School board member Mitzi Bauer sent a letter April 5 to Ways and Means Co-Chair Rep. Tawna Sanchez. She said her message was simple: Schools must serve all children, and a $9.9 billion State School Fund is not enough.
“How can we do that when we are never given an adequate amount?” said the North Clackamas board member.
Education advocates are laying the groundwork now for crunch time on the State School Fund. They have a better idea of how legislators want to divvy up the state budget, and they are targeting their arguments for why the State School Fund needs to be at least $10.3 billion.
“Be ready to advocate,” said OSBA Legislative Services Director Lori Sattenspiel. “Now that we know what we are up against, it’s your time.”
The State School Fund bill, House Bill 5015, allocates $9.9 billion for the State School Fund. School business officials, using current contracts and spending, calculate Oregon needs at least a $10.3 billion State School Fund for most districts to avoid cuts to staff, programs or days.
HB 5015 is unlikely to face a vote for at least a month, giving education advocates time to make their case. Legislative Highlights is offering weekly articles, “Funding Oregon’s Future,” to help school board members understand the state process.
Sattenspiel said OSBA is gathering information for what have long been called the “bus posters.” The one-page documents will show what a $9.9 billion State School Fund means for individual districts. For most districts, it means significant cuts to staff, programs or days or tapping into reserves at a time districts should be preparing for a possible recession.
OSBA will share those documents with school board members and administrators to put before their communities and legislators.
Sattenspiel said board members can be particularly effective legislative advocates because they are fellow elected officials. School board members know what legislators’ constituencies are talking about and what they want, and they can get direct access to legislators.
Even legislators who are not entrenched in education issues need to hear about schools’ needs, Sattenspiel said. Bills for seemingly unrelated issues can affect both school spending and funding.
Sattenspiel and her team keep a sharp eye out for bills that add to schools’ costs, such as construction regulations or early literacy efforts.
“It’s all great, but these bills need to be paid for either with money added to the State School Fund or new funding sources,” she said.
Work on HB 5015 likely won’t start again until after the Joint Ways and Means Committee’s public hearing tour. The committee, which votes on all bills that involve spending, is taking testimony on the state budget from around Oregon. The committee has hearings April 21 at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, April 28 at Four Rivers Cultural Center in Ontario and May 3 virtually.
Sattenspiel expects the committee to wait on HB 5015 until it gets this session’s final state economic report May 17. The committee can change HB 5015’s allotment, but once the bill moves to the House floor, it’s unlikely to change. After that, advocates can still try to get additional funding through other bills.
School districts are planning their budgets now. Bauer is frustrated that districts are again waiting to see if the Legislature will come through with at least current service level funding.
“Every two years since the 1990s there has been a budget that’s been unpredictable,” she said. “It hasn’t been stable, and it hasn’t been adequate.”
– Jake Arnold, OSBA
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Previously in the series: Bill would restore educators’ voice to school funding calculations
