The Hood River County School District board unanimously passed a resolution urging legislators to adequately and sustainably fund schools.
“After decades of disinvestment in our school children,” said Vice Chair Rich Truax, “we’re optimistic that this year, we’ll see a renewed commitment by our state legislators to fund our public school system.”
The resolution is connected to the Oregon School Boards Association’s (OSBA) Oregonians for Student Success campaign to prioritize education investment. The HRCSD board revised its resolution after input from the local teachers’ union. OSBA Executive Director Jim Green said it is important for legislators and community members to see that school boards are seeking revenue reform and improved education funding. OSBA has committed to revenue reform and cost containment advocacy in the 2019 Legislature.
The HRCSD School Board resolution highlights that Oregon has consistently underfunded public education since the 1990 passage of Measure 5, which limited property taxes. The prolonged period of unstable and inadequate funding has led to shorter school years, larger class sizes, teacher layoffs and program cuts — all described by the resolution.
Gov. Kate Brown’s 2019-21 budget proposed $9 billion for the State School Fund, with a possible additional $1.3 billion for early learning and K-12 education. Oregon’s “Quality Education Model,” a nonpartisan assessment of the costs of a quality education system, recommends $10.7 billion for the biennium — about the national average for education spending.
“Oregon’s political leaders have embarked on an ambitious effort through the Joint Committee on Student Success to define what our schools can be and find the means of sustainably paying for them,” the resolution said.
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