Otto von Bismarck was President and Chancellor of Germany under three German monarchs until he was retired by Kaiser Wilhelm prior to World War I. He is famous for “unifying Germany” (most of it) but especially, he is known for realpolitik: an uncanny ability to juggle multiple domestic and foreign influences, stack one against another, and have them fall miraculously into place in a grand design orchestrated by himself. His reputation is intact but sadly for Germany, it appears that he himself was the glue holding it all together. Certainly his genius did not help the head of state who set him out to pasture. By 1914, Germany slid into a deadly cycle of despotism, war, ruin and pariah status from which it did not emerge for at least 40 years.
Kitzhaber placated the corporate interests who redesigned Oregon education. He could have drawn a line instead of signing the likes of Senate Bills 909 or 1581. He could have have hastened the demise of the malignant No Child Left Behind edifice rather than tout the sell-out of the Achievement Compacts as a kind of ransom payment. He could have done that.
He could have put more than one teacher on his 12-member Oregon Education Investment Board (initially, it started out with none). He could have done that.
Most shameful of all is Kitzhaber’s “Grand Bargain” and his treatment of the public employees of Oregon. There are approximately 330,000 members of the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) as of 2011. Conservatively that must be a circle of almost a million people in Oregon families. Somebody (who exactly?) was screaming that PERS was too costly and that it was the most eligible target to achieve “savings” in the state budget. Kitzhaber deftly engineered a trade of over $1billion in “savings” from adjustments to the way PERS benefits are calculated and disbursed in exchange for $250million in “new revenue” in taxes. What he could have done in the face of such a proposal was simply stand pat: “No, PERS benefits are not only the stuff of contract law, they are a promise - a compact with the workers for the state of Oregon. You’ll have to find your “savings” some place else.” He could have done that.
Most recently is “The Deal”. Right-to-work regimes are spreading from state to state, funded and crafted by the likes of ALEC and the Koch brothers and willingly facilitated by governors, congressmen and local billionaires. Right-to-work was edging it’s way onto the 2014 ballot in Oregon. A coalition of unions and educators was ready to fight the anti-union initiatives and put revenue measures on the ballot that would have supported public services and cramped the styles of corporations and the wealthy. The gloves came off and “The Deal” appeared. The extortion was skillfully camouflaged but it was eminently clear that the unions should drop their revenue initiatives if they expected even a sliver of hope that they would be able to defeat the right-to-work measures. The unions sensibly caved. The revenue measures and the right-to-work initiatives disappeared - for now. Talk about realpolitik: What Kitzhaber could have done, he did the opposite instead. No champion of education or defender of the worker here.
The Governor has built himself a reputation and that’s about all. His legacy is a rope of sand. In 2016, the Right-to-Workers will have oozed back onto the ballot. The schools will still be underfunded. The OEIB will have made no progress toward access, equity or excellence in education; to the contrary their trend is retrograde. The corporatists will find no discouragement in anything the Governor will have done. Charter schools of every stripe will find a home.
Kitzhaber as Governor is a lost opportunity. It is a waste of an administration that could have been progressive and dynamic. We have a self-serving master of realpolitik, building his legacy. Its benefits will devolve only upon himself. We are still waiting for bold leadership. We are certainly still waiting for the Education Governor.
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