. Even worse, some Oregonians stayed here but couldn't afford to develop their potential and we collectively lost out on what they could have done, had they been allowed. From a business perspective, we did the unthinkable: we poured capital and operational resources into an investment and then gave some of that investment to our competitors. Some of our kids are in other states making those other states more competitive at our expense. Worse yet, we even forgot about some of our kids and we will never know just how good things could have been because we didn't care. This doesn't have to continue; in fact I am here today, asking you to ensure that it does not. Ladies and Gentlemen, the new funding model is not a perfect structure - no manmade construct can be.
What it is however, is a tool for us to begin the process of recovery. I did not come here today to tell you how to do your business. You are the duly elected, legitimate members of our structure of self-governance. You know the song and you know the stakes.
I came here today to tell you that I am concerned about what we have lost and I don't want to lose any more. What I want you to think about is the value of education and access to it, in our continuously developing economy. Are you willing, are we willing, to allow the last five years of dis-investment shape the next five, and beyond? Is the heritage we have developed of slashing courses, limiting opportunity and channeling our best and brightest out of state, the legacy you want to leave? If now isn't the time to invest in our future, when the economy is good and the outlook is strong - then when will it be time to build an education system that is accountable, responsive and stable? Here's the deal: either the students of Oregon are entitled to be the inheritors of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, or they are not. And if they are, then shouldn't we do everything, everything we can to ensure that they are prepared, educated and ready for the challenges they will face? I think everyone of us wants the same thing but we know our answers bring tough choices. Sometimes the most difficult choice to make is precisely the one that needs to be made the most; opportunity has its costs. As I close my testimony today, I want you to know that while I do not envy your situation, I have faith that you will find the right answers and help make Oregon even stronger than you found it. I believe that each of you will do what you must to give our posterity the chance it deserves.
Thank you for your patience and consideration - God speed.
