Now is a good time to raise, once again, the question of why we are being asked to pay $548 million for school facilities improvements that does almost nothing to address the very desperate need for seismic improvements in Portland Public Schools? The only seismic specific project is for Fernwood.
Sure, nice facilities are great, but I'd prefer a less fancy one that doesn't fall down upon my kids in the inevitable earthquake - especially since once you provide good ventilation and lighting fancy school facilities do not translate to better student achievement. [Note, the correlation is high in raw data because fancier schools are usually in wealthier neighborhoods - but, say it with me, correlation is not causation]
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The High School Reform debate took place within a year of big earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. The distinction in building codes and consequences for those two countries was both striking and totally ignored.
Parents and the broader community made clear what their priority was, and structural integrity wasn't it.
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