Latest / Crosstabs / The State of Education with Rep. Emily McIntire and Keri Lopez

Transcript

The State of Education with Rep. Emily McIntire and Keri Lopez · Crosstabs

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Life is tough, and our country wasn't founded on hugs and kisses.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: We're clear to engage.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Time on target.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Five mikes.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: welcome to a very special edition of crosstabs this is not a regular episode of
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: crosstabs although it will appear in your feed as a regular episode of crosstabs we
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: have two very special guests and the reason it's a special episode is not just
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: because of the special guests but we're also taking a special topic now crosstabs
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: typically we're focused on the stories of the day but here we're going to dive
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: deeper into a topic
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: And sort of the past couple of years, even really decades of background on that topic.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: Today, we're talking about education.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: We have two fantastic guests.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm along here, of course, with Brian Iverson, who I forgot to introduce earlier.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: And he was liable to introduce himself at some point if I forgot to do it.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: But we've got State Representative Emily McIntyre,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: born and raised in Jackson County,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: spent her first years in Trail,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oregon,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: and the last 30 in Eagle Point.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: She and her husband have two kids.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: She's actively engaged in local church and centers for life.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: around Jesus.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: And you are on Eagle Point School Board.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then also with us is Carrie Lopez.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: She's running for state representative in House District 53.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's, I think, a little bit of Ben, but mostly Redmond and Sun River.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: And not Sun River.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: Redmond and Sisters.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: Gosh, dang it.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's the old district.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's right.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Sisters was in Sisters wasn't in the district before Sun River was.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: And we traded them.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: And the reason we tried them is because of Democrat gerrymandering.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sisters includes more Democrats than Sun River does.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I just want to make that clear.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: So Redmond Sisters and a little bit of bend, I think, if I remember right.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: And she is a born and raised lifelong Oregonian.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: She's not afraid of hard work.
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  SPEAKER_03: She's a proud graduate of Oregon State University.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Go Beavs.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: And had a successful career.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to start that again.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: She had a successful career in the financial services industry.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: She earned her Series 7 and Series 66.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: I can't wait to find out what those are because I have no idea.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then her and her husband have been building homes in Central Oregon,
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: and she was elected to the Redmond School Board in 2021,
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  SPEAKER_03: reelected in 2023.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: And she's been focused on advocating for local decision making,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: community parent involvement and transparency issues.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: at the local school board so we thought two school board members in the legislature
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  SPEAKER_03: you've got a cross-section here of an issue that's both local and statewide so
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: welcome Carrie and welcome Emily thank you wonderful yeah and all all with very
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: little preparation just a little help from Brian Iverson and the biographies he
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: sent me just to let people behind the producing curtain
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: I always prepare and Reagan doesn't.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why, you know, he takes all my preparation notes and he makes himself sound smarter than me.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: So that's not really fair, but otherwise.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I'm excited for this episode.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's going to be great.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: We want to really dive into education and just kind of keep it to that,
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: keep it to what's going on with education in Oregon and really the idea of having
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: two school board members as well as one current state rep that will continue and
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: then one that will be a state rep after this election is over.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's going to be great to really kind of get their thoughts on where we're heading
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: with education in Oregon.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I think we should start with really the biggest news,
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Reagan,
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  SPEAKER_02: is that Oregon Live article that loved to talk about my favorite school district in
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: all of Oregon,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Portland Public Schools,
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  SPEAKER_02: where they quietly adopt the rule barring teachers from political personal
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: classroom displays.
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  SPEAKER_02: I just, this school district is off the rails.
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  SPEAKER_02: I don't understand Portland Public Schools.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: This one just really blows me away.
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  SPEAKER_02: And of course,
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  SPEAKER_02: now they're pushing back on the teachers union,
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: of course,
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  SPEAKER_02: is saying,
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: well,
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: that's not fair.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: You can't do that.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: You have to let us display our stuff.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: You guys probably know this.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: In your school districts, do you have, are there, is there rules against this or is this against...
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: collective bargaining, because that seems to be where the rub is.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: So, Representative, I figured I would start with you.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what's your guys' – do you have a policy in regards to what teachers can hang in a classroom?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: I actually think we –
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: If we don't, we have a, we do, right?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like even if we don't have an actual board policy,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: because I can't think of one right off the top of my head,
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: but this has been a topic of discussion as we move through things.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And when we start having things that are going up in classrooms,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: because we're in a very conservative district and we really don't want to be having
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: our parents posting things on Facebook and,
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: about what's being displayed or talked about in a classroom that just takes away from learning, right?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's the whole goal is to not distract learning.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I know we've had a couple of things pop up and we tend to hear about them almost immediately.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then we start making some phone calls as board members and then we don't hear about them anymore.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of how it works.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: No,
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  SPEAKER_02: there's no you're telling me there's no stop the genocide posters hanging up down
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: in the Eagle Point School District.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't heard that yet.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: and truly when stuff like that goes up,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how it is with Carrie's district,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: but school board members,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: it either gets posted on Facebook.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's usually the,
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: the,
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: the first line of information or we start getting some phone calls and text
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: messages from people that feel comfortable enough to just go to us directly.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, I'd say that's fair.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: We actually had this conversation just a few days ago about information circulating
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: on Facebook,
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: and that's a lot of times often how rumors start and end up coming our direction.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say even in Redmond,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: there's still a fair amount of face-to-face conversations that happen with people,
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: and that connection is still there.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we are able to have those conversations directly with people and get them to
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: the superintendent as those things come up.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: I think also, and I tweeted this, Brian, you may have seen this, but
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: I think that if a teacher is going to put a poster, it shouldn't be misinformation.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: And since there isn't actually a genocide happening in Gaza,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: I think if you had a policy that said we're not allowing teachers to teach mis,
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  SPEAKER_03: dis,
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  SPEAKER_03: and mal information,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: which seems to be pretty big on the other side of the aisle,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: and then you just say,
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: oh,
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: hey,
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  SPEAKER_03: can you take down your misinformation poster because there isn't a genocide in Gaza,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: One, that would make them very mad because I think they would be upset about that.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: Because, of course, the people on the Internet have declared those a genocide happening.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Let's not pretend that there's actually a definition of this.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm sorry, I always go off on Israel because it makes me crazy how they talk about it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: But I think that that would be a new and fun approach because the issue is,
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: and the article brings this up,
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  SPEAKER_03: Brian,
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  SPEAKER_03: Newburgh did this.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: They were trying to get certain teachers to take down.
