This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE 8/23/05

There is one commendable thing about the Legislative impasse in Salem.
Currently it seems that Legislators are being given three day vacations while the top leaders in both houses try to hammer out some kind of a compromise on things like school funding, funds for the transportation system and a few other important projects.
The one bright spot is that when questioned about the three day recesses, the leadership commented that there really weren’t very many bills still awaiting consideration.
I’ve always been a contender that at the state or even the federal level....for each new bill that is passed they must have to take another bill off the table.
However in the current case in Salem they’ve passed a number of what I called trivial bills.....and thus far have been unable to come to any agreement on funding for education.
We note that Governor Kulongoski has been traveling around the state promoting his plan to dedicate 61 percent of virtually all state revenues to education from the kindergarten to the colleges.
He was asked whether or not the rest of the state departments could survive on the 39 per cent balance....but that didn’t get a reasonable answer.
Also his plan would call for a ten percent increase every two years....and hopefully if things went well some funds could be set aside for that rainy day period.
All of that sounds good, but the big question is....is it a realistic approach.
While teacher pensions and health benefits have been pointed out as the biggest problem in education funding....there are some actions underway that may aid that problem.....sometime in the future.
PERS retirement programs are being re evaluated and new teachers will be facing a lesser retirement program than before, but the effects of that won’t be felt for a number of years.
On the question of health benefits.....suggestions include a
unified system statewide that could bring lower health care costs.
That would be a step in the right direction.
But the fact does remain that in recent years....class sizes have gotten larger, and school days have gotten shorter.
These things should not have come as a surprise. When the teaching profession unionized many years ago......one knew that demands would eventually exceed revenues...and that has happened.
Some rational and realistic thinking must be found that would adequately fund our schools. There must be give and take from the union requirements on such things as health benefits and retirement as well as from the funding sources. We’re not blaming the unions or the teachers....they feel fully justified, but when it comes to living from the public trough....there are times when the money is just not there.
We need good teachers......with secure but reasonable salaries and benefits. We don’t need a lot of finger pointing and threats of dire predictions for the future......but we do need action now....especially at the state level.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.