Young voices needed. Stat.

Over here in Bus-land, we care SO MUCH about our generation getting heard in our democracy. We’re inheriting this place, so it’s on us to keep it awesome. Trouble is, people in power rarely ask us what we think about anything (except computers — they effing always ask us about computers). 

Hey Bus fam,

Here’s the short version, Speedy:

This was a pretty darn good session for innovation. After tons of predictions to the contrary, legislators got bipartisan and made some genuinely forward-thinking stuff happen. The Bus family racked up real common-sense achievements. Still, it sure wasn’t all sunshine and puppies. Despite some amazing organizing by our coalition partners, issues of equity got hosed this session. The big lesson: we need to build a space for our leaders to be bold and follow their consciences. And it’s on us to make it happen.

Here’s the longer version, Ready McReaderson:

Bus Board member Rep. Lew Frederick was a true champion of a small, but real victory for communities of color this session — helping to educate foster parents on issues of skin and hair care for foster children from different racial backgrounds. To boot, after literally decades of work, Lew created incentives for cleaning up brownfields (a real victory for environmental justice, particularly in North & Northeast Portland).

Lane Bus leader Rep. Val Hoyle closed a legal loophole that allowed insurers to deny coverage for certain breast cancer treatments. Plus, she scored a victory for student transfers between community colleges and universities. 

Bus Founder & Board member Rep. Jefferson Smith helped lead the way on Cool Schools (energy retrofits for public school buildings) — one of the sessions biggest deals. All the while, he brought us the innovative ‘Grow Oregon’ program (economic development through the cultivation of local businesses) & our much-beloved public assistance agency voter registration.

On an extra cool note, Ben, Jeff & Val are all on caucus leadership for the interim, which is one hefty load of Bus. 

A few big things didn’t happen.

The hardest, longest and ultimately most painful battle was for SB 742, Tuition Equity. The idea is clear and smart: charge in-state tuition for long-time, high-achieving Oregon students who never got documentation when their parents brought them to America. Bipartisan support in 11 other states have made this a model law — good for the economy, the work force, and citizens.   

The Oregon Student Association and CAUSA led the way through tireless and extraordinary organizing, with huge help from the Oregon DREAMers, APANO, CIO, Stand for Children, SEIU and our team (especially awesome testimony from Bus badass Zahara Muhammed). Business and labor came together around the campaign, as did folks across parties.   

Republican Senator Frank Morse endured death threats as he bravely brought the bill to pass the Senate for the first time in nearly a decade. Democratic Rep. Michael Dembrow brought perseverance and thoughtfulness to the work in the House, where it ultimately failed to make it to the floor for a vote. It was heartbreaking. Simply heartbreaking

We also felt real confusion and sorrow with the failure of SB 97, which would have offered cultural competency training to Oregon health care providers. The bill had deep support from the Bus family, but it died in the House on a party line vote.

In this decade, if you we want real innovation and equity, we need to build a culture of courage.  

Leave the Grammys for your grammy*.

The Wheelies are coming. You can relax now. Everything’s going to be ok.

The Bus Project’s Awards Show for Stuff that Mattersis coming back to town onMonday, October 10th, with a hefty load of limelight to shine on our awesome community.

So grab that gCal, iCal or zCal and SAVE THE DATE, friends.

Break out your top hat. Dust off your tuxedo. Add an extra 3″ to those stilletos. There’s fabulousness on the horizon.

The Wheelies is our big benefit gala (which means every dollar goes to support innovative, volunteer-driven democracy) and a chance to celebrate the wicked-extraordinary work done by good people across the movement, from champions of organizing to captains of industry to paragons of public policy.

Early-bird VIP packages (save $100 on a 5 ticket pack) are available now, as are regular VIP tickets.  Buy ‘em now. General admission’s going on sale next month.

All in all, if you’re looking for one spot where the entire creme de la creme de la Oregon will be, that spot is The Wheelies on October 10th. So be there.

Check out TheWheelies.Org for more deets.

*Leave the Oscars for your Uncle Oscar. Leave the Tonys for your Tony Danza. Leave the CMT Awards for your EMT. Leave the Soapys for Jefferson “Soapy” Smith, the 19th century gambler and criminal (no relation to this guy). Blah blah blah. Come to The Wheelies already.

Everybody’s favorite education/economic investment/just-plain-fairness issue – Tuition Equity (aka Senate Bill 742) needs you to pick up your phone & help again, Bus friends.

