Sam Walks his Talk for Schools
Jane Ames
There are several ways to walk your talk for schools. Commissioner Adams has been visiting various schools in Portland since January, talking with and reading to students, discussing City Government with Bill Stack’s U.S. Government class at Wilson High in SW Portland, and celebrating reading with Woodstock Elementary 5th graders in SE Portland. Sam had great fun reading to 3rd graders from Karen Harding-Williams and Marion Heinz’s classes at Whitman Elementary in SE Portland in early March, learning about the programs offered at De La Salle High School in North Portland, and serving as a panelist for Matt Sten’s students’ High School County Budget Process at Madison High on SE 82nd. Sam and the staff enjoy the City Hall visits students make from time to time. They come from all over Portland and various towns in Oregon. The work, interest, energy and thoughts of our students provide important perspectives for Sam Adams, as well as reinforcing his deeply held conviction that it is our responsibility to provide high quality educational opportunity for students throughout Portland.
Parents and other concerned citizens called and wrote to the Commissioner at length during the school closure discussions and decisions earlier this year. It was and is a painful situation that is directly tied to our ongoing school funding crises. When the Joint Ways and Means Committee traveled around the State this spring to hear public testimony, Sam testified before their April 14th meeting at the PCC Cascade Campus in North Portland. Please click here and read his testimony. In addition, he has been to Salem several times during the past five months to talk with Legislators about adequate school funding and other issues. Sam consistently states that adequate and stable funding for our public schools is the State Legislature’s responsibility. However, if they continue to fail in that responsibility ,we will have to generate solutions on a regional or local level; allowing our public schools to decline is unacceptable. Portland’s children, as well as the City’s health and future depend on good education for all of our students. It is a problem that must be solved.
Posted by Jane Ames on June 6, 2005
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Hey Commissioner,
Glad to hear you're willing to speak up before Ways and Means. We coulda used your voice when Portland Public was closing down five elementary schools around the city, including 2 exceptionally performing ones in SW and SE. At last report, almost half the students from one of those closed schools have opted for leaving the Portland Public School system. That's around $5000 per student that now goes to Beaverton, Wilsonville or Gresham. Either that or down state if their parents opt for private schools.
Help Sam! The kids (and their homeownin' parents) need you and the rest of the council to rein in the folks at Blanchard.
To steal from the City Club motto
-publicly educated kids are riches of a city-
Posted by: Jerry | Jun 17, 2005 10:42:41 PM