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  SPEAKER_03: I think it was like a pride flag or whatever.
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  SPEAKER_03: And it was declared anti First Amendment.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: The ACLU actually sued the Newburgh School District.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: Now, shockingly, the Portland Public School District ACLU isn't here to sue them.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: They're trying to resolve it a different way because they don't want people to
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: think that this could also happen in Portland.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: This is only supposed to happen in right wing rural Oregon, not in Portland.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: But of course, they're trying to minimize the disruption they have.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_03: And this is gets to the funding issue, really.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: The enrollment declines.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think that a lot of families who don't feel at home with a lot of the far left
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  SPEAKER_03: ideology that's being pushed by radical teachers unions,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: especially right.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: And some of those teachers, not all teachers, I'll make that clear.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: Not all teachers are pushing that.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: But I think that there is an extreme element that really are trying to push that.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: So there's families,
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: there are students that don't feel comfortable,
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: and as a result,
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: they're switching to homeschooling,
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: they're switching to virtual,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: they're switching to private schools.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: That is causing a lot of the enrollment declines that are going to cause and really
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: drive the next problem that we're seeing.
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  SPEAKER_03: And I wanted to talk to you,
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: Rep McIntyre,
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: specifically about this,
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: and I didn't put this in Brian's notes because I didn't even remember it until we
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: started this conversation.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay,
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: there was a work group I think that started about education funding,
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: they were going to put together a bipartisan piece of legislation that was going to
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_03: address school funding and I think that may have started either in the 23 or 24 session.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think you were a part of that effort, right?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: Can you tell you weren't a part of that effort?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so I'm misremembering it then.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: The main thing,
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: though,
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: that came out of that was they started on it and then they killed it because they
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: wanted to make it a political tax-raising issue in 25,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: basically.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: And what I would like to see is an attempt to address school funding that isn't so
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: much based on politics,
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: try to raise taxes and really just figuring out what the funding levels are that we
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: need and where can we focus our energies.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: So what are you guys seeing at the local level in terms of funding?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: Are you guys getting enough funding, not enough funding?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Are you being forced to spend it in places you don't want to and you'd like to be more flexible or,
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: We can start with Carrie and then go to Emily on that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: How do you guys feel the school funding is right now from a local perspective?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can start, Emily, you can start and then I'll pick up on that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I was part of the effort in really wanting to make sure that we wanted to find
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: what the actual current service level really was.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Especially when we're talking about the quality education model and then being a
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: school board member and knowing all of our costs and going through our budget and
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: understanding how our specific school district does our budget.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a huge differentiation across the state.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I also feel that a lot of the policy that comes out of the state capitol is geared toward
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: the dysfunction of Portland public school, as opposed to all the other school districts.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we just have to deal with the fallback of all the policy that's directed at
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: that specific school district.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: You'd think at this point that they would just disband Portland public and break it
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: into multiple schools and not have it be such as giant monster that it is in the state,
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: but whatever,
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: whatever.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, um,
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: But as far as funding,
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: and I feel like in the 23 session,
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: we were already – I would say we were already underfunded,
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: but there were a couple of really big bills that came through that made our
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: underfundedness even more apparent and transparent.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: With a couple different bills that passed, we really ramped up our special education services.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: We gave unemployment to our classified staff members.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: We –
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: There were four,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think,
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: four really big things that we did that that were a huge additional cost to our
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: school districts with no additional funding.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not remembering the other two right off the top of my head.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: But we had we had a meeting where we talked about our special education funding.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And in the 20.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: one,
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: two school year,
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: because we have the conversation,
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: the 23 session,
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: schools spent $1.1 billion on special education funding and the state spent $550 million.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: So right there, schools are spending 50% more
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: than what the state has allocated in their special education funding.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then to top that off,
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: we passed Senate Bill 819,
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: which required schools to bring back all of their students that were on abbreviated days.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's working itself out.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: I do have to admit that there were schools that were not following the law in
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: regards to their special education students.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: That piece of forcing schools to bring back students that they should have been
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: serving in a much better way is good,
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: but we didn't put any additional funding with it.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we have students that cost upwards of over $100,000 to make sure that they
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: themselves are safe,
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: the people caring for them are safe,
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: and the students around them are safe.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And for the most part, what the students get between $10,000 and $15,000 are allocated.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't actually know the direct number.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was closer to $10,000.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: I just heard it was closer to $15,000.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the number is exactly per student is spent.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: $100,000 per student for some of these students is not something that a school
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: district can easily absorb.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's and I know the governor has recommended a huge increase in spending, which I am grateful for.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: My big concern is that we're going into 2025 and we're going to have a whole nother
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: slew of unfunded mandates.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's a big concern for me.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the addition that she has requested is a start.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think that it's,
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I still don't think it even touched on all the requirements that school is supposed
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: to provide for its students.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think, Carrie?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: so when I was thinking about this,
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know that our school district in particular is struggling to manage the
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: requirements of Senate Bill 819.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there are school districts throughout the state of Oregon that are also struggling to,
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: to implement and fund and find people that are able to day in,
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: day out work with these children who need extra supports.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was thinking about funding in terms of where has our money in education
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: gone and where did it come from before?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of it, a lot of our schools were funded by
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: being able to buy timber, timber sales, right?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not happening because of our habitat conservation plan, mills are closing.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we take these higher level topics and we think, oh, that's not affecting education.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But when we start to look at where funding for education used to come from, we look at timber receipts.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: We also have to look at measure 110.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: We had funding coming
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: into education from the marijuana tax, right?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Marijuana revenue.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that money was diverted from education and from public safety as well into mental health services.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think our kids get left behind when we start diverting money
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: from education into other social programs that aren't targeted specifically for kids.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because in reality,
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: our kids were left out of the Measure 110 piece when it comes to addiction and
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: treatment and recovery.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't so and then you see a couple all of that that you just talked about with the revenue side of it.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then you you throw in the special education kids that cost way more than what you get.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: per student.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then you have declining enrollment.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: So you have special education kids coming back into the system who cost more.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: You have regular students that are leaving the system, at least in Portland and Salem.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: Everywhere.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: Not in Crook County.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: We have a booming
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: enrollment in our school, our public school system.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's right.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: We flipped the school board here.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's conservative.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: But I think, I don't know, is Redmond, is it growing, Carrie, or declining?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this is one thing I'm really proud of that we are doing here in Redmond.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Our enrollment...
