State senator Gary George (R - Newberg) and state representative Terry Thompson (D - Newport), have expressed greatly differing opinions about the character of the legislative session just ended. Mr. Thompson has called it rancorous and partisan; George has talked about the integrity and cordiality he observed (News-Times, 8/20/99).
The Oregonian and various commentators have had much to say also, but consider these words from long ago, written by H.L. Mencken:
"Let this be said for the Legislature just hauled to the dump: It might have been worse. And that, perhaps, is the highest praise that can ever be given to a General Assembly of Maryland. It is also the highest praise that can ever be given to a dead cat." (Disturber of the Peace: The Life of H.L.Mencken, Wm. Manchester, 1950, p.60)
Bear in mind that the particular Maryland legislative session (circa 1911) referred to by Mencken was being hailed bipartisanly as a success - a considerably more favorable review than that being given to the 1999 Oregon Legislature. One can hardly imagine Mencken's response to the Salem debacle that recently disappointed voters who thought they were going to get better schools.
Nevertheless, bad as it was the Oregon legislative session could have been worse. Things have not changed all that much in the 75 years since Mencken's heyday and, given the domination of right wingers and Christian fundamentalists in the '99 legislature, Salem could well have produced its own version of the decision taken a few weeks ago by Kansas lawmakers to discourage the teaching of evolution in the public schools. In 1925 the State Legislature of Tennessee went even further and outright banned the teaching of evolution -- which led to the famous "Scopes Monkey-trial." In his rough obituary for the victorious prosecutor, William Jennings Bryan - who died in the midst of celebrating a week after the conviction of Scopes - Mencken wrote:
"Heave an egg out of a Pullman window, and you will hit a Fundamentalist almost anywhere in the United States today. They swarm in the country towns, inflamed by their pastors, and with a saint [Bryan], now, to venerate. They are thick in the mean streets behind the gasworks. They are everywhere that learning is too heavy a burden for mortal minds, even the vague, pathetic learning on tap in little red schoolhouses" (Disturber of the Peace, Wm. Manchester, 1950, p.184).
Since the passage of Ballot Measure 5 in 1989, Oregon is again one of those states where the legislature has become the super school board for the whole state - undercutting local control of schools and imposing politically-based statewide "assessment" standards and unfunded mandates. In spite of the Oregon Schools for the 21st Century Reform Law, which requires local site councils to take responsibility for school improvement and curriculum, schools are facing top-down management from Salem in a one-size-fits-all imitation of the assembly-line models favored by the market-place.
One of the pitiful few accomplishments of the 1999 Oregon session was the passage of a charter schools bill, which goes to the opposite extreme, even reducing accountbility for the use of public funds. The charter law bypasses many of the regulations which restrain traditional schools - including a provision that allows up to half of the teachers in a charter school to be unlicensed. Standardized testing will likely be the only means for a sponsoring school board to try to determine whether charter school students in their district are receiving an education at least equal to that available in the traditional schools.
Ballyhooed as a significant contribution to parental choice in educational alternatives, the new law has produced few early changes Charter-school trailblazers plow ahead (The Oregonian, 8/30/99). Regular schools, meanwhile, are back in session with larger classes, older books, and fewer resources - counselors, librarians, music, and art teachers, vice principals, etc..
For some charter supporters, including David Reinhard of The Oregonian, the issue of charter schools has been merely a vehicle to express their philosophy that public education is a "failed experiment in socialism." Under most circumstances the conservative bean counters would have opposed this vague charter proposal, which appears designed to allow "newbe" and "wannabe" educators to "experiment and innovate" with public funds during a period of education-budget shortages. But, the Republican majority once again compromised their principles and backed charters simply because they saw an opportunity to take a slap at the teachers' union.
Many hard questions about accountability for education quality remain unresolved, both in charter and in traditional schools. One important example is whether charter students will be required to study core science subjects, such as biology, and whether evolution and "secular" geology will be required as a part of those science courses.