Oregon, where in 1859 our Constitution established a free public education system and a Common School Fund to pay for it -- like a challenge sent from our founders not to forget their dream:

All children deserve a good public education.

Think of this early act as an ironic prophecy -- the “first steps” of a state that would grow up to become famous as the bellwether in protecting natural resources.

Why ironic? Look at us now. By dozens of measures, Oregon has among the best public education systems in the nation. We’re successful and accountable. We’re wise stewards of money in the face of funding shortfalls. We welcome every child and do our best regardless of handicaps, language barriers or simple bad luck.

But now we’re on the verge of losing precious ground -- and jeopardizing the future of our children -- if Oregon doesn’t hold on to its investment in public education during this budget crisis.

It’s time to protect Oregon’s legacy and the reputation that put our unique state on the map -- because time is running out.

At a very different junction

Pollsters tell us Oregonians are flat-out tired (and confused) when we play that broken record -- Stable, long-term and adequate school funding. “Their willingness to increase taxes to pay for what we agree are essential public services hovers at about 40 percent and remains unmovable even with the most dire threats of service cuts,” says Mark Wiener of M & R Strategic Services, noting that “promised cuts” don’t materialize in the minds of voters who still see the school buses running, Friday night football and joyous graduation ceremonies.

“Dire predictions that don’t materialize have led to a decline in confidence in our government institutions,” he says.

What is clear, he adds, is that positive messages are better than negative ones if Oregon is to renew and strengthen its commitment to public education. He challenges school leaders to show their communities how well schools have been managing, which in turn will sell the public on investing in success. “Nobody invests in failure,” he says.

How we got here

The school funding debate has been percolating since statehood. Few, if any, Oregon issues are as intractable as this. Look at Oregon newspapers from 60, 100, even 150 years ago and you’ll see headlines resembling today’s debates: How much should schools cost? How should the bill be paid, state income taxes or local property taxes? Taxes are too high, standards are too low. Should we increase them? What will it cost? How do we measure the results?

Over the years the urgency has ebbed and flowed, but something is very different now.

“For the first time, all the pieces are falling into place,” says OSBA Executive Director Chris Dudley. “These include improvements we’ve made under Oregon’s Educational Act, the Quality Education Model as a map on how we should spend resources, the coalitions we’ve formed, data showing the critical tie between schools and Oregon’s economy, facts showing where we stand nationally, and the progress through rising test scores to show we’re on the right track.

“Oregon only lacks one major piece -- and that’s the political will as a state to stop the quality of our schools from sliding.”

The road traveled so far

To map a solution it is important to understand how we arrived at this junction.

The biggest political shift in recent years came when voters approved the property tax rate and assessment limits in 1990 and 1996. This transferred funding responsibility from local school boards to state legislators.

At first, the shift seemed to work -- the booming economy of the 1990s swelled state income tax revenues. This made the impact of the tax limitations on school funding more like bumping down a flight of stairs than falling off a cliff.

Revenue growth helped the Legislature deal with the unprecedented, constitutionally required, demand for increased education services caused by not only the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century and other mandates but also by Oregon’s changing student demographics.

Spending needs increase

Demands on the state’s General Fund increased as public safety spending grew 151 percent between 1989 and 1999 in response to a voter initiative for longer prison sentences. Higher education funding slightly increased over the period.

Now, Oregon is in a vise-grip: As the last six economic forecasts indicate, the state’s ability to keep pace with increased government service needs is at an end. The combination of recession and over-reliance on income taxes has pushed state coffers into a $1.8 billion hole and leaves another $313 million in cuts for the last five months of the 2001-2003 biennium, if voters fail to approve a temporary income tax increase at the Jan. 28, 2003, special election.

The battle to balance the 2003-2005 budget will begin next. With K-12 funding now comprising the largest single part of the state budget, nearly every school board faces the equivalent of blunt force trauma, if this crisis continues and further cuts are required.

Rising to our challenge as spending declines

The urgency to “stay on track” is even more acute because the latest crisis comes at a time when Oregon schools have made great strides to improve student achievement. These achievements include:

• Since 1996 Oregon’s fourth and eighth graders exceeded the national average on National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in math, reading, science and writing.
• Since 1990 Oregon’s eighth graders have outscored the nation and the western states in math. In 2000, eighth grade scores in science exceeded the national average by five points and in math by seven points.
• Last year, 85 percent of third graders, 79 percent of fifth graders and 64 percent of eighth graders met or exceeded Oregon’s challenging reading standards. For math, 77 percent of third graders, 75 percent of fifth graders and 55 percent of eighth graders met or exceeded the Oregon standards. For tenth graders, 79 percent met the writing standards and 62 percent met the science standards.
• In 2002, Oregon’s high school students tied with Maine for the top scores nationally on the American College Testing Program (ACT) college entrance exam.
• Oregon’s students lead the nation on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Last year they exceeded the national average on the verbal test by 20 points and scored 12 points higher on the math test. Also, 56 percent of eligible Oregon students took the SAT while 46 percent did nationally.
• At a time when graduation rates nationally are flat, Oregon has increased its rate by three percent since 1995-96. At the same time, the dropout rate in Oregon went from a high of 7.4 percent in 1994-95 to 5.3 percent in 2000-01.

In 1990 Oregon ranked 15th nationally in expenditures per student. By 2000 that ranking dropped to 20th. It’s a slide, given the current crisis, that will accelerate.

Paying attention to what we pay for schools is also essential to the health of Oregon’s ailing economy. A report by ECONorthwest shows what the economic effect of cutting school funding will be on every Oregon community.

A good map to follow

Economic realities aside, the greatest impact of funding cuts is on the 552,000 students in Oregon’s classrooms. The Quality Education Model developed by Oregon’s Quality Education Commission provides a nationally noted blueprint for determining the resources needed for schools to meet the quality education goals established in law -- and according to public opinion. The QEM provides the best tool so far to develop education budgets.

School appropriations in the now-battered 2001-2003 state budget fell $870 million short of the target set by the QEM. Under this model, Oregon should spend $6,589 per ADMw in 2003-04. That amount is $1,500 more per ADMw than is available after the recent round of state budget cuts.

And, as state revenues fell and more cuts are threatened, the Oregon Department of Education cut testing; school boards are cutting school days, staff and school programs; insurance, retirement and other school operating costs are rising and employee contracts in a number of districts are unsettled.

And here we are at the junction . . .

Before 1990, school boards could go to their local communities to make up lost revenues. That safety valve is gone. In the mid 1940s when school funding was in crisis, the newly formed Oregon School Boards Association along with school administrators, teachers and parents, circulated an initiative petition that created the Basic School Support Fund. It was approved by Oregon voters and provided a much-needed financial base for public schools.

Will they -- meaning we -- step forward again? The answer is YES. For the past two years OSBA has been working on several fronts to help set the groundwork for discussions on Oregon’s tax system. From funding economic reports that establish a baseline for discussions, to working with other organizations -- from the usual players to unique partners -- OSBA plays a key role in the effort to fix Oregon’s taxing structures.

But it’s different this time. We are armed with the tools to show what a quality education is and what it costs as well as how important schools are to Oregon’s economy. We can make the case for a funding solution that can accomplish what Oregon’s founding pioneers intended the original Common School Fund to do: “fully support a free school system.”

What are we waiting for?