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An Educated State
Eighty-seven percent of Oregonians over the age of 25 have a high school diploma, and only 27 percent of us have graduated from college. For years, educational leaders have pondered ways to grow those percentages, and in 2008, the Post Secondary Quality Education Commission laid the ground work (pdf) for a more educated Oregon with their 40/40/20 goal -- that's 40 percent of Oregonians with a bachelors degree, 40 percent with an associates degree or trade school, and 20 percent with only a high school diploma by the year 2025.
That means 100 percent of Oregonians should be graduating from high school or getting a GED before age 25. Things are looking better this year, but it's still no easy task.
Numerous studies support the notion that a more educated population is more economically productive and less likely to rely on social services. But in a time of economic recession, will Oregon be able to accomplish this goal? Recession aside, is it possible? How does education affect the state of the economy?
Are you a college or high school dropout? What stood in your way? Are you a first-generation college student? What challenges have you faced? How would a more educated Oregon affect your life?
GUESTS:
- Lyea Jeanette: Student at Portland Community College enrolled in the Gateway to College program
- Peter Collier: Associate professor of sociology at Portland State University and director of the Students First Mentoring Program
- Candice Vickers: Recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English from Portland State University, currently working on a Masters degree in Education
- Duncan Wyse: Chair of the Oregon Board of Education and president of the Oregon Business Council
Tagged as: education · graduation · school
Photo credit: benrybobenry / Flickr / Creative Commons
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I think that a Liberal Education is good for people but I don't think that everybody needs to go to college. I'd like to see state funding given to Union Apprenticeship programs and with it support and requirements for those apprentices to take college type humanities and social sciences courses, the types of courses that make up a Liberal Education for University grads. Some Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Basic Understanding of Science for the General Population, that type of thing.
The more education the better, but tailor some programs to the laborers, to the sales clerks, to bank tellers, to the people who do most of the actual work that keeps our country running.
Teach some boys and girls how to operate construction machinery if they're interested, because most of that is learned haphazardly and not in structured programs. Those operators are of high value and they deserve higher Liberal education along with their workaday skills. And women can operate modern construction equipment and it pays very very well along with being outside and contributing to building things that you can drive by and brag that you "helped build that".
The population needs to be well educated for a democracy to work and I think that should include the everyday workers.
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Too true, Tom. A college education is great. I wouldn't trade mine for anything. But, college isn't for everyone. As you point out, there are good paying, middle-class jobs in all kinds of trades and professions that don't require a college degree. Our public education is designed to funnel students to college, but does a poor job of preparing students for something other than college. Our state (and nation) now has a shortage of plumbers, electricians, heavy equipment operators, machinists, carpenters, welders, and all the other "infrastructure" jobs that make modern life possible. This labor crisis will only become more acute as the boomers retire. How about them?
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I think most people can agree that education is very important, and usually we all benefit from an educated population.
If 40% of the population had a Bachelor degree, 40% had an associates you would watch pay rates DROP dramaitcally for people with degrees.
I think this just stresses the importance of self-reliance, I worked my way through college for the last 10 years, and have 3 classes left to get a Bachelors. I paid out of pockect and used the GI Bill, I worked for what I got, No one should have a right a college degree, it would devalue what productive people have worked for.
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As 'uncommonsense' comments on rights to education; one might believe that no one has a right to a degree without attending school for it; but what is worse now is that the economy is rendering many people who have degrees as unemployed; losing their homes in foreclosure. What good is a degree when there are over 15 million unemployed nationwide, no less the higher percentage in Oregon per capita now?
I designed and built my own home for my first family 20 years ago. I just lost it in foreclosure last year due to lack of work here in my native state. I do not have a college degree but instead I am self taught. I was hired to teach in a university as adjunct Professor of Astronomy a few years ago. My award winning astronomy art is featured in NASA web sites and has inspired the world of artists and astronomers. I am asked to lecture about this. I receive no pay for these lectures; only commendation letters. People write to me and ask for my art for free! What does this tell you about a failing economy that unemployed workers cannot afford to attend school for a degree? I would love to attend school but as a local Oregonian, many local jobs now in few are taken by new immigrants to the state. The president says that Pell Grants are increasing to help us attend school. Is this true? I have student loans from the past I cannot pay now due to increased job losses. The real problem is lack of jobs leading to lack of affordability to educate the masses. You might be one of a few who have a degree but you will now be surrounded by a degraded society out of work; degree or not. (400 architectural engineers out of work in Portland with Masters and Phd’s!)
