Oregon governor discusses community college funding and the “Grange”

“I donʼt think the federal government spends nearly enough on education. About 6 percent of the federal budget on education is, to me, just hard to believe when in an era when we are competing with China and the Euro-zone. So Iʼm hoping if the president gets reelected that we really beef up our investment in our school system. I mean, as you well know, very few jobs are available without at least a technical certificate or an associate degree and thatʼs what community colleges do,” Gov. John Kitzhaber said during his Thursday visit to the MHCC Gresham campus. Kitzhaber, pictured above in the Town and Gown room, toured the campus and interacted with students.

Advocate: How do community colleges fit in with economic development?

Kitzhaber: “They’re really central if you look at your student enrollment here it goes up when the economy goes down and it goes down when the economy goes up, so this is the place where people who have lost a job to get better skills it’s also a much lower cost pathway into a four way degree than going straight to U of O, so it’s hugely important.“

Advocate: And concerning the community college itself with state funding dropping in the past years what is being done to bring financial support back to the school?

Kitzhaber: “So as you know we made a major change in our education governance structure- creating the Oregon Education Investment Board – to design a unified budget board which is to design a unified budget of early travel to post sector education including community colleges and hopefully everybody will be able to take their resources and target them better to actually get more bang for their buck. We are also engaged in a long term discussion but how we actually increase the size of the pot and restructure Oregon ‘s system of public finances- there’s no question about that – the whole education system is under funded and needs to be refinanced.”

Advocate: Do you have any thoughts on the Grange, the casino is being proposed to be built in Wood Village?

Kitzhaber: “Yes, I’m a strong opponent of the casino for two reasons.
One when the tribes built the casinos on their own land they agreed to limit it to one casino per tribe and to contribute to the community- that’s exactly what they’ve done for the last 20 years – they’ve kept their end of the deal and we need to keep our promise to them.
I also think vying a change in the Oregon Constitution to allow an out of state owned private casino in Oregon is just not good for the state or the future.”

Advocate: In last night’s debates, as he has in the past, Obama put emphasis on community colleges. How is this translated in Federal support for colleges?

Kitzhaber: “I don’t think the Federal Government spends nearly enough on education. About 6% of the federal budget is on education- is to me…just hard to believe when in an era when we are competing with China and the Euro-zone, so I’m hoping if the president gets reelected that we really beef up our investment in our school system. I mean, as you well know, very few jobs are available without at least a technical certificate or an associate degree and that’s what community colleges do.”

Advocate Staff