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: is up.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't have final numbers,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: but what I'm hearing from elementary schools and high schools is that they're enrolling,
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: we're still continuing to see enrollment,
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: kids enrolling in schools.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So after school starts, that's what happens sometimes.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: parents decide to enroll their kids.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a testament to the work that we're doing on our school board, right?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're bringing balance to the conversation and we're saying,
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: we're not going to pick up some of the more politically divisive,
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: explosive issues.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to work through those and we're going to respect people in the process.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time,
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's that's why people,
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: teachers,
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: students,
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: families want to be a part of the Redmond School District,
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: because we really are doing good work to build bridges and bring people together
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: and have this Redmond be an awesome place that your kids want to go to school.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Brian and Carrie, calm down.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: Emily and I are over here going like, yeah, everybody wants to live in Central Oregon.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's so amazing.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: The quality of life is so, yeah, weary, all right?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: We're tired of it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: I grew up in Central Oregon.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: Bend, though, it's not as great as you want to think it is.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: Unless,
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: of course,
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: you are a granola-crunching,
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: kale-loving liberal,
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: in which case it is as amazing as you think it is.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, it is.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: They're all there.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: The regular people are going to Redmond.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: They're coming to go to school, I think, because they're because even Ben couldn't pass that school bond.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's the first school bond they haven't been able to pass in a long time
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: was this this last year trying to pass this last spring,
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: trying to pass that school bond.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: And Portland had that same problem as well.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: that's kind of what we're seeing.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, is this, is, is this, this, this need?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then the goal, the only, or the goal is to get more students ultimately.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then you got all the private schools nipping at everybody's heels and,
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: and all the things I know Eagle Point has a good private school.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: I know there's,
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: there's some good education alternatives now,
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: that,
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: that,
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: that people look towards versus sending your kids to public school for all the
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: things that,
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: that we hate about it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: But I, I just, I,
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: The answer isn't more money.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really what always seems to be where the governor is going to,
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: where these teachers unions go to,
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: OEA goes to.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's always more money.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And to that whole point that Rev.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: McIntyre talked about in the beginning,
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like all of the things that we have to fund,
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: they aren't actually helping us produce better classrooms and better kids.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: You're now giving somebody unemployment benefits.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: You're giving these things that we're funding that aren't actually helping us make better students.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really the problem, as I see it.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: I think you're right,
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Brian,
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: but I do want to put a little bit of a finer point on this,
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: and then I want to kind of ask a question.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: So this will be a question about local control, but I'm going to relate it to funding first.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: So you're right, Brian, we don't need more money.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: I think what we need is redirecting of the money more into the classroom.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: This is something that Republicans have harped on, right?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: That includes paying teachers better, by the way.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: I think that that's important, especially new teachers.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: So Oregon's pretty competitive for people who've
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: been teaching for a while in terms of salaries, but new teachers are pretty low on the list.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: I wrote a memo about this a few months ago in terms of how Oregon's behind on new teacher salaries.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: We could increase salaries.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: We could increase signing bonuses.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: We could do things that they do for doctors,
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: which is pay them an extra benefit if they go to teach in a rural school district
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: versus a city school district.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: There's all kinds of things that you could do to incentivize, build workforce, which I know is a problem.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: The workforce we don't need to build is the administrative workforce,
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: especially like in the Albany schools.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: I know there was a talking point, one of our school board candidates here.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: In I think five or 10 years, the administrative district staff doubled as enrollment increased 15%.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's not sustainable.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think what people will be tempted to do is paper over that with more money.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: So they don't have to do the make the hard decisions in terms of cutting administrative positions.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: The flip side of that,
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: though,
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: and one of the things I've heard the governor say that I'm concerned about the
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: traps sort of being laid for Republicans here where we can support Republicans.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: More school funding is one, the taxes, which is always going to be a problem.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: They want to increase taxes, increase school funding.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: They did that last time with the Student Success Act,
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: right,
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: where in order to get more funding,
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: you are going to have to support this tax on businesses.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: The other piece of it is that the governor's talked about accountability,
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_03: and I think accountability is good.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: But what accountability doesn't mean is taking away local control,
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: decision-making about what resources students can use,
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: what textbooks you're going to use,
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: all that stuff.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: And my concern,
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: and tell me if you guys feel this,
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: is the state trying to take away control from the local school districts.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: And how do you think...
