Oregonian
May 26th, 2015
RIP, OEIB.
Last week, without even a playing of "Taps" — we don't have that much music in our schools these days — the governor and the Legislature quietly dumped the Oregon Education Investment Board over the side. The board's demise was collateral damage in the implosion of its patron, former Gov. John Kitzhaber, and its end came quickly; like too many Oregon high-school students, the board didn't even complete a four-year career.
OEIB, we hardly knew ye.
But the abandonment of such a major effort — a blue-ribbon committee of 13 prominent Oregonians, chaired by the governor, intended to make shrewd decisions transforming all of Oregon education from birth through graduate school — deserves some sort of ceremony. Admittedly, a eulogy couldn't have much to say about the career and achievements of the OEIB — a funeral needs to last long enough to let the pallbearers catch their breath — but perhaps we could say something about the attitude behind the board.