'We're Getting Screwed'

School budget time is often a day of wrath for citizens angered by rising costs, entrenched bureaucracy and the ambiguities of contemporary education. In Oregon alone, three districts have closed down their schools this fall because the voters rejected the budget, and several others are on the brink of closing. The longest of these shutdowns started last Oct. 15 in Eagle Point (pop. 2,600). Five times since last April the district's school board has proposed budgets of nearly $5 million; five times the voters have rebuffed them. TIME Correspondent William Marmon visited the town and reported:

This was to be a banner year at Eagle Point High School, especially for the 180 seniors. After three years of double-shift classes in an antiquated building, they moved this fall into a handsome new school built at a cost of $5.7 million. The football, track and wrestling teams all had hopes for statewide ranking, and in the homecoming game the Eagle Point eleven beat its old rival Phoenix High, 20-14. The seniors danced past midnight at the Holiday Inn. That same day, the school closed.

The revolt had been brewing for two years among the older, mostly conservative residents of this farming and lumber town. Worried about the recession, dissident parents began protesting at school board meetings--about the expensive new high school, about the curriculum, even about the presence in the library of The Catcher in the Rye. Explained Janice Sether, a member of the Eagle Point city council, who has three children in the school system: "We don't like sex education in health class. We don't like gambling training in math class. The only way to deal with the situation was to tie up the purse strings and choke these bad things out."

Socking it Back. One of the most vocal chokers has been Paul Clement, 45, a retired truck driver who lives on a dilapidated farm in a double-size trailer with his wife and three children, including a son now in the eleventh grade. Clement organized BELT (Better Education for Less Taxes) to fight back: "They won't take no for an answer. When we vote down the budget, they sock it back to us with the same figures."

Clement, who likes to swig iced tea from a Mason jar, attacked the offering of 123 different courses at Eagle Point High. He cited such "frills" as horticulture and jewelry making. Said he: "My boy can't read too good, not much better than me. They let him do what he wants and don't make him learn what he should. I hate to close the school, but we got to make them listen."

In resubmitting the budget last month, the school board calmly added $80,000 in increased unemployment benefits for the schools' staff. That prompted more votes than the presidential election, and the antibudget forces won again, 2,492 to 2,246. In addition, the voters turned out Physician William Davis as school board chairman. Superintendent Robert Work finally came up with a surprise: he mysteriously discovered that a $200,000 bill due the state for unemployment insurance did not have to be paid until next Aug. 31, thus providing enough ready cash to reopen the schools until yet another budget vote can be held on Jan. 11.

So a truce was called. The Eagle Point schools finally reopened last week, and in the high school cafeteria a hopeful banner said: MACARONI AND CHEESE, WE WANT TO GRADUATE PLEASE. But after almost two months only about half the senior class returned to classes and only about two-thirds of the younger students. Some had transferred to nearby districts (average tuition: $160 per month) and could not transfer back. Others had taken jobs or simply dropped out. In addition, 15 teachers had resigned and gone job hunting.

The wrestling team, which was third in the state last year, has lost seven out of 13 prospective regulars. The basketball team's losses are the same. "We're missing nine of 16 players," says Coach Dennis Gerke, who is job hunting too. "The first half of the season has been canceled, and the second half is going to be rugged--if there is one."

"A lot of kids are mad at the world," says Senior Class President Jim Kleker, whose family decided to move to Wyoming. "We're getting screwed and there's nothing we can do about it. Sometimes it makes you feel a little crazy." Adds Senior Candy Baldridge: "We just wonder why the people of this community made us sit home and rot. I feel like I've been gypped."

Even this reopening is only temporary, but the school authorities have cut deep into the curriculum to reduce the budget by $360,000 for next month's vote. The school board cut graduation requirements from 24 credits to the state minimum of 21, eliminating a year of math, a year of fine arts and one other elective. Athletics will be curtailed.

Goosey Prospect. Even now, nobody can predict that the budget will pass. Says High School Principal Jim Sutherland: "I'm goosey about January 11. Some school supporters who are upset by the new cuts are going to vote no, while a lot of the original no-voters are so no that they wouldn't vote yes for anything. They say it's the taxes, but I don't buy that. They want control over the schools, over what's taught, who's hired or fired. Some parents seem threatened by their kids getting a better education than they had."

Oregon's Democratic Governor Robert Straub sees no reason for the state to intervene. Says he: "Local control means local responsibility. There must be something occurring in the schools in Eagle Point that the people want changed."

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