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: that you as school board candidates or school board members can push back on that?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: Can you push back on that in the legislature and can parents help with that?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Gary, do you want to answer or do you want me to go first?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I think it's interesting.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of want to go back to what happened in Bend,
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: and the operating levy was on the back,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: and that failed in Bend.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: The people in Bend said, no more.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're not giving you any more money.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to raise our taxes so that you can have more money to operate your schools,
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: and I think that
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: that sends a really clear message about what people are thinking in terms of education.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: So Brian, you might be spot on as far as saying more money doesn't solve the problem.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to touch on the fact that in Redmond School District this last year,
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: we were able to raise our teacher salaries and actually get them up to a level that
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: was
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: competitive with other districts in our area, we were significantly below that.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: So when we think about Redmond being a place that teachers want to be,
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: that piece of salary conversation has to happen.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have to stay competitive with other districts, other neighboring districts.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we're happy that we have really consistent
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: really great staff on board.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I do have to say, I'm speaking, um, I'm not speaking on behalf of the board.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking on behalf of myself when I'm, when I'm talking about the work that we're doing in.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I am, I am really proud of the work that we're doing and, and I'm, I'm,
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful that we do have the ability to exercise a level of local control that
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: we can,
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: and I think our board is good at doing that through our curriculum selection.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, we have lists that come from the state, but we also have opportunities.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I sit on curriculum committees with our teachers,
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: and our community members are welcome to join us in going through curriculum.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we get to choose.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: We do have a choice in that respect.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's kind of interesting.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to go back to the more money doesn't solve the problem.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say yes and no, right?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think accountability is a huge factor.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: we were talking a little bit before the show,
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: the loss of the essential skills requirement and what actually is the goal of K-12 education.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like over the past decade,
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: as we've gotten to be a more woke society,
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: and as we've seen,
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like the general public's dissatisfaction in education continue to grow
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: snowball.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like we have,
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: people are just so fed up with public education in general,
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: but there's a monopoly on public education.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: You got to be able to have an extra 10 to $20,000,
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: depending on how much your private school is to be able to send your kid to private school,
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: or you have to have a functioning charter school.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have to get in
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: on the wait list, right?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like we have 100 plus on our wait lists, you know, locally, and it's difficult to open a charter.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have a school district that's willing to sponsor you.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And most school districts don't want to sponsor a charter because they see that as
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: dollars out the door for themselves.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have such a...
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: a dysfunction when it comes to saying it's a competition on who gets the kids, right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: When that is the last thing the K-12 education should be about.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: It should be about raising successful human beings, being ready to contribute to society, right?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not what I really see education being about right now.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's,
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: The other side of that is the money side of it.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: the things schools are providing,
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: sick pay,
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: vacation leave,
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: awesome benefits,
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: all of these things that have exponentially gone up in cost due to choices that
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: either the federal or state government has made.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: So
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I do think we need to revisit the cost.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that it's the answer to all the problems.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we haven't even touched on facilities.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: Most of our facilities are 50 years old or more,
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: and and that's not in an addition that we get statewide.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's whatever the schools get.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's what the schools get.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: And they're responsible for maintaining their buildings.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: The state doesn't give additional money for that.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: So if you can't pass a bond.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: like my district can't.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're trying to nickel and dime and duct tape things together.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: We got kids that are sitting in classrooms that are,
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: 90 degrees on a hot day and 50 degrees on a cold day.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's going to cost us, you know, $10 to $12 million to fix that system.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about this because we just had a meeting this morning, so it's fresh in my mind.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: But,
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: we were able to kind of nickel and dime things together and spend $1.5 million with
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: help to make some solutions here.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: But it's certainly...
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: not a forever solution.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so money is a factor.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Money is a factor.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: But what we are delivering in the K-12 system is also a huge factor.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the goal currently, I feel like in our state for education is we just want to love the kids.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: We just want to love them and they can't do wrong.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we we just we we just love them to death.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's going to be the best education that they need.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to give them food.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to give them clothes.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to give them a hug.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to give them a safe space instead of saying.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do that.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to sound insensitive, right?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: But life is tough.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: And our country wasn't founded on hugs and kisses.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: It was founded on blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice, starvation, you know, crisis.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: And our kids are capable and we don't give them credit for what they are capable to
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: be able to absorb,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: learn,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: be held accountable to all of those things.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Accountability is a huge one for me.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think funding is a huge one as well.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: But the local control factor is another huge conversation.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: And as you can tell, I like talking about this.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll try and make this brief.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: But it is interesting that like Albany can double their administrative budget, right?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: And they get to do that.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: But then you've got maybe Redmond and Eagle Point where we scrimp and save on our admin budget, right?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the role of the state potentially to say,
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: You can only spend this much of your state dollars on administration.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: You can only spend this much of your state dollars on employment.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: You can only spend.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like so that we because schools are our business.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like this, you know exactly how much money you're going to get.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead, Carrie.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: They aren't run like a business.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: But they should be.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: They should be.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: But they aren't because we're dealing with the social services issue, right?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're dealing with kids who really, you know,
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: need additional supports.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And our school districts,
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: you're right,
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Emily,
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: have come from a place where we were reading,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: writing,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: and arithmetic to now our public schools are social services providers as well.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a big change and a big shift that I've seen even throughout my kids
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: being in public school since kindergarten,
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: since I've been in
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: public school way back when we're really providing a lot of social services and it
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: takes a toll on our staff and it takes a toll on our budgets.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that we really need to think about as we move away from the foundational
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: things that we're providing as a school.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there was something that popped up recently that said Oregon is 45th in the nation.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: We rank 45th in the nation.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, that is unacceptable.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is unacceptable.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been at the bottom.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oregon has been in the bottom in education for years.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you...
