When President Obama speaks, people listen—except for this week’s Rogue, the Oregon Education Association.
On March 10, Obama laid out his vision for education. He promoted teacher merit pay and greater charter school access, saying, “I call on states to reform their charter rules.”
However in Salem, the OEA, a powerful union representing 47,000 teachers, is doing its best to kill Oregon’s largest online charter school, Scio-based Oregon Connections Academy. Founded in September 2005, OCA now serves about 2,650 K-12 students.
Since 2005, OCA has battled the Oregon Department of Education over a law that says at least 50 percent of students in a virtual charter school must live in its sponsoring district. Only a small percentage of OCA’s kids live in the Linn County district, but school officials believe OCA was grandfathered in before the law took effect in 2005.
On March 5 at OEA’s request, several leading Democrats introduced Senate Bill 767, which would prohibit kids below seventh grade from attending virtual charters, ban a waiver of the 50 percent residence requirement and require permission from a student’s home district to “attend” an out-of-district virtual charter. OEA has never liked charters, which can employ non-union teachers. Online charters also require fewer teachers than conventional schools and cost districts money when students leave neighborhood schools.
OCA consultant Rob Kremer calls the bill an effort to put OCA out of business. “The bill stabs OCA in the heart, cuts their jugular and shoots them in the head,” Kremer says.
OEA spokeswoman Becca Uherbelau says OCA is siphoning money from local districts and sending it to the out-of-state, for-profit corporation that provides its curriculum. “This bill is about transparency and accountability,” Uherbelau says.
Last week, Obama said new approaches can help the world’s wealthiest nation to stop being an educational laggard. “Politics and ideology have too often trumped our progress,” Obama said. Add SB 767 and OEA to Obama’s list of culprits.
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"I write as a constituent urging you to oppose SB 767 and SB 881, which would effectively shut down public virtual schools in Oregon.
Traditional brick-and-mortar schools are not for everyone. Many children struggle in that environment, and virtual public schools have become a blessing where certain kids who need it can learn in more structured and secure surroundings. In the case of my son, CJay, virtual online school is really helping him catch up to his grade level by getting him away from an environment that was not conducive to his success. For the first time I can remember CJay is excited about school, and doing very well.
If SB 767 and 881 pass, however, CJay will be forced back into that same environment where he struggled to learn. I don
Transparency and accountability?
The OEA did not seem to care about transparency and accountability last fall, when they implied that measure 65 was somehow related to Bill Sizemore and not Phil Keisling and Norma Paulus.
The OEA does not even care about transparency and accountability when it comes to merit-based pay for teacher performance -- a reform supported by President Obama.
As a political progressive who believes in many of the core issues that the OEA supports, I have come to believe that they are arguably the most corrupting influence on the political process in the state of Oregon. A handful of people who claim to speak for 40,000 and who spend millions opposing any reform that will limit their ability to dominate Oregon's political process.
I support the rights of workers to organize, but the amount of control they have in Salem is beyond the pale.