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`Time is about up,' ailing educator says of schools Money crisis is real, Willard tells lawmakers By PETER WONG SALEM -- Likening it to his own battle against cancer, Phoenix-Talent superintendent Dave Willard urged the Oregon Legislature to resolve the perennial problem of state aid for public schools. "I use it only as an analogy," he said on a videotape aired Wednesday at a joint session of the Senate and House education committees. "My future is unclear. I do not know how much time I have. Therefore, I have become much more blunt, much more willing to deal with the most important stuff -- and professionally, this is at the top of the list. "As a society and as a state, we can put off the dramatic needs of our children only for so long. I'm afraid our time is about up. I'm afraid the consequences of our neglect of youth are upon us -- and those consequences always cost more in dollars and other ways than the original investment would have in the first place." Willard, who underwent surgery and is undergoing chemotherapy, actually testified three weeks ago to the Legislature's joint budget subcommittee on education. Sen. Tom Hartung, R-Portland, a subcommittee member and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said he found Willard's testimony powerful. He arranged to air the videotape right after a personal appearance by Gov. John Kitzhaber, who urged the Legislature to raise state aid from $4.6 billion to $4.95 billion. Though Willard was not here Wednesday, he has praised the governor's latest proposal as a step in the right direction. In his testimony, Willard said his district could survive for one year under Kitzhaber's original budget proposal for $4.6 billion. But it would have to cut 15 teachers in the second year, about 10 percent of the teaching staff. Since voters shifted the burden of paying for schools from local property taxes to state income taxes, beginning in 1990, the battle over aid to schools has come to dominate legislative sessions every two years. That aid accounts for nearly half the state budget, but human resources and higher education programs are getting proportionately less. During his testimony, Willard echoed points made by other educators: Teacher shortages are real, particularly for specialties such as special education and second languages: "If teachers are so overpaid, then why are we having trouble finding them? If you believe the teacher shortage is a myth, I'm here to tell you it is real." Administrators are not rampant, at least in his district, which has 10 supervisors for 275 employees: "That ratio does not lend itself to increasing accountability of teachers, getting into classrooms more often, or demanding the great teachers everybody wants." Teachers and officials are spending disproportionate amounts of time on problem youths who need more help: "My kindergarten, first- and second-grade teachers can tell me with 90 percent accuracy who I will have problems with in school. Researchers and practice tell us what works, how to intervene and help these young people. But we are too bare-bones to have the counselors and programs to help them." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA