Editorials from around Oregon

Selected editorials from Oregon newspapers:

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The (Medford) Mail Tribune, Dec. 20, on more kids walking the straight and narrow

We admit we were surprised, and suspect you probably were, too, at Jackson County’s juvenile crime statistics published in the paper on Sunday. We figured they’d be up, maybe by a lot.

Instead, they’re down, by a lot.

According to figures from Jackson County Community Justice, juvenile crime is at a low-water mark in recent decades, something juvenile officials attribute to the development of youth-oriented programs and focused rehabilitation plans instead of a lock-’em-up mentality.

The stats published with the story by Vickie Aldous show that juvenile crime was on an upward trendline in the first decade of this century, with referrals to the juvenile department climbing from 2,371 in 2005-06 to 2,872 in 2007-08. Then something happened, and a significant decline began. The number dropped below 1,500 in 2012-13 and continued to drop, to a recent low of 947 cases in the last fiscal year, 2016-17. That’s a two-thirds cut in crime.

Jackson County is not alone in seeing diminished crime among youths. Nationally, the numbers of juveniles committing serious crimes dropped from 17.5 per 1,000 in 2005-06 to about 7.5 per 1,000 in 2015.

What’s the secret to that astounding drop in crime? No one knows for certain, but they have a good idea. And, no, it’s not that local law enforcement suddenly went soft on crimes by kids.

What juvenile officials say is more likely is that they’ve cut down on offenders and repeat offenders through a variety of programs, some that keep kids out of the system in the first place and others that appear to be making an impact with first-time offenders.

Joe Ferguson, Juvenile Services deputy director, says diversion programs, mentoring and community programs like Kids Unlimited and Life Art are showing kids that there’s a better way. The vast, vast majority of kids don’t commit crimes and of those who do, 80 percent don’t re-offend. That means there’s typically space available in the 40-bed juvenile facility, a marked difference from adult jail, where frequent fliers keep the jail filled and lead to routine early releases.

A big difference in the two situations that Ferguson sees: “They’re kids. There’s still a chance they’ll change. They just need to get back on track.”

Getting back on track seems far less likely among the older population, often because of lengthy drug use and equally lengthy felony records that preclude them from having much opportunity once they’re in the system. Juvenile offenders can have their slates cleaned if they stay on the straight and narrow and that second chance at having a worthy life can make all the difference.

“Teach your children well,” the song lyrics go. Maybe we’ve done better at that than we thought. And maybe we’ve learned something along the way ourselves.

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The (Eugene) Register-Guard, Dec. 20, on raising graduation rates

Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson’s just-completed audit of high school graduation rates was one of those good news-bad news reports.

While there has been some improvement in the number of students who graduate from high school in four years, overall graduation rates have remained flat if you include students who take longer than four years to graduate.

Improved on-time graduation rates are a good thing for both students and taxpayers, but the bottom line is that too many students - almost one in five - are still leaving school without earning a diploma.

The new audit is useful because it drills down below these numbers to look at which groups are struggling and what might be done to help them.

This is the kind of information that is needed for the state Department of Education to set priorities and craft a plan to reach these goals.

Auditors were critical of the department’s response to low graduation rates in the past, saying it needs “to step up its game and assume its leadership role to make Oregon a leader in education.”

This puts the ball squarely in the court of the department’s new acting head, Colt Gill, a former superintendent of Bethel School District.

Gill was named the acting deputy superintendant in October after his predecessor was fired. Based on Gill’s initial response to the audit, Gov. Kate Brown’s confidence in him is justified.

Gill concurred with the audit recommendations made by the secretary of state - and outlined efforts that are planned or already underway to deal with the concerns raised by auditors. In some cases, these efforts surpass the recommendations or goals outlined in the audit.

This kind of initiative is going to be needed. Based on federal budget priorities, Oregon public schools are likely to face increased financial pressure in the next few years.

For example, plans at the federal level to do away with the state and local tax exemption, or SALT, are likely to make it even harder to increase local or state taxes to pay for improvements in education.

Currently, taxpayers are allowed to deduct state and local taxes when they file their federal income taxes. In Eugene, for example, a homeowner with an income of $75,000 currently can deduct about $10,300 in state and local taxes from his or her federal income tax obligation, according to the Government Finance Officers Association. Remove those deductions, and that homeowner will pay about $1,550 more in taxes per year.