Mark Seibold, Artist-Astronomer
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Did I forget to mention that not only teachers jobs are being cut everywhere; yet worse, some institutions such as Eastern Oregon University is virtually going out of business?
No one can afford to be educated in this economy. Even if you are, good luck in finding the jobs. 300,000 jobs are being eliminated nationally ever month now. I believe most of those positions were employees with degrees; MBA's Masters and PhD’s. Something has obviously gone wrong with our business and higher education systems. The government perhaps?
Mark Seibold, Artist-Astronomer
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I apologize for another reiteration but I should also point out that I had attended a 2 yr college with my own earned wages in the late 1960's ~ early 1970's just out of high school in 1972 to pay for the tuition for a couple years of classes. I also returned to school many years later again. I have worked solid since age 16 in 1970 till 2000 when the job situation in America really started falling apart. At 55 yrs age in August, I hope to collect my early retirement pension, but now even that retirement pension is compromised and diminished due to the educated investment Madoff's of America. The life clock is ticking; money is now becoming worthless in our society. It is merely a dated and dead concept of the past. I have also worked overseas teaching in a third world nation for no pay. You think its bad here? Travel and learn.
Just because someone does not earn the final paper degree does not mean they are not worthy of a descent career. Where does our society judge one as better for completing the degree and another who is hired to teach without a completed degree as I did? It is really only mere opinion of judged conventional and traditional perceived worth by school law, is it not? This is no longer the real world in the US when the government deems closing thousands of manufacturing jobs [ie; US auto workers] and moves them to cheap labor in Mexico. Do you think a degree shingle hung on a wall will change this? Let’s change the greed factor math of America first. Is that being taught in school? Especially the schools going out of business? Can you say MBA’s out of work? Sure you can.
Mark, Artist-Astronomer, Portland OR
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Investment in educating the population is an investment into a healthy, productive and thriving society. Education impacts our decision making and is correlated to socioeconomic status. It is not merely an indicator of job/wage potential. As noted in the American Journal of Health, "Education is an important indicator of health, in part through the knowledge of a healthful diet and health-inducing behaviors" (March, 2009). The big picture is that an educated population is a healthier population resulting in less health disparities and lower health care costs. Less money spent on health care increases disposable income that potentially will be invested into other sectors of the economy.
Self-reliance is an asset that is learned through many social constructs and schools play a part in developing that skill. Even then, relying on ones' self to succeed is only part of the equation. One would not have been able to work for what they have, had not the opportunity to work and earn the GI bill through the military been made available. I write from experience, as I too have earned the GI Bill. I worked very hard for it and believe I would have been more successful had college been more affordable from the get go. I started working my way through college at 18 and often times had to drop classes so that I could pick up more work hours to support myself. This cycle ended when I joined the Air Force at age 23 in order to get money for college. Now, at age 32, I am within 2 terms of attaining a Bachelor degree and will be a first generation college graduate.
In the pursuit of happiness, health and longevity, everyone deserves the right to a College degree and it should be made affordable so that students can spend more time in their studies and less time being distracted by the stress of having to work to pay for school related costs.
A more educated society may have been able to circumvent the economic troubles that have fallen on all of our shoulders. Ultimately our decisions effect not only ourselves but society as a whole. Everything is connected.
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It would be great if the government looked at education assistance as an investment and would steer funds (and students) in a direction that will give the best return on that investment.
We have experts, economists and so forth, who know what fields are likely to see growth in the future and can tell us what fields desperately need workers right now (think nursing).
On top of that, we need educated people in our society if our government is going to work properly. Educated citizens are educated voters. Educated voters make for better government.
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Assuming that increasing the number of degreed residents will increase employment is magical thinking. What will all these college grads do for a living? Are there that many jobs going wanting for lack of degreed applicants?
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I am a first generation college graduate, and have found that the obstacles in place after graduation can sometimes be just as daunting as they were going into school- for example, a new kind of pressure to "make it" in a chosen career can become overwhelming as does the feeling of responsibility to the rest of your family to be "successful." A certain freedom to explore and experience the world is superseded with obligation and duty.
