Higher education in Bend

Central Oregon Community College, Oregon’s oldest community college on Bend’s west side, is seeing a surge in enrollment during “the Great Recession.” Likewise, the college is seeking a $41 million bond measure to add space in Bend and throughout its service district, which encompasses 10,000 square miles in multiple counties. A similar bond measure failed last November, when Bend elected its first Democrat to the state house in decades. The fact that it failed then does not bode well for this vote now.

In the 1982, though, when the region was suffering its worst recession since the “Great Depression,” the COCC district passed a tax base that ensured continued operations.

Still, this recession is potentially worse than the last one. Real unemployment is 20 percent or more throughout the COCC district. The electorate is more grumpy than usual. Yet, Oregon voters have been accustomed to the “double-majority” rule that requires money measures gain 50 percent of the electorate to actually vote and to vote in the majority for the measure. This horrible, anti-democratic measure was passed by voters in the 1990s and it rewards citizens who don’t participate, or vote, in their democracy if they are opposed to a money measure on the ballot. Truly pathetic. But, this COCC bond does not require a double majority because it is a November election, which are exempt from the rule.

So, if the energized pro-bond forces get out the vote, they could get it passed. Unfortunately, the bond is being sold as “jobs, jobs and jobs.” Yes, there will be a few temporary construction jobs. That is why the large, local construction firms are so eager to get it passed. These firms only support local bond measures if they are rewarded with fat contracts when the bond measure passes. And, they usually are rewarded, particularly by the Bend-LaPine School District. It’s paradoxical that these firms, which are normally anti-government, actually survive on the teat of government. Again, pathetic.

So, will the measure pass? Probably not. But, it’s hard to say. Voter turnout is low right now, which favors the pro-bond supporters.

This isn’t the only higher education story in Bend. COCC is trying to generate income by putting in a strip mall on its property along Shevlin Park road.

Apparently, once it is filled with fast-food joints, a Laundromat and perhaps a tattoo parlor, these businesses will be job creators for COCC students. Great, take out loans so you can get a job that any high school dropout can get. Makes no sense.
At the same time, there are some higher education groupies in Bend who have a fetish about seeing a Stanford-type research institution emerge on city property at Juniper Ridge, a business “park” on Bend’s northeast side. This fantasy has no basis in reality other than to give the groupies a sense of purpose. The only “higher ed” institution we’ll ever see at Juniper Ridge is some sort of Bible college, which isn’t exactly what the groupies have in mind, but is what would fit this religious, conservative area. Central Oregon is the most populous area in the country that does not have a four-year institution within 100 miles of it.

Yes, we do have Oregon State University – Cascades, which occupies a building at COCC, but it is largely underfunded because the state’s support of all higher education has cratered in recent decades. OSU-Cascades does serve a purpose, though, and, if the Juniper Ridge groupies had any brains, they would want to see COCC-OSU Cascades evolve into a true four-year institution with research buildings in place of the strip mall.

Education, which so many insist is the key to our survival, is an evolutionary, not revolutionary process, at least in Oregon. But, since so many Americans – Oregonians included -- don’t believe in evolution, they really don’t believe in education. Such is the state of higher education in this underserved section of Oregon.