The vast majority of taxpayers who benefit from these SALT deductions are middle income or working class.

For example, about eight times as many taxpayers earning less than $25,000 a year claim this deduction nationally compared to people with an income of $1 million or more.

If this tax break goes away, it is likely to make it harder to pass state or local tax measures for schools.

The good news is initiatives already underway within Oregon should help improve graduation rates, including recent increases in funding for Career and Technical Education. But it’s going to require building a partnership between the Department of Education, local school districts and community members to improve graduation rates in the face of these new challenges.

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East Oregonian, Dec. 19, on importance of running for local office

Last year, no one in Echo filed to run for an open seat on the city council.

That left open an avenue for Lou Nakapalau to win the seat with only eight write-in votes in the November 2016 election.

It was later discovered that the councilman had been convicted of multiple counts of child pornography possession in 2000.

Nakapalau has used his time on the council to bring nationwide embarrassment to the small city. He used his Facebook account to tell a gay filmmaker in Hawaii: “When you croak of AIDS (Anally Injected Death Serum) I’ll spit on your grave.”

Media coverage of that comment, and Nakapalau’s unwillingness to apologize for it or even comment on it, brought an understandable backlash from some Echo residents against their city government. That backlash then spurred a backlash of its own, which created division and distrust in the community - from its political life to its downtown commerce to its public schools.

It’s a mess. And it doesn’t appear that mess will get cleaned up soon. Nakapalau has shown no signs of resigning his seat, and city council has no ability to throw him out under Oregon law. It’s up to residents to start a recall petition.

Gaining a seat on a city council or school board without filing for the ballot isn’t uncommon in Eastern Oregon, especially in smaller cities or for lower-profile positions.

In Hermiston, former city council candidate Mark Gomolski won a seat on the Hermiston School Board with just 14 write-in votes. Perhaps he was the best person for the job (and he has certainly done nothing to embarrass the city or school district) but we think it’s undemocratic that such a small percentage of Hermiston voters chose who got that important seat.

As we’ve said before, civic leadership can require a lot of work for very little thanks. It’s not a responsibility that people should take on lightly.

But the moral of the story is clear: If no one runs for important local positions with a desire to improve their city, school district, or cemetery district - you may get someone of questionable values and skills. You will definitely get someone who did not campaign for the seat, and may not be familiar with the issues and how residents feel about them. You will get someone who does not have the support of the majority of the electorate.

The best option, of course, is for many people to run for these positions, so voters can make an informed choice in a competitive race. That’s how a healthy, functioning democracy operates.

But at the very least, someone must run publicly for each seat. A name must be on the ballot, because that gives the electorate enough time to mount a write-in campaign if that name is not to their liking.

The risks are too great otherwise. An unqualified and unfit person can get a few votes and suddenly be misrepresenting your community and making decisions that negatively affect its future.

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The Daily Astorian, Dec. 19, on Amtrak crash not derailing mass transit along I-5 corridor

In what some are calling “the Titanic of train wrecks,” Monday’s deadly crash of the inaugural run of a new higher-speed passenger Amtrak train between Seattle and Portland will certainly cause some to question the viability of improving rail transportation along the Interstate 5 corridor. Horrific as it was, we should not be so quick to give up.

The loss of life was tragic, along with injures suffered by dozens of other passengers, crew and passing motorists. Economic damage also will substantial, with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declaring a state of emergency in two counties. Traffic delays, reconstruction costs, equipment damage and inevitable lawsuits will easily add up into the tens of millions against a rail-improvement project that had a budget of about $181 million.

Investigation of precisely what caused the derailment will takes weeks, if not months. It is, however, safe to say that officials can never be overly careful when it comes to ensuring all assumptions are correct and all risks have been mitigated to the maximum extent possible. But just as passenger steamships didn’t collapse as an industry following the Titanic disaster, neither will the move toward high-speed rail end due to this incident.

The failing race to address traffic congestion by adding more lanes to I-5 - a strategy particularly prevalent in Washington state - has about reached its inevitable conclusion. There must continue to be steps toward better mass-transit options throughout the interconnected megalopolis stretching between Vancouver, B.C. and the mid-Willamette Valley.