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As a former Oregon Student Association board member, I can tell you that to reach this 40% goal, the state legislature is going to have to step-up funding for higher ed. This is perhaps is the greatest of the obsticals facing us. I'm not naieve in that I know money does not grow on trees and the state budget is what it is. 40% b.a. or b.s. holders state wide will be a long, hard trudge in even the best of circumstances.
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I am finishing up my MA in Liberal/Global studies and moved to Oregon about a month ago to teach. No one told me about the unemployment rate here for college instructors (as well as for everyone else)--Talk about not doing one's homework!
I have enjoyed a great life with my journalism degree for the past 20 years, something I couldn't have done without my university experience. Now that I am knocking on the door of 60, it will be interesting to see how important adavanced education is for those who are getting a little "long in the tooth."
Peter Deane
Salem
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My parents were first generation to have college education. By the time I finished (1970) you already needed a Master's Degree and now you need a PhD.
Actually we don't need more 'college' educated people, we need more Apprenticeship programs that focus on skills.
BYT ... there is no such thing as 'unskilled' workers. Everyone must have skills to do their job.
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Are there too many people for too few jobs? Several decades ago we embarked on a process of mechanization. Robots replaced people in factories and created new and better products at the expense of people not being able to work to afford them.
I hear India is churning out eight million engineers a year with college degrees, but their economy only has need for about one million of them.
If we allow those on Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to create a boom-and-bust economy, are we insane for expecting there to be jobs and an easier pursuit of the "American Dream"?
There is also depreciation in education. Today's bachelor degree might be equivalent to a grade school diploma from 50 years ago. Sure, certain technical degrees are meaningful today, but how many of us actually learn "readin, ritein and rithmatic"?
How many of us can start and sustain businesses? We need more people with sense and ethics first, and a college degree second. (Common sense is an oxymoron, that is, people don't exhibit much of it.)
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Ethics in business practices is seriously lacking. Looking at the culprits behind the demise of the US economy lends evidence to this.
Common sense is created through knowedge. Create common access to knowledge, create common sense. Everything I learned to be successful in life, I learned in school, work and the military. College gave me the ability to communicate and convey ideas that would have otherwise remained dormant or lost in translation.
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An excellent book for those interested in these concerns is Limbo, written by Alfred Lubrano. He is a journalist; he writes about his own experiences and brings in many interviews with others who were the first in their families to go to college. These stories illuminate the difficulties encountered by students (and graduates) "straddling" two cultures - the culture of their working-class families and that of the professional and college world they are trying to enter. He also brings in experts from academia who are studying class and culture.
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Many of the college grads I know, including myself, are not making a living wage. This includes people with Master's degrees. We need more jobs for college grads. Oregon does not create jobs for highly skilled people that aren't technical (i.e., health care, finance, IT). College does not mean instant success. Personality and focus does. But the people with Master's degrees I know are focused and very capable, but some have more theroetical experience. This makes many of us overqualified and underqualified at the same time.
I have also heard that having a liberal arts degree or certain master's degrees may take a couple years to pay off. I earned my udergrad in 1993 and master's in public administration in '07 and have never made more than $18,000 annually.
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"I have also heard that having a liberal arts degree or certain master's degrees may take a couple years to pay off. I earned my udergrad in 1993 and master's in public administration in '07 and have never made more than $18,000 annually."
A Union Construction apprentice starts out their four years of learning their trade while earning money at a prorated apprentice rate and they don't end up with massive loan bills to pay off. And even a Laborers Union member makes more than $18,000 per annum.
When you consider that a Union Member starts out making money four years earlier than a college grad and does not have many many years of huge education loans to payoff, well, I wonder just how big the final monetary advantage of a degree ends up being.
And I have met some very wise construction folks, like one equipment operator who offered to give his daughter the down payment on a new house if she skipped a big expensive wedding and just eloped or had a small ceremony. Smart guy!
And many construction company owners did not go to college, one example I know of was worth more than $190 million at around 1995, and built one of your Portland I5 bridges.
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I went back to college in my 50's. I graduated from Warner Pacific College in 2001 with a BS In Human Development Family Studies at the age of 56. I found that even with a new BS age decrimination still prevents an older person from getting employment.
I am told that in Oregon a BS does not mean to thing, as I have never been able to fine full time work.
All I got was $35,000.00 in school loans to pay back.
Now at 64 I still need work
Kathie Fullmer
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I suggest checking into operating construction equipment, it's very good money and we need more women in construction. You can be paying off those loans while you're looking for the job you really want.
