College is fun when you can’t get a loan because the government (Sallie Mae) and the school don’t understand some crippled people are actually trying to gain skills for a future, but hey, so far, no loans. Look on the bright side of life. It will save you headaches in the long run. Outside of that, I found one can make hard-boiled eggs in the air fryer.
Fifteen minutes at 300F and letting cool naturally works excellent for some medium eggs. Suitable for some healthy snacks. Also, we had to do some shopping around, but we found a couple of stores had our five dozen eggs deal for 7 dollars, which we are going to take that all day. It is always nice to make a couple of new snacks. Good for something else to work on later. I would say try other seasonings against what I can make, but that would be humiliating to my opponents.
For all that has happened in Portland, I am starting to look at some properties to see what I need, and right now, the cost can be best described as too damn high. It is going in the right direction. Most people want to avoid starting a business in Portland. I need to figure out what to ensure my employees in different areas are happy. Can I pay 100k each? Most likely not, but I can find the right combination of pay and benefits where people want to work with me for a position.
I would remark on the city of Portland itself, but that is a level of things that needs its own post. See you tomorrow.
Welp, it’s been a couple of weeks again. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, some numbers have come out based on the city where it has to be said. Portland is now in a position where the problems they have constructed for themselves will be fixed slowly, which is unfortunate. This was brought up by KOIN 6 news and reported on by the News for Reasonable People channel( A name I get a giggle from whenever I watch their videos). Also, they are a channel with a view on more of the business and property lens. However, human issues make enough appearances to be counted on being shown.
So, what am I talking about? Currently, the violence in Portland has been growing, and the cost of living has been rising throughout the country, even more so in Portland. More drugs, less quality public education, and less business have been happening. Now we have a business vacancy rate getting close to a third. That means that about 73% of spaces are filled. Which would be good, except most people need to learn that cities account for something like 95% to be filled on a bad year for tax reasons. If businesses are not in buildings, they aren’t making money, no money, no tax, and the budget is reduced, and while a lot of places have had to deal with many of these things, Portland has been ranked third last in recovering from the pandemic. We are ranked 60 out of 62, with a wild guess being able to figure out the two below us.
This has now reached a point that, save for a miracle of high-class thought and action from our city commissioners, this will not be good for a while. Five years, maybe ten, maybe thirty. The time frame depends on how shit others are after this. What will be something is that now we are in a position where it will most likely be this way for quite a while, and a lot of Portlanders are okay with that.
Not because there is a wealth of ideas or thoughts. Actually, it’s because most Portlanders only know or care to know once they have to. As a result, portlanders generally boil down into two groups.
They are in a position to ignore everything until something happens, as they get robbed, their children are in danger, or their life’s work is destroyed.
They are so poor and just trying to hold it together; unfortunately, they just had to get used to it.
This is sad because what comes next is not going to be fun for a lot of people. It will not be able to be fixed quickly because people do not want to see it. It won’t be the end of the world, but for those who think Portland is going back to the 2000’s era dominance, this will be bad news.
Good times will come at some point, but we have some choppy waters.
You know, it makes you wonder if they think everything is such a problem rooted in white supremacy why they should leave. But, let’s be honest, these teachers have excelled since allowing BIPOC students and others do not need to pass requirements because requirements are more challenging for them, and they can’t handle them.
No, this is not a joke. They actually said that. Time for some receipts. You see, a lot of results are only based on information released every two years, and the last set was 2019, and 2021 has not been released yet. I would wonder why but I can guess the term harrowing shit show does not even begin to describe it. So here is what we know before they try hiding the news that all of this has gone very wrong.
First, this will be based in my home state of Oregon. However, sources will have things so you can look to your heart’s content in your home.
You may have heard all these things about the educators in our state, and you have to think that people are doing so good here that we are just wrapping up details. That we have the rest of the world of education on lock in the state. We may act like it, but we could be no further from that. On top of a racist governor, not one who says anything is racist but an actual one when she claimed through her office that requirements are too hard and colored students cannot handle it. I have gone one about the education in the state with varying levels of patience. So pardon me if the people in this state crow like they have won the game only to act like a pigeon shitting on the chessboard.
Teachers are getting paid more in the state. The average is sixty thousand dollars. It is now more than the average in the state. A lot of them, I am sure, use some of that money and put that towards the class, they should not need to, especially with the budgets of money going to these schools, but there is something else that is going on as well. This will piss off many people, but at some point, the teachers as a whole, their work needs to be looked at, and we have to say, is this what we want for our next generations?
Oregon is against a lot of private schools. They make it very difficult to work here, and I wonder why considering their test scores. We have, as a state, tried to make it more inclusive but less useful. Well, when people are just sitting at a desk for twelve years and cannot make themselves breakfast or cannot balance a checkbook and I see they have a diploma, the blame goes to the schools. Parents should be teaching them something, but they should be able to work within the state system and be comfortable that they are at minimum being taught enough that they can be the best version of themselves. Some may argue with it, saying that it is too high a target. That may be true, except they aren’t even getting the majority of students to hit grade standards. About a quarter can do it, which is taken from the state’s report card. Science-wise, it looks like maybe a third can do it, and reading and comprehension are about as laughable as it gets.
We are in the unfortunate position that people should be looking at the school districts. We wonder if maybe they do not have the best intentions because, as we can see from the results, they do not have the best results for their effort. There is a lot that could be done, but when the results have been so low for so long, and mind you, this is with online schooling capabilities, then we need to wonder.
Is this system working? If not, why is so much money being put towards it when clearly it is not doing the job? The value that money is getting in the hands of the education system is losing value through their actions.
Now, does this mean there are good teachers in the state? Absolutely, I have had a few. The problem is I have also had some nasty ones. I will not think the good ones would be happy knowing that all the time, effort, and energy they put into their craft is being pissed one by someone who can barely read to a standard themselves and has to teach others to do it. Also, that little quip that is the best-case scenario because, let us say, some of these bad teachers who claim everything is racist and claim everything is a microaggression, and it hurts their feelings. When the best case is misunderstanding how things work by people in that position needs to be put in question because it is not good enough by many of the worst parts of it.
I say all of this because it seems we are not done with this year, and I hope things do get better for the sake of our future. I want the state to be the best in education. I want people to come to Oregon so they can say they went through our school system because of the intellectual rigors and challenges we provide. I want people, whether poor, rich, black, white, Asian, or Indian, to come to the state and say…
“If I can make it through the school system here I will be ready to go for anything life can throw at me.”
Unfortunately, this is not being done. In fact, people are leaving with fewer skills than ever as the world competes on higher stages. It seems students through the school systems, which means that we will at some point either take the initiative and fix it or we will have to do it when it breaks completely. Considering how low these test scores are, I wonder when that will be the case.
BigTAnderson in Portland 