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econotechie's comments:
on Equal Protection for Sexual Minorities?
You act like the school system acts independently of those who live in the district. In fact, school boards are one group of elected officals that are most responsible to their constituency. Their constituency generally cares passionately about school board decisions and have the opportunity to speak directly to the elected members at frequent and public school board meetings.
So I suspect that you are wrong. If the primary customers of the district wanted changes in school policy, they would elect different school board members that would change the policies.
posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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on Equal Protection for Sexual Minorities?
It doesnt make sense because the student did not ask why, which is the main reason Seth's response was advocacy rather than a simple answer to a question.
But if the student did ask why, suppose the response was that "I prefer to be married to someone who I can make children with." Factual? Yes. Appropriate? No. How about "I prefer to be married to a woman so that G-d approves of the relationship." Factual? Yes. (It is a true preference and belief.) Appropriate? No. I suppose I could go on and on, but the point is that a similar situation could be used to advocate for a great many ideas that would provoke controversy or outrage among a some of the parents. But thankfully it is not appropriate for public school teachers to express such preferences. Seth is learning an important lesson about being a teacher.
posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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on Equal Protection for Sexual Minorities?
If a 4th grader had asked specifically if he could use the n-word a teacher should say no, its a bad word that we do not use. If the child asks why, yes, it would be appropriate to respond that people find it offensive so it hurts people's feelings. If a 4th grader asks if he or she can call someone gay, the answers should be the same. In both cases a teacher is educating children how not to offend and bully others, which 4th graders need to learn at their age. Unlike these examples, Seth was not advocating for tolerance. He was advocating for gay marriage.
The issues that Seth's un-requested information brings up is something that school policy apparantly dictates should be taught later than 4th grade. There are many facts that we COULD teach children at any age, but all parents do not agree on what should be taught when. School policy describes what educators and the community have compromised on. If you dont agree, get involved with your school district. Run for the school board. Just calling everyone else bigots merely shows that you only understand your own point of view.
If Seth had the skills and knowledge to be a good student teacher he would have understood better why we have school policy and what it was with respect to issues involving homosexuality. As a homosexual AND an aspiring teacher it seems unlikely that he did not know where these two topics intersected. Thus, it appears that Seth was more interested in being a gay rights activist than a good elementary school teacher.
posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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on Equal Protection for Sexual Minorities?
To teacherinoregon:
If a 4th grader had asked specifically if he could use the n-word a teacher should say no, its a bad word that we do not use. If the child asks why, yes, it would be appropriate to respond that people find it offensive so it hurts people's feelings. If a 4th grader asks if he or she can call someone gay, the answers should be the same. In both cases a teacher is educating children how not to offend and bully others, which 4th graders need to learn at their age. Unlike these examples, Seth was not advocating for tolerance. He was advocating for gay marriage.
The issues that Seth's un-requested information brings up is something that school policy apparantly dictates should be taught later than 4th grade. There are many facts that we COULD teach children at any age, but all parents do not agree on what should be taught when. School policy describes what educators and the community have compromised on. If you dont agree, get involved with your school district. Run for the school board. Just calling everyone else bigots merely shows that you only understand your own point of view.
If Seth had the skills and knowledge to be a good student teacher he would have understood better why we have school policy and what it was with respect to issues involving homosexuality. As a homosexual AND an aspiring teacher it seems unlikely that he did not know where these two topics intersected. Thus, it appears that Seth was more interested in being a gay rights activist than a good elementary school teacher.
posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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on Equal Protection for Sexual Minorities?
According to his description of his conversation with the child, Seth was asked why he was not married. He did more than just answer the question, he added information about why, that the child had not asked. This seems to me to be the crux of the problem because:
1. Regardless of what people would like, gay marriage is not legal in Oregon. So Seth's additional information could be seen as promoting something illegal. Although far from a perfect analogy, think about a teacher volunterring his or her opinion about legalizing drugs or similar topics that are of an activist nature. That would be inappropriate behavior on the part of a teacher. Addressing sexual preferences with 4th graders requires more than just a short answer and I would think that an aspiring teacher who happens to be gay would have been aware of when the school ciriculum covers this topic.
2. The additional information that Seth choose to tell the child brought up a subject that the school policy does not deem appropriate until 7th grade. This would be like a child asking a male teacher if they have children and the teacher answering no, because my sperm count is low or because I have erectile dysfunction. Such an answer would also bring up sexual information that is likely not appropriate in 4th grade and I would expect similar action against any student teacher discussing it with a 4th grader.
A teacher needs to be able to use appropriate judgement about when certain sensitive topics are ok to discuss and when they need to be purposely avoided. My guess is that the school decided that Seth needed to improve his skills in this aread before being exposed to young children.
posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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on Bracing for Bad Budget Numbers
Legislatively mandated public employee layoffs that somehow parallel average private sector layoffs would help create incentives for public employees to be more efficient and thus be less likely to lose their jobs in some future round of layoffs. This is how the private sector works.
posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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on Bracing for Bad Budget Numbers
Question: Given that the kicker is paid out when revenue projections are too low, there would naturally be an incentive to project future revenues conservatively, in the sense of being too high. Otherwise the state loses money. In uncertain times like these, what safeguards does Oregon have to prevent this incentive from motivating a series of conservative revenue projections that create a series of "surprise" budget deficits like we are seeing? It seems like the perverse incentive created by the kicker is forcing us to deal with deficit after deficit instead of assuming a more pessimistic projection several cycles ago and then dealing with the turbulent cuts less often. Thats how I handle my own personal finances!
posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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on Making a District a Destination
Tturning the MC into a "destination district" implies people choosing the new MC over some other nearby Oregon destination to spend their time and money. With the state of the Oregon economy, persistant unemployment and overall lower consumption, it seems likely that this means drawing people away from Portland or nearby areas. In this case we could be robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, and undermining the economics of other areas in Portland or Oregon. Has anyone done a study, considering projections of population growth, the economic situation of Oregon residents and tax revenues to justify spending taxpayer money on doing anything at all? Perhaps the best answer is what we have seen. Continue doing nothing as long as the MC is generating positive income for Portland. Why do anything at all, at least for now?
posted 2 years, 9 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
Sure. How about starting with a law requiring stores to offer such an incentive to anyone who brings in their own bag, regardless of the type. Seems like it would be difficult to ague with a law such as this. Start simple with things that we have general concensus would cause no additional harm.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
Wow. I have always been extremely skeptical of of public advocates paid by the industry. But I have to say that Senator Hass is the one who seems to be trying to manipulate the discussion with emotional yet unverifiable information. I haven't decided exactly where I sit on this issue, but I am sure glad that Mr. Joseph is there to keep the discussion on verifiable issues. I'm also glad I live in Beaverton so that I can vote against someone prefers to use emotional imagery rather than address facts behind this issue.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
According to the speaker, the paper would have decomposed into methane gas that is warming the air around you as we speak, so to speak... :-)
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
But one that according to the speaker may have no other uses and may end up released into the environmen t rather than buried in the ground. If you know of other uses for ethane, please enlighten us. Where would it go if they stopped making these bags?
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
The idea is that these super thin bags are used multiple times and substitute for other products that use more plastic or are worse for the environment in some other way.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
The speaker said that this Ethane is taken from natural gas, not oil. (Natural gas mostly produced in the United States.)
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
These thin thin bags are the perfect size for great garbage can liners so I have almost never thrown one away after a single use. If they go away, I'll have to buy big thick garbage bags that will often end up being thrown away half full and so will end up using much more plastic than before a ban. Why not use technology and design recycling machinery that can process these bags? Require it by law if necessary. This anti-plastic bad law would simply pass the cost on to grocers rather than recyclers.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on 66 and 67 Have Passed. Now What?
Actually, Ive heard this question a lot recently, even by the "Yes" side. The state should certainly save as well. I am hopeful that our legislature's next work will to reform the kicker.
My point is that the need to save applies to businesses as well. Instead, I speculate that some businesses may not save enough because they seek in the short term to minimize corporate taxes on profits by minimizing profits that should have been saved for the future. I don't believe that this point has been brought out enough in our discussions of tax policy. Why? Because the complaint that over-taxing will kill businesses is so easy to make and most people are sympathetic to it. We forget, that for new and more efficient businesses to grow, old businesses must often die.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on 66 and 67 Have Passed. Now What?
To RachelMurfitt: Sounds like the company may not be run efficiently and should make way for a new more efficient company that in the long term will grow to provide more jobs and/or more stable jobs in the economy. Sorry to be brutal, but having a free market economy means that not all companies survive forever nor should they.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on 66 and 67 Have Passed. Now What?
Economic theory tells us that every business WILL increase their prices to consumers to cover some part of the tax. Another part will come from profits of the corporation. Which pays more depends on how consumers will react to higher prices, e.g. will a 10% price increase cause consumers to buy 5%, 10% or 20% less of a product? If 5% then more of the tax is passed on. If 20% then the corporation will end up paying a larger portion. The more consumers would cut back purchases for a given price increase, the more the tax will be paid from corporate profits and vice a versa.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on 66 and 67 Have Passed. Now What?
Listening to Brent, I want to ask him where are companies' savings from the pre-recession boom years went? Were they paid in high salaries to himself and other management? Or were profits minimized by unnecessary spending on entertainment and other "luxury" benefits to that are untaxed. If he is losing money now, these types of past inefficiencies that prevented the companies from establishing their own rainy day funds may be the cause.
In any case, we must all remember that in a free market, business failures are necessary to weed out the inefficient ones and make way for more efficient and fiscally sound ones that will in the future, employ even more people than he is now.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on English as a Second Language
Yes - there are studies in academic journals that attempt to measure some of these issues. If you are interested in this issue, you may want to attend a presentation by Dr. Myriam Met this Wednesday (Jan 20) at 6:30pm at Benson High School. She is an expert on foreign language immersion programs, although this presentation seems to be focused on second language acquisition rather than english as a second language. See here for more info:
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/news/2569.htm
Search scholar.google.com on her name if you want to know more about her work. The articles you find will probably also lead to ones that discuss attempts to quantitatively measure the benefits of learning a second language.
posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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