6/26/2011: The Oregon Daily Emerald editors shred President Lariviere’s proposal to give Jefferson HS students free tuition:
Though we appreciate the effort and applaud the attempt to aid in Oregon’s ailing public education system, there are significant problems with the proposal and certain planks of it make for a sad public relations move. …
If the problem is with first-generation students succeeding, a scholarship could be offered to first-generation students. If it’s with engaging low-income areas, work could be done with the other universities in the state to promote similar programs in those areas.
But avoid blowing smoke around assisting students at one school as solving the first-generation student crisis in Oregon.
The PR problems associated with the football team have offered a valuable lesson: sometimes, it’s best to just tell the truth.
I’d given this proposal a quick look, but the ODE editors dissected it and rejected it. This is a serious editorial. What are the chances the questions it raises will get a serious response from outgoing Diversity VP Martinez, incoming one Robin Holmes, or President Lariviere?
The editors’ argument is correct, but their assertion that Madras and other failing schools around the state are otherwise like Jefferson is ignorant. How many Madras kids have been killed or wounded by gang violence in the last 25 years? How many schools outside of Portland are still dealing with a legacy of redlining and segregation? How many schools outside of the Metro area have any students who speak a language other than English or Spanish at home?
Every district, and every school, faces unique challenges. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with targeted scholarship programs designed to address those challenges. The problem is that the folks who put this one together were only interested in the initial headlines.
The editorial’s central claim, however, is incorrect: this proposal was a great PR move, and the press will pay very little attention to what happens next. If the Oregonian revisits the program in a few years and reports that it was a failure, only wonks and racist OregonLive commenters will notice.
Unrelated, apparently Frohnmayer has been making bad handshake deals for almost his entire career at the UO. The exposé can be seen over at the A.V. Club. Watch the whole thing to hear Frohnmayer say “a handshake agreement used to mean something…”
http://www.avclub.com/articles/eugene-the-cafeteria-from-animal-house,57334/
The previous comment shows everything that is wrong with the supporters of this program.
Especially the completely gratuitous remark at the end about “racists.” If there is racism at work, the shoe is on the other foot. We are used to this kind of dirty shit, but more and more it doesn’t affect us. By “us” I mean the vast majority, even inside academia, who don’t order their lives or careers around a sense of racial grievance.
“but their assertion that Madras and other failing schools around the state are like Jefferson is ignorant.” Actually Zach, you are the one who is ignorant in this situation. A third of Madras students come from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and another third are Latino students who are usually from low income households. These students face similar struggles with poverty and gang violence that their urban counterparts in Northeast Portland and Gresham face. If anything, these struggles are more difficult due to their rural communities not having the same access to resources that Portland provides.
The last anonymous gets it, Zach does not.
I’d just add that blacks, American Indians, and Latinos are not the only Oregonians who come from deprived backgrounds. There are plenty of whites who grew up in broken families, in families where one or both parents were meth heads, in families where the father was unemployable due to the collapse of the rural economy (which a lot of Oregonians, rightly or not, blame on the types who inhabit the U of O). I can tell you places within 20 mi. of Eugene (or less) where there are rural whites who probably don’t have running water. And I’ve even taught students with some of the above characteristics.
If the U of O wants to become partly a social welfare agency, maybe that is OK, but it should really be careful how it goes about it. And I don’t think that the stunt with Jefferson in Portland is the way to go. If somebody wants to call me a racist for thinking this way, that is their privilege, and their problem.
I’m sorry, but Madras is not like Jefferson. As I stated in my original comment:
“Every district, and every school, faces unique challenges. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with targeted scholarship programs designed to address those challenges.”
How does that imply that Jefferson’s problems are the worst in the state? In fact, Madras’s unique challenges are a great illustration of why the editorial’s claim that all “failing” schools are the same is incorrect.
The second anonymous commenter seems to have misunderstood what I was referring to when I mentioned “racist OregonLive commenters.” I’m talking about folks who, some time down the line, would attribute any failure of this proposal to the (presumed) race of its beneficiaries.
Meaning that the media won’t pay much attention to this program down the line, and that, outside of the educational system, very few people (and inconsequential people at that) will notice.
I’m curious as to why none of the other commenters here are willing to identify themselves….
Zach Spier
JD Candidate, 2012
University of Oregon School of Law