July 13, 2010

The Statesman Journal’s Peter Wong reported, “Democrat John Kitzhaber is the choice of the political arm of the Oregon Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, in his third-term bid for governor. Kitzhaber has proposed redoing how the state budgets for education at all levels to show better measurement of effort from preschool programs through graduate studies.”

"John Kitzhaber has a long history of support and advocacy for public education and school employees," said Steve Anderson, Hermiston high school teacher and board chairman of the OEA-People for Improvement of Education political action committee.

As a son of parents who taught in Oregon’s system of public education, I have enormous respect for teachers and for the work they do. I was raised in a family that believed that public education was the cornerstone of a democratic society and that teachers are the heart of public education. I was raised with the belief that public education is the level of education to which all of our people will have access; it is the vehicle through which the American Dream – the promise of opportunity – is most directly fulfilled.

I know how hard educators work and I know that work is made more difficult because our public schools at all levels do not have the resources they need. Securing those resources is a central priority for me. In this incredibly challenging fiscal environment, however, I believe that the task of winning public support for more funding will require making a much more transparent connection between the dollars we are investing in public education and the results we are getting in terms of student performance.

I also think that part of any educator assessment at the school and district level should include, among other factors, a measure of student growth and ability to learn. My desire in creating these measures is rooted in the belief that by doing so we will not only help students learn but we will also be able to raise additional resources and better direct resources to the schools and educators that need them the most.

As we move through this difficult fiscal environment, we must create a solid foundation from which to rebuild our system of public education from early childhood to college and to ensure that all Oregonians have access to at least two years of postsecondary education. We must recognize that education and work force training is the foundation of our long-term economic success. You can read the entirety of my Education Plan here and Peter Wong’s article here.

http://www.johnkitzhaber.com/2010/07/13/oea-endorses-john-kitzhaber/