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I know that Finland is in the process of doing what this Oregon goal is about, so I suggest that they be asked what and how they're going about it. Finland makes Polar heart rate monitors and Nokia phones so they are on the cutting edge of technology. They realized that they needed more education to make it in the world and so what can we learn from them?
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I think I am a bit of an oddity in this area. I intentionally did not go to college.
I had, and still have the view, that college is great for some, but for many it is unnecessary and conformist. I just always felt, if I am going to make it, I could make it either way. I wanted to teach myself. I also resented this notion that you can't be well educated and intelligent without it---especially considering the quality of many graduates. Plus, I often heard from so many teachers how college was the best time of their lives. Maybe, they felt this would be a motivator, to me it seemed sad. I didn't want my life to be about that---college being the pinnacle, a college to define me.
I should add, I have taken many classes at community colleges in areas that I was simply interested in. I also had enough credits for an associates degree in high school from dual enrollment at a CC. I graduated third in my high school class. So my story isn't one of excuses to justify my ineptitude.
Not everyone needs college. Not everyone needs a degree. It is not because they are average either and they want to "do most of the actual work that keeps our country running." -
I found the topic to be particularly laughable in the show today. Having a discussion about increasing the number of college graduates while simultaneously reducing the higher ed budget by 15-20 percent does not seem to make sense.
A 14% tuition offset by increase in the Oregon college assistance program? The advice just given about turning a BA in History to a 2-year in vet med or a trade program? The real question is there are many graduates coming out as qualified teachers while schools are cutting teachers by the hundreds.
Face it, Oregon does not value higher education. I have lived here since 1980, have a bachelors, work at a university here, and have always found Oregon not increasing support for higher ed.
OUS has stated that four of the eight campuses are not self-sustaining. Time to down size to increase support. Oregon is in the bottom of funding for hgher ed.
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I was a first generation college student in my family. Not having been to college, my parents didn't really know how to get me ready for it. I never did my homework in high school and rarely studied. Luckily, I played an instrument and received a full scholarship to a prestigious music conservatory. Although I could keep up with the playing aspect, I was very much overwhelmed by the academic standards. I struggled, failed classes and BARELY got my degree.
Although I am lucky that I finished, I often feel like I'm not as educated as my peers because of the small amount that I actually learned and retained due to my poor study skills.
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"I never did my homework in high school and rarely studied."
I can relate to that. It was thirty years after I started college that I took some psychology classes at LCC, Lane Community College, and just out of curiousity signed up for a class named something like "How to Study in College" and I was just wowed at the techniques available to use in learning. I think those techniques should be taught to elementary school kids. The book was by Walter Pauk "How to Study in College" and I highly recommend it and a similar class for anyone going back to school or starting out school and worried about their study habits.
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I suggest that we ought to fight really hard to keep the people who make it into college from dropping out, fight to help them succeed. There is a tradition of a lot of kids getting weeded out in Freshman year and I think we ought to fight like hell to keep them in.
That probably means a lot more counselors and maybe mentors and keeping the dialogue going with the students.
I wonder what the Ivy League and schools like Cal Tech, Stanford, and MIT do to keep their students on the right path. Surely they must put a lot of effort into making their kids succeed.
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The missing part of this discussion is how is the state going to provide these high paying jobs these newly educated people. As it stands today I have a bachelor’s degree and I can’t even get a serving job. In the future I hope it is not necessary to get a masters to be a bartender, but that seems like the situation that the state is setting up.
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As a first generation college student, college is only the first obstacle. I found that after I graduated, there was nobody to help me learn how to find the types of jobs that I was looking for!
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At 50, I went to college for the first time and will graduate from PCC in the Fall. I didn't go back to school for me as much as for my two boys. You can't tell your kids that its important that they go to college when, as an adult, you have not gone to college yourself.
I think this is an important lesson for all parents and their children.
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I dropped out of college in 1980. My parents did not give any encouragement or financial support to attend college when I was young, and I never saw it as very important.
Now, in my late 40's, I am going back to college. It is much more difficult now as I work and am a mother too.
I am torn because I am committed to living in a rural area of Oregon, but I really want my degree. Even with a college degree, there are very few job opportunities available for college educated people. My joice of degree is limited to my job opportunities.
As a parent, I am encougraging and financially helping my oldest son go to college. I know that he will never be able to work here, and he must leave our community to be employed. I struggle to find ways to motivate him to succeed in college and see the value in his education.
