Funding for Schools in Oregon

2011-05-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

Public schools in Oregon are not getting enough funding from the State. Teachers are being cut, there are less school days, class sizes are larger and valuable programs are being eliminated. Investing in education would not only be good for our children but it would also stimulate our economy.

In 2009, the Oregon Legislature approved $5.75 billion in state funds for K-12 school districts for the years ending in June 30, 2011. This was supplemented by federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of $226.5 million, which brought the total to $5.98 billion. The legislatively-established Quality Education Commission has stated that it will cost $8.35 billion to meet Oregon’s quality education goals which means there is a shortfall of $2.37 billion. (Oregon Blue Book)

Oregon has lost 9% of classroom teachers due to budget cuts.(www.oregoned.org) The result is class sizes are increased by almost 12% in elementary schools alone.(www.oregoned.org) There are days eliminated from the school year and schools being closed. Our students not only are getting less one on one time with their teachers but also less instructional time.

Another major problem is the programs that are being eliminated. In my child’s school, the P.E. teacher was eliminated and the teachers are instructing the students in physical education. In my son’s junior high, they will be eliminating the track, dance and wrestling programs next year. There are music, art and physical education programs being eliminated in schools across the state. These programs are important to develop a child’s creative thinking and keep them physically active.

Last year in Oregon City, an elementary school was closed. Our district released schools a couple of days early last year. They also started an early release program where the kids get out of school an hour early every Wednesday. The schools in Oregon City will have 2 less weeks of school days next year. We will be voting on a Local Option Levy—Measure 3-376—in the May election. This will restore the two weeks of school days eliminated and only cost the owner of a $200,000 home about $218 per year.

Some may argue that the public education system is not giving our children an adequate education so we shouldn’t give more money to a system that is essentially broken. Just because a school has money doesn’t mean the children will get a quality education. In his article titled “Who Could Be against “Adequate” School Funding?” Eric A. Hanushek says “there are too few incentives that reward good performance and too few disincentives to penalize poor performance in our public schools. Schools introduce unproven and unproductive programs.

They overpay poor teachers (and underpay good teachers). They tolerate ineffective administrators at the state, district, and individual school level. In sum, they do not ensure that any additional funds will be spent in ways that improve student learning.

When my son was in fourth grade, he had a teacher that was difficult to deal with. She had students that she liked and students that she didn’t like. My son was one of the students she didn’t like. She would use derogatory terms to address him and called my husband a bully in front of the class. My son would come home from school and say she had thrown a bag of popcorn across the room today, or she slapped one of the kids on the back of the head. He was bullied by her that year and there was nothing we could do about it. We had meeting after meeting with her and the principal. There was nothing they could do—she had tenure. This is an example of how the school system can be broken. There are, however, just as many good teachers as there are bad teachers which is why funding shouldn’t be cut because of the bad ones.

Investing in education will add jobs to our community—more money=more jobs. In other words—“Investing in public education is the path out of our economic crisis.”(www.oregoned.org) “In more than 50% of our cities and towns, the local public school is the largest employer. Collectively, Oregon school districts are Oregon’s second-largest employer.” (www.oregoned.org) For every dollar that is invested in education, there is a penny to penny return in five years with a 14.3 percent lifetime annual return. ( www.oregoned.org) Are our schools giving our children a quality education? I know it could be better but I also believe cutting funding is not the answer to getting a quality education. Our schools need more funding and good teachers should be paid well for their quality instruction.

Data in blog from the following sources:

Oregon Education Association website: http://www.oregoned.org/site/pp.asp?c=9dKKKYMDH&b=297462

Who Could Be against “Adequate” School Funding? By Eric A. Hanushek:

http://edpro.stanford.edu/hanushek/admin/pages/files/uploads/hanushek0101.pdf

Oregon Blue Book:

http://bluebook.state.or.us/education/educationintro.htm