HB 2624 Sets up new learning experience for secondary education students

03/14/2015
HB 2624 VOTE:NO
Died in Committee
INTRODUCED HB 2624 

Directs Oregon Education Investment Board and Department of Education to advance career and technical education opportunities by setting up a whole new program and bureaucracy to develop plans, guidelines, requirements etc. to create a new curriculum, teacher education and outcomes in order to provide a new learning experience for secondary education students. The program is unfunded but will take funds from the General Fund. Fiscal impact unknown and “emergency declared.”

Personal Choice
Government interference has greatly reduced the ability of individuals to control their own destiny and future. A number of years ago government decided to reduce and/or eliminate classes in shop, mechanics and so on. Everyone had to be prepared to go on to “higher education.’ Federal dollars came in by the billions to support this notion and that greatly increased the costs of tuition,books, etc. Jobs went overseas and students were unprepared to to manual labor, such as construction, plumbing, electrical, etc. High schools should be teaching courses to prepare the future working men and women in technical and practical courses using personnel already in the system. This bill will require an additional 18 hours of classwork and training to qualify to teach these courses.
Fiscal Responsiblity
This bill will require an unknown amount of funding in an ongoing educational endeavor to train and prepare high school students for technical, hands-on jobs and career paths. Teachers will have to be trained and/or retrained to carry out the requirements of this bill. The amount of tax dollars required bi-annually are not even estimated and the dollar amount to begin this program is left blank. Over-burdened tax payers will again be required to pay even more taxes to fulfill the requirements of this bill.
Limited Government
Another “good” bill which amplifies even more the need for additional funding and which establishes even more guidelines and controls over education in the state. Education should be funded, controlled and guided at the local level. The centralization of education in state bureaucrats has not improved education (recently 49th in the country) in recents years but it has indeed added a heavy tax burden on the working man and on property owners.
Local Control
Education should be maintained and controlled by the local communities. Government intervention and control has tragically raised the cost of education by creating a huge bureaucracy at both the state and the federal levels.