Oregonian Friends

It is coming down to some key decisions to be made on State Bill 767. It goes on the Senate floor this Thursday.

If you are from Oregon, here is the latest email we have:

The Senate vote on SB767 has been held over until Thursday. We have an extra day to contact the following senators!

Happy Valley families, please email Sen Monroe and ask him to vote no on SB767:

Senator Rod Monroe
Party: D District: 24
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1724
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-409, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.rodmonroe@ state.or. us
Website: http://www.leg. state.or. us/monroe

Other key senators:

Senator Betsy Johnson
Party: D
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1716
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-215, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.betsyjohnson@ state.or. us
Website: http://www.leg. state.or. us/johnson
District 16 map: http://www.leg. state.or. us/johnson/ s16.jpg

Senator Rick Metsger
Party: D
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1726
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-315, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.rickmetsger@ state.or. us
Website: http://www.leg. state.or. us/metsger
District 26 map: http://www.leg. state.or. us/metsger/ s26.jpg

Senator Bill Morrisette
Party: D
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1706
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-207, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.billmorrisette@ state.or. us
Website: http://www.leg. state.or. us/morrisette
District 6 map: http://www.leg. state.or. us/morrisette/ s06.jpg

Senator Joanne Verger
Party: D
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1705
Interim Phone: 541-756-4140
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-401, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: 3696 Broadway PMB 344, North Bend, OR, 97459
Email: sen.joanneverger@ state.or. us
Website: http://www.leg. state.or. us/verger
District 5 map: http://www.leg. state.or. us/verger/ s05.jpg

Senator Vicki L Walker
Party: D
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1707
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-309, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.vickiwalker@ state.or. us
Website: http://www.leg. state.or. us/walker
District 7 map: http://www.leg. state.or. us/walker/ s07.jpg

An interesting twist has occurred in all of this in recent weeks. Stimulus money from the feds. The Department of Education on the federal level has made it crystal clear it will not give stimulus money to state's who 1) Limit charter schools, specifically in enrollment 2) States that put moratoriums on charter schools. Guess what Oregon has done specifically with State Bill 767 and the "50/50" enrollment rule (at least 50% of students must be from a charter's district)? Oregon has done exactly what the feds has said would not give them meeeelllions of stimulus tax dollars. And that bodes well for us in terms of having a trump card. Why would Oregon want to say no to that kind of funding? So union fat cats can get their union money from regular schools who have union contracts.

I am asking any of you who would like to help in speaking out to any of these people to simply email them today. I put together a letter, and sent it to each senator. I didn't recreate it each time, and I know that seems silly, but I have reconstituted my position on this issue so many times, I am not going to do it for them.

Here is my letter if you want to cut/paste/edit:

Dear Senator:

I am an Oregon Connections Academy (ORCA) parent, and I understand you will be presiding over this bill on the Senator floor very soon. I also understand that you would cross party lines if you were to vote against SB 767, and for that I would be most appreciative. I would like to give you my plea about ORCA as well as the other virtual schools in Oregon who will be effected if SB 767 is passed.

1. I live in a district in Portland where I do have school choices around me, unlike other ORCA families who will tell you about their hardship living in rural areas. However, in terms of school choice, the results are almost the same. The elementary school we would have is, from what I can discern, a reconstituted middle school that is now a K-8 school. Before that happened this last year, it was a middle school that was failing in basic test scoring for basic academics. The high school we have for our kids is “red listed” (does not meet basic academic criteria and are at risk of closure, although no red listed school in Oregon has ever been closed down although it is mandated). So while we do have the choice of filing for a waiver and would probably get one, the other choices around us are not much better. They are on the verge of being “red listed”. Those are my public school choices in my area. I don't like them at all. My husband and I both want good education for our kids, and we recognize we only have one chance to do that. We want our kids to be able to graduate from high school and be able to get a job and engage in that job or to go to college and be able to join that level of academia and engage academically. Not struggle. The choices that Portland Public Schools offers me for that kind of learning is not there at all

