The current forecast for the short Oregon legislative session, which debuted Monday, Feb. 5, might best be characterized as cloudy with a chance of missed opportunity.
Hanging over the session is the specter of the frustrating 2023 session, when walkouts by Senate Republicans paralyzed the Legislature for six weeks. They returned at the last minute and lawmakers were able to pass a limited number of bills, including the state budget with its $10.2 billion State School Fund.
The 2024 session opened without incident Monday, but the repercussions of the 2023 Senate walkout are still reverberating. The state Supreme Court last week upheld a constitutional amendment barring lawmakers with more than 10 unexcused absences in a session from running for re-election.
Ten Republican state senators will be barred from running when their terms end in 2025 or 2027. Some of them have openly wondered why they should come to work only to assure that the opposing party can see its agenda realized.
Senate Republican leader Tim Knopp, one of the affected legislators, said lame duck Republicans will need an incentive to even show up and let legislation proceed, according to an Oregon Capital Chronicle article.
After Republican legislators walked out of sessions in 2019, 2020 and 2021, voters amended the Oregon Constitution to say lawmakers who had more than 10 unexcused absences in a session were barred from re-election. In 2023, Republican senators walked out anyway. The record six-week walkout denied the Senate a quorum and brought the Legislature’s work to a grinding halt.
The senators showed up for work Monday morning. OSBA Legislative Services Director Lori Sattenspiel said they have said they will return as long as Democrats continue to reach across the aisle.
Sattenspiel spent the weekend taking the temperature of legislators and education advocates to learn what will be possible this session.
“We have a plan for now,” Sattenspiel said.
Education isn’t a top priority in this session, but every legislative session offers challenges and opportunities in the form of education-related bills. Legislative leadership is packed with individuals who have a strong interest in education.
Housing and homelessness are this year’s main focus for legislators and Gov. Tina Kotek, however, with related issues of addiction and behavioral health. Safety and health-related issues come close behind.
This will be the second straight challenging session for Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, after replacing longtime Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem. House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, will step down from that role after this session to focus on his race for state attorney general. Democrats have designated Rep. Julie Fahey, D-West Eugene, as Rayfield’s successor, pending a vote at session’s end.
It’s also the first session for Rep. Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, in the role of House minority leader, with an opportunity to define how he intends to work with and against the majority party.
Wagner, a former Lake Oswego School Board member, is just one of many legislators with long experience in advocating for public education.
The House Education Committee is led by Rep. Courtney Neron, D-Wilsonville. She is a teacher and an advocate for public school funding. The committee includes school board members Republican Rep. Emily McIntire of Eagle Point and Democratic Rep. Hoa Nguyen of David Douglas as well as former David Douglas School Board member Rep. Andrea Valderrama, a Democrat. Rep. Zach Hudson, D-Gresham, is a teacher, and Rep. Boomer Wright, R-Coos Bay, is a former Mapleton School District superintendent.
The Senate Education Committee is led Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland. A retired community college instructor, he has been in the Legislature since 2008. Committee member Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, is a former teacher, and Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, worked in communications for Portland Public Schools. Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, is a former Corvallis School Board member and a fierce advocate for special education students.
Neron and Dembrow are co-chairs of the Joint Task Force on Statewide Educator Salary Schedules. The task force, which includes OSBA’s Sattenspiel, will be dormant during the session but not forgotten. The task force is receiving mixed reactions to setting some sort of statewide pay level for teachers.
School board members who discussed it with OSBA during fall regional meetings are equally mixed. Some see it as an affront to local control while others see it as a means of lending predictability to school budgeting.
– Jake Arnold and Alex Pulaski, OSBA
jarnold@osba.org, apulaski@osba.org
