Lawmakers, lobbyists call for changes to Measure 98

By Anna Marum | The Oregonian/OregonLive 

Last November…Oregon voters overwhelmingly approved Ballot Measure 98.

The measure promised to get many more students to earn diplomas by allocating $800 per student for career-technical courses, college-credit classes and dropout intervention programs in high schools.

But with the Legislature facing a $1.8 billion budget gap and as some critics point out weak points in the measure, what is delivered could differ…

In her December budget proposal, Gov. Kate Brown recommended allocating just $139 million to the programs in the measure…

We Respond & Your Comments

It passed – 65% – 34%. Who could be against Measure 98? After all, it was “for the children.”

Guv Kate endorsed it. But she and her government buds never thought out:

• It’s going to cost close to $300 million over 2 years. Where’s that coming from?
• Small, rural school districts won’t get enough to accomplish any of 98’s goals;
• It’s going to cannibalize other, established education programs.

Or maybe they did think it out and ignored these and other flaws in 98. Why? For the same reason Oregon AFL-CIO and the Oregon Democratic Party endorsed 98. Any money, no matter how little, that creates education programs creates union jobs.

And union jobs create union dues. And union dues morph into campaign contributions for Democrats.

So it really doesn’t make any difference if these programs are good, bad, or just plain ugly, does it?

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