This isn’t necessarily to say that European or Japanese-style ultra-high-speed rail lines are the immediate answer. In an example of supremely bad timing, just last week consultants estimated such a line connecting Vancouver and Portland could cost up to $42 billion - somewhat more than Oregon’s current total annual state spending. Massive federal aid would be required. Infrastructure spending on such a scale - not yet counting other steps that would be needed to link communities to the new train - are almost impossible to imagine in today’s national political environment.

In a longer time frame - and assuming we resist wasting more trillions on pointless foreign wars - rapid economic growth in this region may fully justify such a massive expenditure.

Ultra-high-speed rail, depending on the technology used, brings speeds of up to 270 mph - compared to the 81 mph Monday’s Amtrak train was estimated to be traveling. Such amazing speeds are facilitated by dedicated routes, including some partially or totally underground. These trains have outstanding safety records in other countries, and are certainly far safer than traveling by highways in private vehicles.

While we await such marvels, it’s vital to learn from whatever mistakes were made leading up to Monday’s crash. The remainder of the Seattle-Portland route must be intensely examined. Technology and protocols must be implemented to further minimize the potential for human error.

In our rush toward a brighter future for mass transit, let us not get into such a big hurry that lives are needlessly sacrificed. But after every precaution is taken, we must try again.

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Corvallis Gazette-Times, Dec. 17, on Oregon State University seeking funding for Bend campus

As Oregon State University officials have worked to develop the Cascades campus in Bend, the big question has not been about the demand for a four-year campus in the central part of the state - the enrollment growth the campus already has seen is evidence of that.

No, the question is whether the state is willing to properly fund what amounts to its eighth four-year campus. After this year’s legislative session ended with a bit of a financial thud for Cascades, the question lingered.

But the February short session of the Legislature could provide a big part of the answer.

OSU’s top priority in this legislative session will be to win approval for $39 million in capital funding to build a second classroom building on the Cascades campus. Gov. Kate Brown recently backed the OSU request, along with a handful of other capital projects at other Oregon public universities.

This request comes on the heels of an odd turn of events at the end of this year’s legislative session, when OSU originally had asked for $69.5 million for the Cascades campus, an amount of money that would have allowed for the construction of the classroom building, along with site reclamation work, infrastructure improvements and a student success center. When the dust settled at the end of the session, the Legislature had allocated just $9.5 million for reclamation work, and it’s still uncertain as to what exactly happened.

OSU President Ed Ray said university officials, understanding that the Legislature faced a tight state budget, trimmed their $69.5 million request to $39 million during the course of this year’s session. But, for whatever reason, Ray said it appears that Gov. Brown never saw the reduced request.

“She was never unsupportive,” Ray said. “She never had all the information she needed.”

In any event, Brown is supporting the renewed $39 million request in next year’s session, and Ray is grateful. “This kind of wraps up a lot of what we had hoped to accomplish in the first session,” he said. (OSU says it has an additional $10 million lined up from private contributions for the classroom building.)

The status of the Cascades campus in Bend is important to the mid-valley for a number of reasons, and here’s one of them: The enrollment growth at Cascades, which this year increased 7.3 percent to 1,204 students, gives OSU another tool to try to maintain the relatively slow growth of students at the Corvallis campus. This has been a topic of some interest throughout the mid-valley in recent years, as you might recall.

Even while enrollment growth is booming at Bend, the pace of growth has slowed at the Corvallis campus, where Ray has said he’ll cap enrollment at 28,000. This fall, OSU reported enrollment on the Corvallis campus of 24,760, an increase of 0.4 percent from 2016. (As an aside, it’s worth remembering that there’s still considerable room under that 28,000 cap for additional students in Corvallis.)

The fast-growing campus in Bend offers a safety valve for enrollment on the Corvallis campus. (The same thing is true of OSU’s online offerings and its growing presence in Newport.)

OSU asks students in Bend where they would have gone if they hadn’t enrolled at Cascades. The consistent answer: “By and large, they would have gone to Corvallis,” Ray said, so Cascades “takes some of the enrollment pressure off of Corvallis.”

The continued growth of Cascades, however, hinges on whether the state is willing to give it the support it needs. The results of this year’s session weren’t encouraging. Legislators will get a chance next year to recover from that fumble. (mm)