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: that that's unacceptable.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oregon also has the least amount of seat time.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: I just think sometimes we,
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think left-wing school districts and states on some level,
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: they even almost want to be on the bottom.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: So then they can just say, see, you're not spending enough.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost like this need to continue to feed this beast.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're at 30% of our budget.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: 30% goes to education in Oregon.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: The most we've ever spent in a biennium was this last cycle.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: The most ever in the history of Oregon.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yet we're getting the worst output.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, as far as like 45th in the nation, right?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I almost feel like it's their sense of this desire,
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: this rallying cry that we just got to keep,
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: if we just had more money,
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: if the quality education model said 15 billion,
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: well,
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: if we just had 15 billion,
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: we would achieve all of these metrics.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: And you know that wouldn't happen.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like if we give them 15 billion tomorrow, we wouldn't achieve anything.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: the outputs that they say we get if we spend that amount of money,
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: because it's not,
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: there is money is,
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: does matter.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: but it's not the end all be all to making sure that we have good education and that
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: the output,
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: kids coming out of the other side of it are good people,
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: that they're educated,
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: they can read,
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: write,
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: they can move on to college,
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: they can swing a hammer,
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: they can do whatever it is that they're gonna do after high school.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like that's, we focus more on to your aspect, Kerry, is like the social aspect of it now.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: That we almost have to re-engineer our kids because we want them learning about
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: these other things,
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: sexualization and all this stuff.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to get into that too much,
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: but it feels like that's what we're trying to push versus just teaching them how to
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: make it through uh rocky did my favorite thing and it wasn't rocky was like
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: sylvester stallone said it in i don't know some movie somewhere he says you know
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: you only go to college you don't go to college because you're actually you know
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: gonna learn something you go to college and you complete it you get a degree
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: because and this is i think applicable to high school because an employer down the
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: road can say you did something for four years you showed up
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: You did reasonably well.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you got through it.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so in hopes that when you come work for me,
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: that you're going to show up,
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: do reasonably well in your job and that,
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: I could move forward.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think kind of with high school,
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: we need to go back to that whole idea that,
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: give make make kids that you have to push them to achieve something.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you have to push it because they're not, they're not being pushed to achieve now.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: And in college, I was just talking to my son who's, you know, his first year of college.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, dad, I had a pop quiz yesterday and I didn't know it was coming.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I only got seven out of 10 and that's like a D and I'm like, well, that means you should be studying.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, yeah, but I didn't know it was coming.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: I said, yeah, welcome to college.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: Don't get to know what's coming every second, you know?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one thing that concerns me about,
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: even when we talk about essential skills,
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: what that did was made it so that we were putting less emphasis on SAT prep.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: And part of being in college is doing the work, right?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: And
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: SAT scores,
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: when we said,
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: these don't really matter,
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: like everybody's not going to go to college,
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: we're not going to do that,
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: we're also doing a disservice to kids who are going to college and may go to a
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: college that's actually looking at SAT scores,
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: PSAT scores,
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: and preparing our kids to pass those tests and do that work so that they can have
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: access to scholarships.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: and I would say the other side of that is even if we invested $15 billion more tomorrow,
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: you're not going to see the return on that investment until maybe your first,
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: second,
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: third graders are graduating.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the other thing that we think of is we think investment means that
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: next year's graduating students are going to be top of the line,
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: college bound,
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: license bound,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: know exactly where they're going to go.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just not how it works in education.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we got to go back.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Before COVID, we had a vast amount of kids.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: I would put a number, maybe 40, 40%, 50% of our kids were
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: a year behind where they needed to be.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you kind of have your numbers, like your 10, 15% are your special education kids.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're only going to be able to do what they're able to do.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have about 20 to 30% that are going to excel or do well,
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: no matter what situation and environment that they are in.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have the rest of those kids that are somewhere in the middle.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: And depending on circumstances, their engagement, whatever,
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: is going to depend on their success.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if they don't find that special thing that excites them, they're going to struggle.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to, they're, they're, they're waving more back and forth.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so those kids were already defined before COVID.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then we went out in COVID and those kids now are two to three years behind where they need to be.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you're, but then you've got schools that have to teach at their grade level.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got ninth graders coming in that are functioning at a sixth,
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: seventh grade level,
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: but they're learning ninth grade information.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so then they have all these holes.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: So pop quizzes are super detrimental to them because you're expecting them to
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: remember stuff from years gone by,
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: right?
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: Most can accomplish that day's work
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: but it's the tests that really get them.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where I think a lot of the essential skills suspension came in because
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: it really shows the amount of holes that these kids have.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: They have to have foundational knowledge built in and they don't have it.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: This huge group of kids do not have the foundational skills that they needed to be able to pass that.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to look educationally.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you do a big investment in education, you're not gonna see a return on that investment
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: potentially for a decade,
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: because you're really investing that into those kids that don't have all the holes.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're building their foundation.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so it just makes education the easiest thing to attack,
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: the easiest thing to throw under the bus,
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: But the hardest thing to actually get a good return on investment,
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: and this isn't all schools,
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: like Lost River and Klamath,
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: they have a very small school.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: They have 100% graduation rate and 100% placement rate after graduation.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to a college, they're going into a program.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: They all know exactly where they're going.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you want to get a good kid out of high school, you hire a kid out of Lost River, right?