What you can / should / realllllyfrickingshould do:

1. Find your State Rep.’s phone # here.
2. Grab your phonephone
3. Dial that thang
4. Sing your little heart out for Tuition Equity and tell ‘em you support SB 742 & want them to vote yes (note: do not actually sing) .

A brief refresher on Senate Bill 742: it allows long-time, high-achieving Oregon students to get unsubsidized in-state tuition, regardless of their documentation status.

The Legislative Fiscal Office found that it doesn’t cost the state any money and people love it across the ideological divide (everybody from Oregon Education Association to the Associated Oregon Industries – an unlikely pairing to say the least) because it’s good for edcuation AND for the economy. Oh yeah.

We dig it because it keeps smart, talented, hard-working young folks in Oregon (which will make for a stronger economy in the long-run) and because of the simple fact that it treats people fairly. Justice, people, justice.

Your phone calls could make one heckuva difference for these students (and for Oregon’s future). So pick up that line & dial dial dial.

If you want more info on the bill/a few ideas for what to say, we told you to go here & we didn’t lie.

A few talking points, if we may:

• Please support Senate Bill 742 (duh)
• Tuition Equity helps long-time, high-achieving Oregon students continue their education
• Tuition Equity is a great investment in Oregon’s 21st century economy by keeping top talent here
• Tuition Equity makes sure our K-12 investment doesn’t go to waste
• Tuition Equity will help create the educated workforce Oregon needs to compete
• Please support Senate Bill 742 (so right, you should say it twice)

A few links about why Tuition Equity’s a great idea:

Portland Tribune: Tuition Equity is good for students, state

Hillsboro Argus: Have Some Class

Why, Hello Fellow there.

Everybody’s favorite leadership bootcamp,  PolitiCorps, is gettin’ so close you can smell it. Mmmmmmm.

This June, a crack-team of the best young folks America has to offer will touch down in Oregon for a nonstop rollercoaster of civic excitement.

It’s basically like one of the Ocean’s movies, but with 24 people instead of 11, 12 or 13; building a better democracy instead of knocking over casinos; and there will be absolutely no Casey Affleck.

Applications are still rolling (apply here), but the first round of Fellows have been chosen and it’s time to meet ‘em.

Check out these new Fellows, nominate the heck out of somebody or apply your own dang self today.

(Reposted from The Bus Project Foundation)

So…this is really cool.

Ok, we’ve been hiding something from you.

Didn’t wanna say anything before it was official, but awhile back MTVU (Music Television for collegiates) approached us about doing a mini series on our leadership training program PolitiCorps.

It’s called Generation Democracy* (let it be known: we did not come up with the name). The first few episodes were filmed last summer. Peep the promo.

At first, we were a little hazy on the whole thing. Didn’t want any teary confessionals about Ben Fain, know what we’re sayin’?

But seriously, we’re so pumped, you have no idea.

Watch it. Love it. Spread it around. We’re going nuts about it over here.

*Generation Democracy is the sole property of MTVU, a program of MTV Networks, a member of the Viacom Family. Promotional materials of Generation Democracy may not be used for the profit of anybody. Also, this is totally made up. It’s an april fools, suckers. Hope you liked the video. PolitiCorps rocks. Bus 4 Life. Seacrest Out.

Even cuter than Larry Summers*.

We already know that everybody loves Farm to School, that sweet program that gets local Oregon food in Oregon school lunches (goodbye frozen fish-sticks, hellooooooo strawberry delight).

We know that it makes kids healthier, reduces nutrition disparities and helps tackle obesity among the wee ones.

But what everybody needs to know is that the economics of the thing are so good, even 8-year-olds get it.

OBSERVE:

Upon hearing that Farm to School was a priority from Rebooting Democracy 2010, this small cadre of pint-sized PhDs requested that we record one of their daily discussions on the topic.

The above documentary was a joint venture of Upstream Public Health and the Bus. We would submit it to next year’s Oscars, but we don’t really want to be associated with an institution that gives awards to Alice in Wonderland.

If you want to help out Farm to School, it’s getting a hearing on Wednesday at the Capitol at 3pm. Hit up beloved Bus alum Mollie Ruskin (mollie@upstreampublichealth) if you want to go.

*Clearly we’re kidding about Dr. Summers. Agree or disagree with his economic philosophy, there’s no arguing that the dude looks like a Disney villain.

DANG, that’s a good idea.

