Students at Wilson High School asked the PAT to contribute an article to a special edition of the school newspaper. The following piece was written in response to this request. It appeared in the December 19th, 2002 issue of Wilson's school paper.
Portland Public Schools has reached a turning point in its history. To save our school district from permanent damage, we must be honest about how we arrived at this point.
The District's financial problems are not new. Ballot Measure 5 has been in effect for a decade, and we all know what it's done to schools. But Portland's current situation is the result of more than the Legislature's failure to provide adequate funding. PPS leaders have responded to Measure 5 .in such a way as to seriously compound the harm it has done. .
For several years, our school board has tried to pretend that Measure 5 would go away. In its budget planning, the board has ignored what political leaders sometimes call the ''First Rule of Holes'': When you're in one, stop digging. Since 1994 the District has had numerous opportunities to develop a long-term plan for dealing with reduced financial circumstances. A responsible approach would have included these measures: do not fill every vacancy created as teachers retire, stop expanding programs, stop adding new positions, and place every certified teacher in a classroom providing direct instruction to students. Unlike their counterparts around the stat6:' however, Portland school board members and superintendents have squandered such opportunities.
Instead, PPS leaders kept digging a deeper hole. They repeatedly sought one-time revenues from a variety of sources; then they spent every penny, imagining that someone would rescue us soon. Predictably, this temporary money disappeared; as it did, the school board found itself in increasingly serious trouble.
Portland Public Schools has reached a turning point in its history. To save our school district from permanent damage, we must be honest about how we arrived at this point.
The District's financial problems are not new. Ballot Measure 5 has been in effect for a decade, and we all know what it's done to schools. But Portland's current situation is the result of more than the Legislature's failure to provide adequate funding. PPS leaders have responded to Measure 5 .in such a way as to seriously compound the harm it has done. .
For several years, our school board has tried to pretend that Measure 5 would go away. In its budget planning, the board has ignored what political leaders sometimes call the ''First Rule of Holes'': When you're in one, stop digging. Since 1994 the District has had numerous opportunities to develop a long-term plan for dealing with reduced financial circumstances. A responsible approach would have included these measures: do not fill every vacancy created as teachers retire, stop expanding programs, stop adding new positions, and place every certified teacher in a classroom providing direct instruction to students. Unlike their counterparts around the stat6:' however, Portland school board members and superintendents have squandered such opportunities.
Instead, PPS leaders kept digging a deeper hole. They repeatedly sought one-time revenues from a variety of sources; then they spent every penny, imagining that someone would rescue us soon. Predictably, this temporary money disappeared; as it did, the school board found itself in increasingly serious trouble.
