OHCA The Oregon Caregiver Fall/Winter 2019

The Oregon Caregiver FALL/WINTER 2019 www.ohca.com 18 PROFILE Senator Mark Hass (D-Beaverton) discusses the issues that inspired his political career, his many contributions to advance Oregon’s workforce and education systems, and his upcoming campaign for the office of the Secretary of State. What inspired you to run for office? I was lucky because I grew up in this idyllic place, Oregon. And when you grow up here, you’re instilled with certain values. You take care of people, you take care of the land, and you have the extreme reverence for the outdoors. I don’t think we called that environmentalism when I was a kid, but that’s what it was. It was just a really great place to grow up with that values system. Fast forward to when I became an adult and a professional in the 1990s, I saw that a lot of those values had eroded. In addition to that, some California-inspired tax cuts had whittled away our public schools. I knew it was time to get involved and instill some of those values that kids like me were lucky enough to enjoy. Senator Mark Hass (D-Beaverton) POLICY MAKER What issues specifically drew you into politics? When I joined the House in 2001, public education and the environment were big issues for me, and I think my record reflects all the related efforts that I pursued—sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully. I’m learning now that it’s those unsuccessful times that are almost as important, if not more important, than the times you were successful—you figure out how to get things done. Just recently in my work with the Student Success Act, I knew from 15–16 years’ experience what would work and what wouldn’t in terms of these lofty ambitions that some people have. You’ve been known as a champion for education and workforce issues. What have you worked on in those areas? When I was on the education committee, whatever goals and legislation we pursued, the focus kept coming back to Career and Technical Education (CTE) and workforce training. CTE is a bureaucratic phrase that just means getting young people ready for a more technology-oriented workplace. In my generation, you could just walk right out of high school into a timber mill and be pretty much taken care of—but those days are gone. We needed to find opportunities for kids and figure out how to help businesses with the training that potential employees need. Another great thing about CTE training is that kids who are involved in it in high school are much more likely to graduate on time. They’re also much more likely to pursue some sort of post-secondary education, which is good for all of us. Historically Oregon hasn’t been a big college culture state especially back when timber was king, and you didn’t need a college degree to buy a house or have a good middle-class life. That’s shifting. The thing I’m most proud of is the Oregon Promise which provides free community college tuition for all Oregon high school graduates. We passed that in 2015. Already in the four years it’s been in place, we’ve gotten thousands of emails and notes from people saying this has been an exciting change for their families. Most recently, you worked on the Student Success Act. Can you talk about that? The Student Success Committee barnstormed the state and visited 77 schools, and we talked with leaders, parents, students, and teachers. What we found was that addressing issues in K-12 was a priority for Oregonians. We identified a lot of problems—achievement gaps, short school years, crowded classrooms, mental health. We also saw that K-12 didn’t have the resources that our public universities, albeit struggling universities, have like foundations and backers and the ability to raise tuition. So, we decided to create a fund dedicated to K-12. To create this fund, we ended up on the method that asks businesses who sell their products or services in Oregon to pay a small percentage of those sales into this fund. Long term care providers struggle with finding qualified, skilled workers. Do you think this will continue to be an issue? There certainly has been an explosion in the demand for health care workers— from nursing to medical assistants— precisely because of the aging baby boomers. People cannot walk from high school into those jobs; they need training. I’m gratified that a lot of our community colleges have flourishing programs for health care professionals.