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like,
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: the other thing,
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: and I would say Carrie would probably say this too,
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: like,
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: I look at my superintendent,
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: my administration at my school district,
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: and my teachers,
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: they are working their butts off to do everything they possibly can for these students.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: And
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: it's still, it's millimeters moving forward, you know?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: And a success story is we got this kid to come five days to school in a row.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what we're looking at as levels of success right now, you know?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's not passing the SATs.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh my gosh, you took a shower, put deodorant on and brushed your teeth.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, like I'm gonna give you a Dutch Bros card.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's crazy that that's what we're incentivizing our kids for.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say,
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: our school board,
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: and again,
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: I keep going back to bragging on the good work that we're doing,
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: but we really focused on,
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: it was something that I was made aware of,
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: that our
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: we had students in our buildings that were not reading at grade level.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that if you are in third grade and you are not reading at third grade level,
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: it has detrimental effects down the road.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we started focusing on that and we are moving the needle in a really big way.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have the exact numbers in front of me.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: We just went over them at our last school board meeting, but it's impressive, the work that's being done.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: So absolutely, our superintendent, our staff,
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: the instructional coaches,
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: and quite frankly,
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: maybe even the students and the parents are putting in a little extra work because
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: they realize,
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: like our kids can do this.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: They can do hard things.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: They are resilient.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important to recognize, yes, the work that is being done.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: We are moving the needle in attendance in a really big way.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Our, you know, we've told like, you know, attendance is a really hard, hard metric to move.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing it.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: because we have really great people that are really committed to that work and our
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: board has put an emphasis on that metric because we know if kids show up for school
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: they're part way there right if they can at least get themselves through the door
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: and you know what emily oftentimes for a lot of kids in our district it is
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: getting up and taking a shower, being able to take a shower.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the reality that some kids face is starkly different than a lot of kids. 100%.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's why it drives me crazy when my kid doesn't actually shower when he goes to school.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what are you doing?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: Go back there and take a shower,
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: brush your teeth and get to school,
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: and put on a decent pair of jeans.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Don't wear the same gear because you have that ability, right?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's other kids that don't.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: What do you guys see...
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, probably two different questions.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: I would say one,
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: Emily,
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: what do you,
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: cause you're,
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: you kind of sit in the education world,
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: even within the halls of the legislature,
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: if,
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: if not on the committees,
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: you're definitely talking,
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: what are you kind of seeing coming down 2025?
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you had a crystal ball, what are, what's the things being bantered about?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then I would,
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: my other question to Carrie would be is,
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: is what do you want to do when you get there in the education?
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, what, what are the things we need to,
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: work on?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: And start with you, Representative, with what are you kind of seeing coming besides funding?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's like maybe set that aside, because I think we beat that dead horse enough.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: But what do you see otherwise coming down the road?
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hearing teacher prep programs, you know, making sure that our teachers are prepared in school.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: making sure that they know how to teach, that they're capable and qualified to teach.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: The cell phone ban, I'm hearing, we're talking about how to get cell phones out of classrooms.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hearing trying to do some fixes to Senate Bill 819,
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: though I'm not hearing what exactly those fixes are quite yet.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: But I know behavior in classrooms is something that people are really ready to
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: start addressing and trying to figure out.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: A bill that I am personally putting through is a bill that's a task force or a work group,
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: whichever one I can get,
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: that's to study what our actual graduation requirements are.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: Again, for me, it's that what is the goal of education?
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: And because we're not really moving with the needle of trying to reinstate the
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: essential skills requirement,
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: If we were able to get this task force through,
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: it would then say,
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: this is what the goal of education is.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is what's required for graduation.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: And my hope is then we could start building backwards, right?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, well, if this is what's needed for 12th grade, then this is 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we could actually start setting those priority standards statewide, right?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: As opposed to right now, the standards are just crazy town.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the things.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: Behavior, you know, I think is huge, which I would put in relation with the cell phones, you know.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: And funding is going to be a big thing.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: I will tell you, my biggest thing is going to be I'm not passing any unfunded mandates at all.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I also...
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: really don't want to be adding anything big to our schools like and and without
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: fail we add something big because somebody's got a great idea and and i do
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: understand and respect that i just we just need to take a pause i mean i just can't
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: say it enough we need to let people catch up with what with what we've required so
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: that's that's kind of what i'm hearing but um i'm not in
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we all get so isolated in the in the interim.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not I'm not hearing a ton.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very interested to see what our leg days schedule is going to look like.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I know it, but I need to look at our agenda or whatever and see what we're talking about.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, Emily, I think it's really interesting that I'm hearing those same things.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hearing that we really do need to seriously look at Senate Bill 819.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: And decide and determine if what's actually the unintended consequences of what's
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: happening because of that bill is actually what we were trying to address.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: We really, really need to take a hard look at that.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing about cell phones that I think is really,
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: really interesting,
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about your school board,
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Emily,
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: but we,
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: our school board,
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: we have the ability right now and we have policy on the books right now in regards
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: to cell phones and what are responsible uses of those.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: We have student handbooks, we have things like that.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I always, I fall back on local control on this one because
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: Kids are using phones for lots of things these days and not just for social media
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: and not just to be mean and bully kids.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're using them to actually monitor their blood sugars or things like that.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: So they can be used for good.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a time and a place for them.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: And our school boards do have the authority to set policies.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my take on that.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that that's something else that the state needs to,
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: that we need, it needs to get involved in.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: And along with unfunded mandates, right?
