OHCA The Oregon Caregiver Fall/Winter 2019

www.ohca.com FALL/WINTER 2019 The Oregon Caregiver 19 PROFILE One thing about the Oregon Promise that I’ve been struck by is that a lot of kids who didn’t think they’d have an opportunity to go to college are pursuing public service jobs. I’ve never heard anyone say they’re just going to go out and make as much money as possible as fast as they can. They want to help people, they want to help older folks, and they want to get into the service sector. You’ve contributed a lot to this state—reforming our higher education system through independent boards, helping create the Oregon Promise and CTE efforts, and spearheading the Student Success Act. What are we missing? Full day kindergarten was huge. Also, I was also involved in both rainy-day funds, after surviving recession years. With no rainy-day funds, we were just cutting budgets. In 2003 we passed the education reserve fund, and in 2009 we passed the rainy-day fund that comes from corporate profits. In the next recession, it’s a huge buffer. I’ve always said if you can’t do full tax reform to balance out your system, the next best thing is having a lot of reserves to cushion the blow. You have announced that you’re running for Secretary of State. What’s motivating you to seek statewide office in this role? I have some goals in that office and have been watching it for a long time, but first I wanted to finish up some work in the legislature, namely the Student Success Act that starts to make up for a generation of defunding schools. That work is now complete. Some goals I have include updating and modernizing our elections system and ensuring it’s protected from interference. There’s a lot that needs to be done protecting the security of our elections system. Redistricting is coming up next year and the Secretary of State needs to be ready with a plan. Auditing functions of the office is also very important. Audits help our government work better. We need to hold ourselves to high standards. We need to ensure that state agencies are working well for Oregonians and doing what they have been tasked to do. We also need to consider the carbon impact of these state agencies. It’s hard to preach about being green if your state agencies have a huge carbon footprint. We need to find a way to make sure that our government works well and find a way to address issues in a nonpunitive fashion. When I talk to my constituents, they just want government to work. They want schools funded, roads paved, and that’s about it. Secretary of State is a great place to help make government run better. Do you see a role for Secretary of State through the audits function to ensure some of the outcomes and goals set out in the Student Success Act? I think that would be one of the first audits, because it’s not just the amount of money that needs to be considered; there are all sorts of maps and diagrams laying out where education priorities should go. West Linn has a 98% graduation rate while Astoria has 60%. Districts have different needs and we need to make sure the everyone is following the intended routes.