SALEM, Ore. — Among the policy ideas lawmakers are considering for Oregon’s troubled education system are longer school years, limited class sizes and more access to state subsidized preschool.
The Statesman Journal reports that since January, the Joint Committee on Student Success has been meeting with educators, families and business leaders across the state to figure out what is going well in schools, and what isn’t.
The primary task of the committee is to address the four-year graduation rate, which, at 77 percent, is the third lowest in the country.
“We are really at a crossroads that we either fix it or we spiral into a really negative place,” said Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, co-vice chairman of the joint committee. “If one thinks there are issues in schools today, it can be much worse if we don’t act.”