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What first generation students miss is the cultural capital that other students have. It is difficult for us to know what we don't know. What financial aid is, what are the services available at colleges. These are things that students with family that have gone to college know without having been told or taught that. There is so much that we need to catch up with.
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I've attempted to attend college a few times. I did grauated a 2 year program for bench jeweler skills, (first in my family to complete any higher education degree) but aftwards found the job market didn't pay more than minimum wages. I've tried a few times to finish a BA degree, but I feel so overwhelmed by working too many hours to live and attending college. For me it's the money balance and being able to concentrate on college work. I admire those that can work full time and complete a college degree, but I am not one of those people. I wish there was more financial help and support while taking this leap to better yourself. Maybe there is support out there that I don't know about. I'm scared to barrow the money to live while attending college because of hearing how difficult finding a job is and that late payments will ruin my credit when not paid on the banks terms.
What help is out there? Saying they want 40% is a nice idea, but what assistance will the state provide to make this happen? What is available now? I'm one of those people that will take on this challenge, but I need assistance and information that will help me be successful.
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What have you to help the returning/older student. I feel like I'm ahead of the young ones with life experience and education, but ignored as a 'missed the boat' -er. I am a white, middle class, middle aged, unemployed woman. My 401k is gone. How can I get ahead, a second chance, have a future and not die in debt? Thanks for talking about the reading/writing resouce center. Who Knew?!?
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I'm adding a comment about long-term goals and bring an element of reality to Dr. Wyse discussion.
My husband has no college degree, works full time, and provides for our family of three; our son goes to private school. I have a doctorate degree (Ph.D.), publications, etc, and have been unemployed and looking for job for five-six years. I worked as a secretary for three years and no one offered me a higher wage because of my high education. I do not see a proof to the theory. My example is far from being just a single occurrence.
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By trying to get a higher college graduation ate we are actually lowering the level of education in college and high school and making it more difficult for motivated students to get a quality education.
My mother has only a high school education, and her grammar and writing skills are much better than most of the people I met in college. One of my friends asked her to proof read his Masters thesis. His grammar is terrible-- it makes you wonder what exactly the meaning of the degree is.
I think that we need to increase the difficulty of getting a high school diploma, not lower the standards just to get people through. That's why it's gotten more diffucult to get a job with a lower education, and people are forced to go to college and rack up loans just to learn what used to be taught in high school.
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I believe that income dose correlate with education but I don't believe productivity does. Our society has been convinced that a four-year degree makes you a better employee. I am not so sure. I am an adult student (51) working on my bachelor degree as part of my "professional development" as a manager. I am nearly done as I need only 7 additional credits to graduate. I already have two associate degrees in a related fields. My previous experiences at the community college level compared to my university experience is completely different. I found the education offered at the CC level to be focused on outcomes and taught by highly skilled instructors. I can't say the same for my university experience. The classes are hit and miss on their value and quality, instruction in most case has been marginal, and the atmosphere of the institution is just that, institutional. I feel less like a student and more like a source of income for the university. More importantly, my productivity / skills at completing my job have not been enhanced by my university education. One could argue it has been more of a distraction than a help. To sum up my argument, I believe we are being sold an expectation that a four-year degree will lead to increased economic productivity. I believe it is a panacea that I don't think is proven in many cases. I would suggest that our focus and funds should be at CC level, not the university if want our economy to thrive.
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You can look at this post and think she should have just studied harder or you can look at this a realize that there is a chasm in our educational system.
Outwardly I should have been one of those prime candidates for collage middle class, both parents have degrees, I was read to as a child but I have a stigma of a learning disability; difficulty with reading comprehension and ADD. I shouldn't be lumped in with those that have severe disabilities but I was not able to keep up with my friends grades even though I was more socially adept then most
I tested very badly in my sats and was under the impression from my high school counselor that I had no other choices then an associates at a community college. That no universities would accept me, if they did I would not receive any financial assistance, that because of how I learn I would be to overwhelmed with higher education. I had the distinction and the stigma of being the only one of my group of friends to not earn a degree.
In grade school I tested into the TAG program but because I utilized the resource room I was denied entrance into the special programs. In high school I was denied AP classes, that I qualified for, because there had been an IEP (individual education plan) with my name on it. I was told that I was a smart girl I just learned differently but by all impressions, lack of assistance and less guidance for me then for higher testing students, it was clear that I was not a valued student.
