Last week I offered the first five lesson plans to help bring Oregon’s public school system out of the performance basement. Those steps were to expand the number of instructional days, address chronic teacher and student absenteeism, enact statewide collective bargaining, opt out of the opt out in student testing, and redirect state school funding to better serve students in greatest need.

Below are the next five to complete the 10-Step Recovery Program.

6. Rethink the Role of Superintendent of Public Instruction

A decade and a half ago, Oregon eliminated the elected position of Superintendent of Public Instruction, restoring the Governor as Superintendent and allowing them to appoint the department head. The idea was that education was so important it needed the Governor’s leadership.

Well, how has that gone? The Governor has dozens of agencies and commission heads to oversee, not to mention running a state and dealing with four alarm fires on a weekly basis. She hasn’t the time to focus energy on one department 24/7. But that is what it needs.

The elected superintendent, on the other hand, was almost always selected and elected by the teacher union lobby through financial and campaign support. It was more of a figurehead role to maintain the status quo. They seldom did anything to ruffle the feathers of their campaign donors. But at least there was a consistent and focused voice for education in the state.

Oregon, however, needs a strong and qualified voice at the helm and the absolute freedom to enact change. One new approach would be to adopt something like what the Congress does for the Chair of the Federal Reserve. The President nominates and the Senate approves the person who sets the country’s monetary policy. The difference between that and what Oregon does in education is that the appointment carries with it a renewable six-year term and insulates that person from being fired by the President if their decisions run afoul of the chief executives wishes. The U.S. Supreme Court just validated that protection for the Fed Chair. That person could only be removed for cause — which is a pretty high bar.

An appointed schools chief that would span gubernatorial administrations, unfettered by political pressure, or looking over their shoulder worried about being fired, and with the resources, legislative tools, and knowledge base to take bold actions may be what Oregon needs right now. This appointment may even be elevated to a two-thirds confirmation vote of the Senate, further enhancing the chances that the selected nominee has the chops needed to enact positive change.

7. Arm the Department of Education

Earlier I wrote about the education department being the Department of Recommendations — all gums, no teeth. The Legislature should design, pass, and enforce real carrots and sticks for the department to utilize to see that legislative direction is followed and for real. School districts must be required to verify compliance with state standards. In combination with a strong superintendent of schools, this could help provide Oregonians with the leadership and accountability they deserve for the largest payout of their taxpayer dollars.

8. Institute Research-Based Reading Curriculum

Oregon’s fourth grade reading results are at the bottom of the nation’s barrel. Research has shown many Oregon schools are using outdated reading methods. The Science of Reading approach has proven to be a superior model to achieve reading success. This should be required across the state, along with a return to mandatory student testing. The Department of Education should ensure compliance and provide any necessary assistance a district may need to achieve it.

9. Revamp Teachers Standards & Practices Commission

TSPC has a 17-member board, and 15 of them represent those the commission regulates. Imagine executives from Bank of America, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase regulating the banking industry. The commission should be streamlined and the membership refocused. Boards of Directors generally function best with somewhere between 7 and 9 members. It also allows an opportunity to get the best of the best — deliberating and making decisions and not just filling slots to appease various stakeholders. Three members representing the regulated community, two with recognized achievement in education research, two business executives with a record in workforce development or human resources, and two public members with skills complementary to the others.

TSPC should also refuse to approve college teacher preparation programs that do not train teachers with the skills required by any newly revised state reading and math course requirements. Furthermore, TSPC shall not provide certificates of licensure for those individuals who have not successfully completed course work in a revised state approved teacher preparation program for the area in which they intend to teach.

10. Redirect a portion of the Corporate Activities Tax

I can hear the feathers ruffling now. When Oregon passed the Corporate Activity Tax (CAT) and dedicated the funds to the Student Success Act to bolster school funding, it was expected to generate $1 billion a year in additional funds for schools. It has far surpassed that. The figure is closer to $1.5 billion a year. Meanwhile, when schools receive their funds from the Legislature, most of them immediately must pay out up to 30 cents of every dollar to pay the mortgage debt on their PERS unfunded liability before the school bell even rings. Compounding interest means schools keep having to take more money from student instruction every year to pay down that growing debt.

Schools are another full generation of students away, according to PERS, before they can start putting more of their school funding into students and less to legacy debt. That is another full generation of Oregon students faced with less support and teacher resources.

The Legislature could stop kicking the can further down the road by distributing that full $1 billion each year to schools, then take the excess — currently about $500 million annually — and allocating it to the legacy debt principal of those schools. Like pre-paying on your mortgage, that would rapidly accelerate the time schools would escape the money-eating dragon known as PERS. Yes, that would bring a new level of fiscal pain in the short term, but Oregon won’t have to sacrifice the education of another full generation of students before it can escape the debt trap and instead once again spend those dollars on more teachers, assistants, counselors and program resources.

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So, there you have it. The 10-step recovery process for Oregon education. There will be withdrawal pains. Relapses are likely in some cases. These ten proposals are in no way projected to be the only approaches. There are likely good alternatives in some of these areas to meet the same objective.

But Oregon’s children can’t wait for any more blue-ribbon task forces or continued paralysis by analysis. The Legislature needs to be bold, or, as Theodore Roosevelt noted, to spend themselves in a worthy cause and not be like “those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”