Sockeye Blog Archives

The last few years have taken a toll on most Americans and on America itself. The Great Recession has put millions of people out of work, increased foreclosures by big banks, and offered drastic cutbacks to basic social services such as schools and assistance for struggling families.

There are positive signs about overall economic growth (along with evidence that Oregon is outpacing the rest of the country), but much of the recovery has yet to reach middle-class families or really anyone who doesn't have a private jet.

To illustrate:

In a bleak article, the New York Times details American family net worth over time. In 2007, the median was $126,400. In 2010, it was $77,300 -- just 60% of the median three years prior. Median household income fell more than 10% in the same time period. "The Fed found that middle-class families had sustained the largest percentage losses in both wealth and income during the crisis, limiting their ability and willingness to spend."

One basic reason for this disproportion is that the wealth of the middle class is mostly in housing, and the median amount of home equity dropped to $75,000 in 2010 from $110,000 in 2007. And while other forms of wealth have recovered much of the value lost in the crisis, housing prices have hardly budged.

At the same time, the plummet in household incomes has added weight to the debt held by these families--if there's a silver lining, it's that the economic crash saw interest rates fall, but that's cold comfort for a generation that's finding itself worse off than their parents.

What will this mean for our country's economic future? Famed economist Joseph Stiglitz recently penned a blistering essay for Slate about how income inequality is destroying the American dream. Some high--errrr, rather, low--lights:

In the “recovery” of 2009-2010, the top 1 percent of US income earners captured 93 percent of the income growth. Other inequality indicators—like wealth, health, and life expectancy—are as bad or even worse. The clear trend is one of concentration of income and wealth at the top, the hollowing out of the middle, and increasing poverty at the bottom.

Stiglitz points to the ways in which those at the top have rigged the system to benefit themselves--at the expense of the rest of us. "Some have obtained their wealth by exercising monopoly power," he writes, "others are CEOs who have taken advantage of deficiencies in corporate governance to extract for themselves an excessive share of corporate earnings; and still others have used political connections to benefit from government munificence: either excessively high prices for what the government buys (drugs), or excessively low prices for what the government sells (mineral rights)."

What it adds up to is an unbalanced recovery--and that won't change without significant changes to current policies.

America is paying a high price for [increasing inequality]. Inequality leads to lower growth and less efficiency. Lack of opportunity means that its most valuable asset—its people — is not being fully used. Many at the bottom, or even in the middle, are not living up to their potential, because the rich, needing few public services and worried that a strong government might redistribute income, use their political influence to cut taxes and curtail government spending. This leads to underinvestment in infrastructure, education, and technology, impeding the engines of growth.

In Oregon, we're seeing the impacts in cuts to our K-12 schools, higher education, and basic services for seniors and people with disabilities. But we're also seeing it in the strain that's being placed on charities and food pantries that help those in need. With the number of people in need still at record levels (and growing), these local nonprofit services are stretched beyond capacity. If the New York Times and Slate pieces didn't depress you enough, head on over to the Oregonian to read about troubled times for food pantries.

Here's a picture of a really cute puppy because this story is so depressing.

Let’s face it, the news today can be downright depressing. It’s important to remember that things aren’t all bad — in fact, there are some really great things happening around us all the time. Introducing, The Bright Side of Life!

Happy Friday, folks! Here are a few stories that brightened things up around the OO office this week:

It's not often you get to say this these days, so here goes: big news in the Shakespeare world! Archaeologists in London have discovered remnants of the theater where some of Shakespeare's plays were first performed. The venue is even "immortalized as "this wooden O" in the prologue to Henry V."

What's that? A mathematic problem deemed 'unsolvable' by none other than Sir Isaac Newton? 'I got this,' says 16-year old Shouryya Ray.

Too cute: A six-year old boy heard that his favorite football player, Brandon Jacobs, was transferring teams. After finding out why, he comes up with a simple solution.

A new playground designed specifically for children with disabilities is being built in Portland, "the first in the city's park system to provide disabled access on every play feature."

This is Part Five of a five-part series looking at the new Editorial Page Editor of the Oregonian.

Upset about budget cuts that are devastating Oregon’s local schools? Don’t expect much help from the new head of the Oregonian Editorial Board, Erik Lukens.

While Lukens was at the helm of the Bend Bulletin’s Editorial Board, the paper published opinions about school funding and its advocates that ranged from indifferent to outright hostile.

Is that what we can now expect from the Oregonian?

The dramatic increase in budget cuts to K-12 schools over the past two years (piled on top of two decades of ongoing cuts) has sparked an emergence of frustrated parents, students, teachers and community members who are organizing to make a difference.

Portland-area groups like UPSET, Invest in Oregon Kids, Oregon SOS, and others have joined new and existing groups around the state calling on legislators to do something about our state’s school funding crisis. Ask anyone involved in our schools, and you’ll hear the same story: There’s a sense of anger, frustration, and motivation among people who care about our schools that hasn’t been felt in some time.