This morning, the Bus is rolling down to Salem for Tuition Equity. Young folks from all over Oregon are descending on our beloved Capitol.

Why, you ask? Um, we sorta already told you: Tuition Equity (the bill # is Senate Bill 742, for you legal beagles).

If you haven’t heard of it, prepare your brain for a great idea:

Tuition Equity helps lay the foundation for Oregon’s 21st century economy AND also happens to be the moral right thing to do (can you GET any more lovable?). It offers in-state tuition to long-time Oregonian students who have graduated from Oregon high schools and been accepted to Oregon colleges, but who never received documentation when they were brought to America (so long as they are working toward citizenship now).

Reasons Tuition Equity is awesome:

• It keeps top talent in Oregon, which will help us compete in that global economy everybody talks so much about (starting innovative businesses and offering a highly skilled workforce to attract new businesses).
• It brings tuition money into Oregon when we desperately need it (see, it’s not that they’re paying out-of-state tuition rates for Oregon schools now – many just aren’t going to school here at all, which is losing Oregon money. Duh).
• We already know that leadership doesn’t depend on where you came from or how you got here. Tuition Equity recognizes that and does something about it.
• The students who would receive it are proud Oregonians; many of them have spent basically their entire lives here. It only makes sense to treat them as Oregonians.

If you want to watch some excellent young people doing some sweet democracy, watch the hearing here at 1pm.

Also, gotta give props to the rest of the coalition that have been leadin’ the way on Tuition Equity:

• Oregon Student Association
• Oregon Students of Color Coalition
• Oregon DREAMers
• CAUSA
• APANO
• CIO
• Oregon Education Association
• Oregon Business Association
• AFT-Oregon
• SEIU
• Associated Oregon Industries
• And many, many more (let us know if you want the other names)

Not just left or right, but forward, folks. Let’s do this thing.

Bottled at the source.

The legislative session’s been up and runningjogging walking it off for about a month now & we figured it was time to give you a little bit of a heads up about the stuff we’re doing in the ol’ Salem.

(And yes – this is one lengthy e-mail. Sometimes you gotta get long-winded if you wanna keep folks in the loop.)

Modernizing voter registration

(Rebooting Democracy priority #1)

A few weeks back, Bus rockstar Dina Yazdani – with a dozen Bus peeps as backup – spoke oh-so eloquently supporting a few bills that would allow voters to have their voter registrations follow them when they move. A novel idea, right?

We’re also pushin’ for improving & modernizing how public assistance agencies register their clients to vote (which has led to HUGE gains in registration in communities of color and low-income communities in other states – a BFD, if you will).

The bill #s, if you want ‘em: House Bill 2880, 2886 and 3061

Supporting & protecting yer right to vote

(Permanent Bus priority)

On the supporting side, a bountiful bevy of Bus folks testified in favor of extending the length of time people can register to vote before elections. Big ups especially to Daisy Quinonez & Salome Chimuku for their smarty pants testimony.

On the protecting side, we’re fighting a bill that would require you to staple a copy of your birth certificate to your voter registration card. Since people don’t tend to carry around their birth certificates (or portable copy machines for that matter), it’d make voter registration close to impossible for just about everybody, but especially young people, people of color and low-income folks. An awesome coalition has come together to stop it, which is sweet. We’ll keep you posted.

Those bill #s: House Joint Resolution 21 & House Bill 2804

Farm to School

(Rebooting Democracy Priority #2)

Gettin’ locally-sourced food into local school cafeterias. No brainer, right? Well, we think so. We’re workin’ with Upstream Public Health to get a little bit of hype around the thing (coming soon). It’s alsogetting a hearing on March 9th at 3pm, so you should definitely be there.

That bill #: House Bill 2800

Tuition Equity

One of the smartest pieces of economic policy that also happens to be the right moral thing to do – offering in-state tuition to long-time Oregon students who graduated from Oregon high schools, have been accepted to Oregon colleges and are working toward citizenship, but who didn’t receive documentation when their parents brought them to America. It keeps top talent in Oregon, will help us compete in the new economy and is just plain fair.

(Photo credit to Tuition Equity leaders OSA)

The bill #: Senate Bill 742

Cool Schools

One of those win-win-win ideas.Cool Schools reduces energy usage, creating jobs & improving student performance by bringing energy retrofits to schools. We dig it & you should too.

The bill #: House Bill 2960

As always, if you wanna help on any of these ballin’ bills, hit us up. We wanna get your sweet faces in Salem.