Oregon Business Plan Action Center
Please check back regularly for opportunities to take
action in support of the Oregon Business Plan.
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Let
us know about additional ways to support the Oregon Business
Plan
Featured
Opportunity
Help Shape the New High School Diploma Requirements
In January 2007, the State
Board of Education modified requirements for the high school
diploma. Beginning in 2012, students must demonstrate
proficiency in ESSENTIAL SKILLS to receive an Oregon Diploma.
The Essential Skills are critical 21st century skills needed
for success in college, the workplace, and civic life.
The Essential Skills Task Force -
educators from K-12, special education, higher education and
community colleges, high school students, and business and
community representatives - worked together to define the
Essential Skills.
We need your experience, insight and
opinion on the newly drafted Essential Skills definitions
[attached].
Your input today will help to inform
the work of the Task Force and final recommendations that go
to the State Board.
We anticipate adoption of the Essential
Skills in June, 2008.
Please visit http://www.ode.state.or.us
/surveys/template.aspx?sid=276
to share your feedback with the Department of Education
through February 19, 2008.
For questions, please contact Theresa
Levy, Ed. Specialist and Diploma Project Coordinator,
Office of Educational Improvement and Innovation.
Support
the Public Finance Agenda
The
2008 Oregon Business Plan Public Finance Agenda contains five
key recommendations: Long-term performance based
budgeting and expenditure forecasting, solidifying the reserve
fund, monitoring the condition of the state pension system,
reviewing public employee compensation, and diversifying the
tax base, including addressing the inadequacy of local revenue
in timber counties.
Stay
tuned for opportunities to support bills that advance these
objectives. In the meantime, as you talk with
legislators and candidates for office, please emphasize the
importance of long-term performance-based budgeting and ask
what they will be doing to ensure that this type of planning
occurs in state government.
Stay
abreast of the activities of the Governor's Task Force on
Revenue Restructuring (we'll let you know as soon as they have
a website up) and please continue to support Senators Wyden,
Smith and the rest of Oregon's Congressional Delegation in
their difficult effort to restore the county
timber-payments.
Support
the Education and Workforce Agenda
In
2007 the Governor proposed and the legislature adopted ambitious
goals for educational attainment in Oregon based on the work
of the Oregon Business Plan: It's called The 40-40-20
vision. The idea is that in order for Oregon to be
competitive place to live and work in the global economy, 40%
of our residents will need to achieve a bachelor's degree or
higher, 40% will need an associates degree, technical training
or the equivalent, and 20% will need at least a high school
diploma that represents a high level of academic and work
readiness skills. Establishing this vision is a major
step forward in Oregon, because it allows us to see that our
current delivery system for education is inadequate for
achieving these goals. Thus, we must continue to aggressively
move forward on efforts to redesign the prek-20 education
enterprise, including a seamless curriculum, integrated data
systems, and a unified, transparent, student-centered and
performance-based budget.
In
addition to these broad policy and system reforms, there are
several ways that you can advance the agenda. Here are
just a few:
-
Embrace
the new high school diploma: Visit www.getreadyoregon.org,
read the new high school diploma requirements, provide your
feedback to the Department of Education, and engage students,
educators and other employers in your community in supporting
these high standards. Schedule time on the agenda of
your next chamber, cluster or consortium meeting to review the
standards, their relevance to your organizations and how you
can work within your own communities to help implement
them. The new requirements include career related
learning standards and demonstration of essential
skills. Getting kids to meet these requirements will
require full engagement from the private sector.
As
you do this work there are many organizations currently
working and showing results in engaging employers in the
classroom and students and teachers in the workplace.
Spend some time learning about how you can get involved with
some of these efforts, including the Business
Education Compact, Employers
for Education Excellence and The
Chalkboard Project.
We
also know that our workforce challenges can't be solved only
by fixing the pipeline issues. We've got to skill-up our
existing workforce, invest in incumbent worker training, and
tap all the available talent we've got. Toward that end,
here are some ideas for action:
Support
the Economic Innovation Agenda
Visit
the Oregon
Innovation Council website for the latest news
events and opportunities to support the economic innovation
agenda.
Support
the Health Care Agenda
-
Join
the Oregon Coalition of Health Care Purchasers
-
Dialogue with your
HR and Benefits personnel about how to maximize the value
of your healthcare dollars
-
Engage your
employees in wellness programs and chronic care management
-
Support the Oregon
Health Fund Board in their work to expand
access to coverage in Oregon.
-
Attend one of the
following events:
January
23, 2007: Value-Based Benefit Plan Design Interactive
Workshop. 10am-4pm. The
Holiday
Inn Wilsonville
,
Oregon
. 25425
SW 95th Avenue
, Wilsonville
,
OR
97070
Target
Audience: Purchaser with consultant/broker and
health plan/TPA representative.
Summary:
Facilitated by
David Hom & Cyndy Nayer of The Center for Health Value
Innovation. Purchasers are requested to invite their
health plan/TPA account manager & benefits
consultant/broker to work as a team to determine value-based
benefit plan designs most applicable for their employee/member
population.
More
information and registration
January
24, 2007: Investing in Workforce Health for
Financial Sustainability: Evidence, Opportunities, and Action.
7:30AM
–
9:00AM
. Multnomah Athletic Club
Target
Audience: Senior Executives.
CEO
, CFO, Senior VP HR.
Summary:
David Hom, Chairman of the
Center
of
Health Value Innovation
, will discuss the evidence, the opportunities, and action
steps for senior executives in maximizing the value of their
employee health & wellness expenditures. Executives
will have opportunity for question and answer, dialogue and
discussion of next steps.
More
information and registration
Support
the Transportation Agenda
Join
the Keep
Oregon Moving mailing list for the latest
opportunities to take action. Make support for
transportation funding a top issue when you talk with
legislators and candidates. Get more facts about
Oregon's transportation challenges and opportunities by
visiting www.keeporegonmoving.com
(please note that this site is under construction and
needs lots of updating!)
Help
your organization become "Lean and Green"
At the Summit,
Oregon Business Plan Chair Steve Pratt urged companies and
organizations to go "lean and green" in order to
compete in the rapidly changing global economy. We look
forward to connecting you to resources throughout the year
that can help you along this journey. To start, here are
a few links to organizations that Steve mentioned last Monday.
Lean/High-Performance
Resources.* Looking for ways to improve
productivity and reduce waste in your business processes?
Check out these resources.
Northwest
High Performance Enterprise Consortium
High-Desert
High Performance Enterprise Consortium
Southern
Oregon High-Performance Enterprise Consortium
Mid-Willamette
Valley High Performance Enterprise Consortium
Oregon
Bioscience High Performance Consortium
*while many of
these consortium began as part of the Governor's Manufacturing
Workforce Initiative, many participants are not manufacturers.
Lean/high performance principles and practices can be applied
in almost any organizational setting.
"Green"
Resources. Looking for ways to reduce your
environmental footprint while improving the bottom line?
Check out these resources:
Oregon
Natural Step Network (Statewide)
Resource
(Bend)
Portland
Office of Sustainable Development (Portland)
Southern Oregon
Sustainable Business Forum (email Charlie Mitchell at charlie@soredi.org.)
Business Energy
Tax Credit: Beginning January 1, 2008, you can receive a
50% tax credit on projects that shrink your environmental
footprint. Discover what kind of projects are eligible
and how the tax credit works by visiting http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/CONS/BUS/BETC.shtml.
Engage
with the Oregon Cluster Network
Visit
www.oregonclusters.org
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