6/10/2011: Kimberley Melton of the Oregonian reports the Oregon Education Association has come out against Kitzhaber’s SB909 proposal for a new board Run by Nancy Golden, to replace OUS and coordinate policy K-16. Nigel Jaquiss has a WWeek piece on the fight between Kitzhaber and the union, which is doing everything possible to oppose K-12 reforms. Last I checked, the bill was still alive though. Saul Hubbard of the RG has a piece on UO Day at the legislature, with status on the various higher ed bills:
Another UO priority is Senate Bill 242, which would allow the Oregon University System to no longer be classified as a state agency, thereby freeing public universities from countless state agency regulations and giving them more control over their funds and operations. That bill appears to have more traction in the Legislature and will soon be scheduled for a Senate floor vote.
University lobbyists, backed by many law enforcement agencies, have also been championing Senate Bill 405 this session, to allow public universities to establish their own police forces with comparable powers to any other sworn police department. SB 405 was approved on an 18-11 vote in the Senate in April and is scheduled to be voted on by the House today.
So it looks like Chancellor Pernsteiner wins this round, with his proposal to centralize authority for higher education in the hands of a careerist mid-level manager without a PhD who was appointed by a disgraced child molesting ex-governor without a public search, and then blow the state’s tax money on his own inflated salary, mansion, car, extra housing allowance, and undocumented expense accounts. http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2011/SB242/
UO DPS Director Doug Tripp also seems likely to get his proposal for guns and extra-fat PERS. Why did Michael Redding let Frances Dyke suck up the legislature’s limited UO attention span with this distraction? http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2011/SB405/ The most plausible story I’ve heard is from Art Robinson: President Lariviere wants first-strike capability to take out the Beaver Nation’s clandestine nuclear weapons program.
All in all a pretty disastrous session for education reform in Oregon. But it’s not over yet, maybe Kitzhaber will pull off a hat trick.
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