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: So are we gonna,
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: if we're looking at that,
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: are we gonna give funding for if a school wants to adopt a policy that says,
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: you're gonna put,
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: you're gonna lock your kids' cell phones in a pouch,
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: Those pouches can cost 20, $25, maybe upwards of that.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then kids lose them or,
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, quite frankly, I've heard that kids will just find a workaround.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we always do.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the thing with, oh,
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: The thing with the,
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_01: and I'll just say this so that it can be inside this conversation yesterday,
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: most likely this bill is going to be a local control bill.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't see it passing any other way and I wouldn't really advocate for it to be anything but.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: But the fact of the matter is we do have school districts that are afraid of their
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: parents and they don't want to actually enforce this and the administration is not
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: having the guts to
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: to really support their teachers and having their teachers helping them enforce it.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't see us at all mandating yonder bags or anything that would be exponentially expensive.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: That would be a local control issue.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: So if your school district wanted to do yonder bags, it'd be up to you to fund it, right?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: We have schools now that put all their cell phones in a box, right?
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then they pick them up at the end of the day.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it even needs to be that extensive.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's policy in Florida and Illinois that we're kind of
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: going off of and it's very inclusive.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: It allows for students that have exceptions to keep their cell phones.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: It just basically is telling school districts they need to get some policy and they
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: need to do their best to enforce it.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: When I read the policy,
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like it to be a little bit stronger,
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: but I don't think we're going to get that through at the state level.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's going to be up to the local control to make it stronger and then to enforce it.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I just simply like to see students putting their putting their phones in their
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: bags and not having them out during class time unless the teacher specifically
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: tells them to take it out.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know of a school district that if a student gets a call during class,
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: a personal call,
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: the student can step into the hallway and take their class,
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: their call.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: We have elementary students, parents calling them on their cell phones during school and
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is like,
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: the local control issue,
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: this is going to be up to schools to communicate better to parents.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be up to administration to make sure they're supporting their teachers.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: But this isn't going to be any additional cost to a school district at all.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: But hopefully it's going to give those school districts that,
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: in my personal opinion,
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: are making really poor choices when it comes to distraction in the classroom,
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: the kick in the pants that they need to enforce that better education.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I totally agree with you, Carrie.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_01: We do have the ability to do all of this at the local level, but they're not.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so for those districts that don't have the guts to do it,
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: it's going to be a pretty cream puff legislation,
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: in my opinion.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: But it will be enough that they will be required to have something.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: And they can figure out what that something is.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think you just coined a new phrase, Reagan.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: We'll have to use it in the building.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_02: Cream puff legislation.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_03: I need Elsie to work on official definition of what cream puff legislation is.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's going to try.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_03: There's going to be a cream puff caucus.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone's going to try to join it.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's going to be it's going to be a disaster.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: I will say this caucus.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_03: If you're calling your kids while they're in school and it's not an emergency,
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_03: homeschool them if you can't.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: If you've got a helicopter parent that badly, you should be homeschooling your children.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_03: Let's just... Okay, calm down.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_03: Parents need to calm down a little bit is a part of this because a lot of this is...
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_03: parents taking their anxiety about their kids and putting it on them by forcing
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_03: them to carry a cell phone and then using it to distract them all the time right
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_03: and i think that's just as bad as as a kid who's doing it to themselves right or
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_03: asking their parent to do it so
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you have Life 360 on?
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: Why can't I see you at school?
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Mom, because they told me how to turn my cell phone off.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's my son.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_02: Our school has actually done... My youngest is still, he's a junior.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: So they're definitely changed their cell phone policy, but it's done class by class.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_02: So he has a welding class where...
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: his professor doesn't or the teacher, you know, doesn't care if Brett has a cell phone or not.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_02: But then in his history class, she or he wants to make sure.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: So they put their cell phones in a box when they come in.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: And if they was when he's done lecturing and then they do their work,
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_02: then and they finish it,
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: then he lets them go get their cell phone.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_02: So and he's like, it's not bad.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean,
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: if I really need it,
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: he had to step out to call me one day because he wasn't feeling really good and had
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_02: a headache.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: And his teacher let him grab his cell phone and he called me and, you know, boom.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that big of a deal, you know, and I don't know why we definitely don't need legislation.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm with you.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think it would be cream puff and it's all just so they can put their name in a headline.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's silliness.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: So what we need to do is focus on,
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_02: just giving the schools the tools,
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: which apparently they have to just go ahead and make kids will follow,
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: you know.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I want to think.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, go ahead.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: Back to something you said about your task force.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: We should definitely talk because I think we're doing some really again,
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: we're doing some really cool things in Redmond.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's in kind of in regards to report card transparency or parent teacher conferences,
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: just a way that we can bridge the bridge,
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: the communication between and support for the parent teacher relationship.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it started out by last August.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: I proposed something called RSD guarantees.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, people in the world get really nervous when you start trying to guarantee things.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it has evolved into like something that we're calling RSD collective commitments.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it's at each grade level where your students should be.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: in a clear, concise manner.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we know that if your child is not reading at third grade level, we need to put in some work.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that looks like.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: you know, extra reading at home.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that looks like a tutor, you know, whatever that looks like for that student.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that looks like a reading group, a different reading group at school.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: But we're doing some really great work around that so that we can communicate
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: effectively with our parents and get students on track to where they need to go.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're absolutely right, Emily.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: Our state standards are really difficult to wade through.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they contradict each other, you know.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so part of the reason for this,
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: too,
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: and you'll see this,
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: Carrie,
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: when you're in the legislature,
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: is we just added two additional,
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: course requirements,
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: civics and financial literacy to our graduation requirements,
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_01: right?
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: But we actually teach financial literacy in the seventh grade.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: And did we remove that from the standard?
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: Nope.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_01: Nope.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I just think the goal is to kind of do a reset.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_01: So when people are thinking,
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: oh,
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: you know what our students need,
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_01: and if they only have this,
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: then a whole,
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: all the world is going to be solved.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, trying to get people to go, let's look at what our current graduation requirements are.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: What are you asking to do?