2. When we found ORCA, we thought we had found the mother lode. We just completed our first year of second grade with our oldest child and he finished on the honor roll with a final over all grade of 94%. A year ago, he had finished first grade at a private school with no math skills. He hit a wall in math and we were concerned for all kinds of reasons. He began second grade behind in math. We realized his teacher was using a very “outside the norm” new curriculum that he didn't understand, and we couldn't see because no math work came home. As we have worked through ORCA's math this year, as his parent, it was great to take that extra time to work on math, help him gain those basics he had missed, work with his teacher to help him get the basics, gain his confidence that he can do math, and finish with a 90% at the end of this school year. I have yet to find this kind of help with public schools. Unless he is a special needs child or completely failing miserably, his kind of struggling would have been lost in the crowd. As his parent, I have that extra interest in helping him that gets lost in a class size of 30+ students. I am so glad he and I got to work together this year to help him. I can say with much confidence if he had gone to a regular public school, I would have seen him continue to struggle in math, and would not have known how bad the consequences were until getting his grades at the end of the semester.

3. ORCA and ORVA have the “now” factor in place. They are in place right now doing a great job educating kids. They have shown, under much scrutiny, that this kind of education has a level of excellence unmatched by any regular public school classroom for a fraction of the tax dollar price. I know that legislator's and Oregon Department of Education (ODE) members want to rethink this whole thing, and redo online learning to be a statewide system, etc. In talking to a sponsor of this bill, Michael Dembrow, he acknowledged that sort of reworking of the system would take eight to ten years. Senator, in eight to ten years, I will have a high school graduate who needs to be able to walk into the job market or college environment and be able to engage in those environments.That is not an acceptable answer to me, and I let Mr. Dembrow know that. Why has this state approved charter schools and has done nothing since except made it hard for them to exist historically? Why?
   

4. That begs the question of common sense. Why in the world would the state of Oregon want to get rid of a public school education choice that is excelling academically and for a fraction of the cost.

5. And the cost could be higher. News from the federal government is very clear. States that push moratoriums on charter schools, states that do not embrace charter schools, and states that accept the status quo in educational mediocrity will not be given stimulus funding for schools that could mean millions for Oregon's schools. That is precisely what SB 767 does. It puts a moratorium on ORCA and ORVA. The 50/50 law that severely limits student enrollment in these schools, and SB 767 enforces, will limit online charter schools so much it will limit them right out of existence. Oregon will be passed over for much needed public school funding because this state and the sponsors of SB 767 seem to think charter schools and online charter schools need to be overregulated.

6. In speaking to one of the sponsors of this bill, Michael Dembrow who is my representative, he made it clear that he believes that online learning is not a viable form of education. How come he gets to sponsor a bill that imposes that view on an entire state of students? He may have that view, but why does he get to make that choice for me and my family? I also pointed out to him that the ODE hires teacher's who have an online accredited degree, so why does the ODE recognize an online teacher's degree but he won't accept that my child can learn online. He didn't have an answer for me. He did acknowledge that is an inconsistent view.
   

7. Please take a moment to seek the truth of what this bill is. It's simple to find. The legislator's of this bill, in the first few lines of this bill, followed by the organizations who have sponsored this bill. You have a list of legislator's who have alliances, deep financial alliances, with teacher's unions or lobbyist groups. Then you have the list of those groups. Those unions recognize that if education tax dollars go to charter schools, and those charter schools succeed which they are, then those unions get a smaller piece of the financial pie. That is the truth of this bill.

8. To quote union representative, Chuck Bennett, in a recent Portland Tribune article (http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/oregon_senate_would_take_virtu.html) he says, “"We're not going to wait until it (online charter schools) is out of control." Mr. Bennett's words can be translated to say, “We are not going to let anymore education tax dollars get out of our reach into non unionized schools.” My challenge to Mr. Bennett would be, give me a unionized school that has passes the academic and finance rigors ORCA and ORVA have.

9. My opinion, the unions should get a smaller piece of the pie. The state education budget has to increase annually by 6% to keep up with the contracts procured by unions. Even in a growing economy, Oregon struggled to keep up with that pace. Now, it's buckling. The unions have Oregon's schools by the budgetary throat, and charter schools are a fabulous way to disarm them and get economic federal funds into our buckling system.

I would ask you keep these things I have mentioned in mind as you listen to this bill on the Senator floor. The state of Oregon is sitting at a crossroads for it's future in education. Are we going to embrace change and have a forward thinking strategy? Or are we going to accept the status quo and hope that improves by wasting more money on it while kids continue to fall behind.

Sincerely,

AMG