Is There Hope For Oregon? (high school, property tax, gangs)

[Smiled]

Taxes are 38th lowest in the country... and it shows. K-12 teachers are fairly compensated, but beyond that, forget it. I tell friends with kids to have their kids move to California, work and establish residency, then go to school there.

[MtnSurfer]

How about the Vancouver/Camas area as another option. There are some really good schools right across the Gorge. We have some family in the Fisher Landing area who really enjoy it there. They like being so close to Portland while enjoying the other benefits of WA. I know some Portlanders look down on the 'other' side of the bridge. But there are some real positives to living in WA with Oregon in your backyard.

That being said we are still interested in living in the Portland area mainly for closer proximity to work. There are fewer jobs in Vancouver. But a lot of people find a way to make it work. I guess it depends what you do and how much you are willing to drive.

[John Shaft]

Originally Posted by Smiled

Taxes are 38th lowest in the country... and it shows. K-12 teachers are fairly compensated, but beyond that, forget it. I tell friends with kids to have their kids move to California, work and establish residency, then go to school there.

I'm confused...doesn't 38th lowest mean the 12th highest?

[LindaWH]

Tiffela,
I agree with you about schools (there are good ones and bad ones, like anywhere else), and I think from reading some of your other posts that you have kids who attend school in the Central Coast area. Have you felt that the schools are OK there? I'm trying to decide whether to work in Lincoln City or in Toledo at the schools, and was just trying to get a parent's perspective. From reading your other posts, I know you will be positive and fair. Lincoln City gets some pretty bad comments in the reviews I've read of schools, but I never know whether to believe them. What really matters is what parents and kids think. What do you think, and where do your kids go to school?

[Kathleenh54]

I like living in Oregon and will probably stay here but those who think Oregon may have some great public schools are being unrealistic and that's being kind. Nowhere in OR do schools compare to the 'burbs in places like NY, CT, or NJ.

Newsweek Magazine had a recent article on the country's best public schools and gave the top few hundred gold, silver or bronze medals. OR had only one, ONE school on the list at all. That school was Ashland HS which received a silver medal. We live in Ashland and send our daughter to a private high school. AHS is not up to our standards. Until OR demands more from its public schools, they will remain mediocre. Sorry.

[Atillion]

Originally Posted by mikemorrow

Well, I'm moving there so I guess that there is hope. LOL

pwn train wooot wooooot!

[airyh]

Excuse me?
Portland teachers are "the highest paid" in the world?
I'm a Portland teacher with a very expensive Master's Degree.
I can assure you, we are not paid any better than most teachers (any teacher will tell you, we don't get into it for the money...)
Perhaps in comparison to some other small cities, but the cost of living in Portland is by no means low, so it's relative to that...
Make sure to back up the data that you post...

[airyh]

Now I'm really confused.
As a Portland teacher, I KNOW there are problems with the schools and they are severely underfunded...but you are encouraging your friends with kids to move to California and send them to school there? I have lived in the Bay Area for awhile, and the schools in most of that area are horrible. Most people send their kids to private schools. I doubt it's any different in many of the more urban cities in CA. I don't think Portland is much different than most of the cities in the US, where schools simply don't have the resources they need.
BTW, a starting teacher salary in Oregon is about 30K per year. I have a Master's plus 30 credits, have taught for ten years, and am still in the high 40's. So I'm not sure if you'd call that "fairly compensated..."

[Shadow XIV]

Oregon is a beautiful place to live but unfourtunately some places like portland woodburn and salem are full of Hispanic gang members. I am currently a full pledged Norteno gang member with second thoughts about gangs. But unfortunatley if I want to leave gang involvement I have to leave this ghetto ass town scandals (aka Salem). If your not in the right places you wont see it but unfortunately in North East Salem they're all over the place. Surenos are the most dominant in numbers but with heart and loayalty and respect us Nortenos have. Plus all the gang murders are Nortenos towards surenos but aye salem is down but it is all just a wannabe city.

[ryan.!2!]

im a 18 year latin kid from oregon, i leved in three states for the past 3 years, north dikota, idaho, and oregon. oregon is'nt L.A. or chicago but compared to idaho and north dikota and all thoughs [FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Semi big states it dose have a drug and hispanic gang problem. i remember hereing about kids getting stabed and jumped in middle school and it got BAD in high school, i didn't learn about the hispanic gangs on t.v. or the radio, i learnd it from friends at school,i had homeboys that were in ms13, sur13, nort14, white fence, latin kings, mexican mafia, all hard gangs in beautifull oregon, and all were made in cali except latin kings, i beleave they were made in new york.my point is oregon is going to get werse in the feuter, no matter how we compare it to bigger states.[/SIZE][/FONT]