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: And does it fit within that, you know, kind of a thing?
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_01: So
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love that though.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the other side.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to say for local control, right?
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's phenomenal.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like we don't do that.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have that transparency.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: I know we've talked about it,
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_01: but as far as having something accessible to parents like that,
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: we don't have that.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: I would love that.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go back to my superintendent with that.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: Cause I don't think that's difficult to do.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's just, you know, posting it on the website or giving it a report cards, whatever, but
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: um but this is where it's like there's so many school districts because your school
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_01: board is just a whole bunch of elected people that don't know what they're doing
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: and you learn what to do as you go about and so it makes it hard right for local
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: coaches because they're like we should legislate that Karen like let's do that you
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: know I mean and that's where we start getting the state doing things that they
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: probably shouldn't do that a board is totally able to do but if a board doesn't
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: know then you know so it's it's a
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: Bit of a mess.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds like the 90 people in the legislature that get together.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, pretty much.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_02: Whoops.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you guys have been generous with your time.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_03: I know that, well, Carrie's got to get back on the campaign trail.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_03: Emily,
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure you do too,
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: technically,
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_03: but your seat's a little safer,
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_03: so probably not knocking 100,000 doors every day like Carrie is,
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_03: but...
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: Where can we find you?
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_03: Let's start with Carrie.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_03: Carrie, where can we find you online?
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_03: How do you how is it best for people to get in touch with you if they want to reach out?
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the best place is through my Web site, Carrie Lopez dot com.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: The other place that you can find me if I'm not on your doorstep,
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: you can find me at a football field or in a gym.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you're going to or in a boardroom or eating.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of all over the place.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like I'd like to think I'm not hard to find.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I welcome the conversation if you if you see me.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe soon people will find you on television as well.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's right.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_03: Brian does his job.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's a real thing happening.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've had friends sending me messages.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_03: We're on TV now.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, great.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_03: Emily, how about you?
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_03: How can people find you, contact you?
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_03: Or would you just prefer they don't?
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's fine, too.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's totally up to you, honestly.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_01: I have not updated my website in a few years, but it is... So it's a little... It needs to be updated.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we're working on it, but...
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_02: Did I build that?
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: No, you built that one yourself.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it's on me to, to update it, but just finding the time to do it.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it's voteemilymcintyre.com,
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: but I would say to email my,
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_01: um,
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_01: my legislative account,
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: or honestly,
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: if you Google my name,
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_01: my cell phone number pops up,
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: give me a call.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, I put my cell phone number out there.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's out in the universe.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, and I'm happy to talk to him.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm usually in Klamath or around town out and about.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: And, uh,
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty, pretty easy to get ahold of.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_02: I would say Rep McIntyre has been one of those rising stars that I've seen in the
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_02: legislature from when she was a freshman this last time to now she's coming in and
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_02: she's going to be like fired up.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: She's got it.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: She knows everything.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_02: She knows where all the stuff's hidden.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_02: She knows where all the bathrooms are on every floor.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know the bathrooms.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's true.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_02: We might actually have a full Capitol.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if they'll actually open up the whole, I don't know if they'll get it done by January.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_02: I doubt it.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see a couple of weeks, what it looks like, but I, I guarantee it'll still be closed off.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_03: they say they're going to be done in 25 but it's not going to be they're not going
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_03: to be opening everything up in january for the 25 session i bet i bet a bunch of it
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_03: they're going to be finishing up like last week a session they open the capitol
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_03: yeah once we leave it'll be great it'll be awesome um so uh and you serve on both
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_03: the higher education and education committee do you have anyone else that serves on
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_03: both of those committees or are you the only one
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Tracy Kramer is kind of in the same boat I'm in.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're both on joint ways and means education on education,
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: and she's on early learning education and I'm on higher education.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_01: So she and I kind of circle education top to bottom.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see where we, we'll see where we end up for next session.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: Get you on health care or something.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: We're going to start rounding out your.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was trying to get on natural resources,
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: but then I was asked the question of who would I kick off of natural resource?
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh, I don't think I'd kick off anybody out of natural resources.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, what's the problem?
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_01: Just add a couple more.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, come on.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: What's your what's your problem?
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see where that goes.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like all the Republicans want to be a natural resources and all the Dems want to be
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: on the green energy where they want to be on energy and climate.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, gosh, I might end up on health care.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_01: We'll just go happy medium.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see where that goes.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think Pam Marsh has to be on Natural Resources.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_03: She could probably swap her out for you.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's fun.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm looking at it.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_03: Have a Republican majority on there.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_03: Sounds great to me.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_03: I guess Helm still wants to be the chair, though, and so he has to stay.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I see your point.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's not the worst committee.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's not the worst committee.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, co-chairs.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's very good.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, Gamba.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_03: I'd kick Gamba off of Natural Resources in a heartbeat.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_03: Kid you not.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_02: He's from Portland.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: What does he know about Natural Resources?
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, seriously.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_03: You guys were doing so good there for a little bit.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_03: Brian and I probably thought about taking a vacation.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_03: Carrie Lopez and Emily McIntyre hosting Crosstabs would be fantastic.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_03: You guys did excellent.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: I like how you guys work together.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's probably why Brian invited you both on at the same time.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_03: It sounded good to me, but I didn't know you guys would work so well together.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_03: So hopefully we'll get to see you guys work together in the legislature.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_03: For Crosstabs, you can find us.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you found us if you're listening.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_03: But if you want to make sure that you're subscribed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_03: You can sign up for email notifications, crosstabs.studio.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're addicted to Twitter, at Brian G. Iverson, at Reagan Canope on Twitter.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_03: And we'll see you all next time.