Oregon’s Public Schools

Oregon’s Constitution Article VIII, Section 3, requires the state legislature to “provide by law for the establishment of a uniform and general system of common schools.” Article XI, Section 11b, Oregon’s property tax limitation adopted by voters in 1990, shifted the primary responsibility for funding schools from local property taxes to the state’s general fund. Article VIII, Section 8, requires the Legislature to “appropriate in each biennium a sum of money sufficient to ensure that the state’s system of public education meets quality goals established by law, and publish a report that either demonstrates the appropriation is sufficient, or identifies the reasons for the insufficiency, its extent, and its impact on the ability of the state’s system of public education to meet those goals.”

These constitutional requirements make public education a state responsibility. However, under Oregon law school districts were created and are empowered to carry out the state’s responsibility to educate children. In practice, local districts operate as nearly autonomous units of government with relatively little interference from the state unless they engage in flagrant violations of state regulations or statutes.

[Return to top]