If past is prologue, these advocates won’t find an ally in Erik Lukens.

To wit:

In response to an October 2009 report showing that Oregon has the second highest student-per-teacher ratio in the country, the Bulletin ran an editorial blaring the headline “Don’t Feel Guilty About Class Size.”

The Editorial board wanted to make sure that none of their readers were influenced by the dismal class size report when they were deciding how to vote on Measures 66 and 67.

Because high student-teacher ratios translate into large classes, and because large class size has become a politically potent issue, you can be sure tax-hike supporters are licking their chops...

...

As the January tax-hike vote approaches, Oregonians will be encouraged to consider the state’s large classes a consequence of misplaced priorities on a grand scale. Funding problems will be blamed on the state’s tax structure. They’ll be blamed on the initiative system. They’ll be blamed on taxpayers themselves, who, presumably, are just too cheap to support schools adequately. If tax-hike supporters thought it might help their cause, they’d probably blame Oregon’s student-teacher ratio on global warming, too.

Whatever the underlying problems might be, voters will be urged to make up for them by raising taxes on other people — namely businesses and the wealthy. And to oppose the tax hikes, of course, will be to embrace the disgrace that is Oregon’s class-size ranking. For which, naturally, cheapskate voters should be deeply, deeply ashamed.

The very next day, Lukens’ paper argued that smaller class sizes don’t make a difference in the quality of a student’s education unless they’re accompanied by a teacher merit pay system based on test results.

This ignores completely the large body of research showing that smaller class sizes—especially in early grades—have a significant impact on student achievement, not to mention plenty of anecdotal evidence from local classrooms about the impact of individual instruction between teachers and students.

Why would Lukens let facts about class sizes get in the way of a political, anti-teacher rant?

With Lukens and the Bend Bulletin, a policy disagreement isn’t just a policy disagreement--it’s an opportunity to hurl insults at those they disagree with. When a group of school districts and supporters filed a lawsuit to require the state legislature to adequately fund K-12 schools, the editorial board called them “a litigious mob composed largely of public school districts” and “the more-money crowd.”

After belittling their legal and political argument, the Bulletin said of these school supporters, “They should be embarrassed.”

One area of education where the Lukens and the Bulletin offer their full-throated support, however, is online charter schools, in particular Oregon Connections Academy, part of a national chain of schools under the for-profit Connections Academy corporation.

Nothing scares the bureaucratic, special-interest clogged, education establishment like school choice. Oregon’s state Board of Education didn’t exactly run away screaming when it got two applications for online charter schools. But it did reject them on Thursday.

...

Board members are also concerned about the quality of the online public schools. That could be another reason to keep new ones small.

It would be, except Connections Academy has not floundered academically.

Actual Fact: Oregon Connections Academy has a graduation rate of about 30%, one of the worst records in the whole state. The reason public school officials and advocates are wary of corporate enterprises like Connections Academy is because they have such dismal track records. It would be reckless and irresponsible for officials to open the gates to these untested, unaccountable online schools without putting in place rigid safeguards.

Despite its dismal record, Oregon Connections Academy enjoys a great deal political protection in Oregon due to its close ties to Republican leaders--in particular, Rep. Matt Wingard (R-Wilsonville), who is a paid employee of Oregon Connections Academy and the Republican Co-Chair of the House Education Committee.

Bottom Line: In his time at the Bend Bulletin, Erik Lukens was dismissive and hostile to the real concerns of parents and teachers, instead pushing a failing experiment in school privatization putting out-of-state corporate profits ahead of students.

According to the most recent reports from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Oregon's economy grew at a rate of 4.7% in 2011. Tough to conceptualize what that means? How's this map for some context:

Wowza. Oregon was in the highest quintile for economic growth. Further, data shows that Oregon's economy actually grew at the second-fastest rate of any state in the nation. (See the Oregon Center for Public Policy's analysis for more.)

I guess it goes to show that while there are some who would try to tell you that Oregon's business and economic environment is in bad shape, those who are looking at real, hard data report a different story: one where Oregon's economic future shines pretty bright.

Keep that in mind next time you hear corporate lobbyists pushing for more tax breaks for the big corporations they represent. These figures show that lobbyists' motives are less inspired by "improving Oregon's economy" and more about helping their rich clients get richer.

In fact, though Oregon's economy is growing overall, there are working-class familes who aren't feeling it; particularly in light of budget cuts to schools, police forces, and human services, these individuals and families need exactly the opposite of what these lobbyists argue for.

Businesses thrive when Oregon has a strong economy that works for everybody. Tax breaks for corporations and the rich would create even deeper cuts to our schools and other services, which would only serve to slow down Oregon's recovery.