I wanted to go to college to make my parents proud and at one time become a historian on the politics of world wars. I have taken classes of interest to me at PCC but often times the classes do no more then give me a forum for discussion on topic that I have already taught myself and the higher learning still alludes me.
Learning disabilities come in many forms and so many times we are taught not by words but by actions to be ashamed and to hide our problems. To onlookers it looks like we aren't trying.
I belive that a lot of his 40% is struggeling through education limbo. To scared to look stupid and to outwardly smart to receive unsolicited help.
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I think this is a great example of the system failing different types of intelligence. People with ADD have, historically, done wonderful things with their special skills and unique outlook on life, particularly as entrepreneurs.
Your last paragraph resonated with me a lot. I have a friend who was told repeatedly that he was smart and just needed to apply himself more. In cases where he was able to work at his own pace and work independently ahead of the class he did well. In Jr. High and Highschool that kind of flexibility didn't exist. He didn't want to ask for help because he knew inside himself that he was a smart guy and everyone had told tell him so, but noone bothered to ask why his grades weren't that great and he wasn't paying much attention to the class lectures. When anyone bothered to think about it the conclusion was always that he "wasn't working hard enough".
The struggle for people with different kinds of intelligences is much harder today than it used to be. More emphasis is placed on degrees and standardized ways of evaluating someone's potential rather than on sheer merit and creativity. If you're an entrepreneur these days you can't get by on good ideas alone, you often have to fight the uphill battle for a degree to be taken seriously.
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For some reason I am reminded of two eras in education. One, back in the seventies during the space program to go to the moon when many thousands of people went into engineering because of the need but who lost out when Reagan and his crowd cut the space program and so many many engineers lost their jobs and futures. Two, during the nineties when Microsoft called for lots of computer engineers but then undercut them by importing cheap wage engineers from India under the H1B visas and burned so many new engineer grads.
Well, OK, three would be the engineers cut loose in the eighties when Republicans cut defense programs and so many ended up going into engineering bicycles with carbon fibers and titanium, which was good for bikers but bad for so many disappointed engineers.
So I would suggest that anyone follow their own dreams and not the promise of industry or government, because all too often business and/or gov have proved undependable.
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I am delighted that more students of various economic and ethnic groups are being added to the numbers of individuals graduating from college. At the same time though, one needs to keep in mind that not every person needs to go to a four-year college. The United States needs individuals to have opportunities to be admitted to the trades (i.e., plumbers, electricians, etc.) as well as college. I would also like to see high school and post-secondary students be willing to take responsibility for seeking college and financial aid opportunities rather than to have an expectation that everything is to be done for them. Such a feeling of entitlement on the part of some students is troubling because they believe that hard work is not necessary. Post-secondary institutions and educators should not feel they have to bullied and intimidated by students who want to see academic standards lowered and free tuition, just to raise the college graduation rate. A much better attitude to have on the part of students who aspire to a four-year college education is that it is a privilege and that a degree should be earned, not given.
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It would be great if the government looked at education assistance as an investment and would steer funds (and students) in a direction that will give the best return on that investment.
We have experts, economists and so forth, who know what fields are likely to see growth in the future and can tell us what fields desperately need workers right now (think nursing).
On top of that, we need educated people in our society if our government is going to work properly. Educated citizens are educated voters. Educated voters make for better government.
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Comments are now closed.
A 40% BA/BS rate is an admirable educational goal. I know I would have been hard-pressed to survive economically without mine. One can notice the differences between places with a higher general level of education and those with lower educational attainment. Employers have personnel pools from which to draw, and thus, a greater likelihood of investment. There are also lower levels of unemployment and its adjunct consequences. Just look at appalling high school dropout rates in places like Los Angeles and other major urban areas. What are those who fail to finish high school going to do in a (once) dynamic economy, such as Southern California and elsewhere? States should step up and make such goals public as we cannot get there unless there is such a clearly-stated goal in mind. What is important for the state of Oregon to realize is that there are big responsibilities for the state in order for such a goal to be realized. It's cliche, but the tried and true "Put your money where your mouth is" certainly is necessary to SUPPORT high schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities in meeting the state's educational mandate. Community college funding, in particular, simply isn't there for such a goal to be fully realized and that is the area where the state's growing population of those unready for college work are, and will continue to be, registering for classes.