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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019
State lawmakers detail education wish list
Herman
Baertschiger,
R-Grants Pass, dismissed
the notion that more funding
means better education.
“I see private schools
having less money but hav-
ing better results,” Baertsch-
iger said. “I’m trying to fi g-
ure out what’s going on
here.”
“If we give them $2,000
per child more and we don’t
have better results in a few
years, do we give them
another $5,000?” Baertsch-
iger continued. “I mean,
when do we stop?”
An ambitious plan
for improvement
By PARIS ACHEN,
AUBREY WIEBER and
CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
A small group of legisla-
tors spent a year compiling
their wish list of improve-
ments to Oregon’s failing
education system.
Now they have fi ve
months to whittle it down
to something realistic, fi nd
a way to fund it and sell the
rest of their colleagues on
spending up to $3 billion
more on K-12 education.
The state currently spends
about $8.2 billion.
“We only get one chance
to educate our children,”
said state Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner. “They’re only
in fi rst grade once, they’re
only in 10th grade once. We
need to take advantage of
that opportunity.”
A report released Thurs-
day details the wish list a leg-
islative committee compiled
after a summer of hearings
and tours around Oregon.
The report echoes much of
what the committee already
has said publicly is needed to
improve schooling for Ore-
gon’s children. That includes
a longer school year, more
state-paid preschool, diver-
sity among teachers and
smaller class sizes.
It also shows lawmak-
ers have learned from past
mistakes.
“Historically, the school
state fund has not come with
strings attached,” said state
Rep. Barbara Smith Warner,
D-Portland, co-chair of the
Joint Committee on School
Success. “What we are try-
ing to do is to ... tie this
funding to outcomes. It’s not
just, let’s put more money in
the state school fund.”
That means school dis-
tricts around Oregon might
have to agree to measurable
improvements to get and
keep extra state money.
The state would work
with school districts to come
up with tailored plans. What
works in a large, urban
school might not be right for
a school of just a couple of
hundred students, legisla-
tors said. If the districts fol-
low through on the plan and
see improvement, the state
would continue paying for
their initiatives.
“We want to focus on
outcomes-based funding,”
Smith Warner said. “…
What is most responsive to
your community’s needs,
and how you’re going to
measure your success and
how we’re going to measure
your success.”
Palatable
Pamplin Media Group
State Sen. Lew Frederick talks with Portland students in September during a tour of the state by the Joint Committee on School
Success.
‘WE ONLY GET ONE CHANCE TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN. THEY’RE
ONLY IN FIRST GRADE ONCE, THEY’RE ONLY IN 10TH GRADE
ONCE. WE NEED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT OPPORTUNITY.’
State Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner
the state, urban, rural, from
the biggest schools to the
smallest, that have had sig-
nifi cant trauma. They’re fac-
ing food insecurity, housing
insecurity. The schools need
to deal with that.”
In that vein, legislators
want to expand Early Head
Start. It provides full-day
programs for infants and
toddlers from low-income
families but is only available
to 2,064 kids of the 25,000
eligible.
The group found the state
wasn’t adequately funding
early intervention and early
childhood special education.
Full funding would cost an
additional $37.5 million per
year.
The legislators also pro-
pose propping up Oregon’s
most needy families. Com-
mittee members found state
programs provide home
visits to only 10 percent of
30,000 at-risk families who
need such services.
The 84-page report stops
short of outlining how to pay
for all of these ideas. They
have punted those questions
to three smaller groups of
lawmakers who on Thurs-
day will sort out the details,
including how to pay for
these changes.
Lengthening the school
year and limiting class sizes
are among the most expen-
sive recommendations.
Committee
members
found Oregon’s school year,
which ranges from 150 days
to 170 days, isn’t enough.
They would like to reach the
national average of 180 days.
But adding those days
would cost an estimated
$258 million per year.
And caps on class sizes
— which would range from
20 in kindergarten and fi rst
grade to 29 for core aca-
demic glasses in grades 6
through 12 — would cost
about $185 million per year.
Higher goals
teachers succeed.
Legislative budget ana-
lysts say the mentorship pro-
gram could cost $234 mil-
lion a year.
They also propose hiring
more specialists like music
teachers, librarians and
school counselors.
Ideally, the state’s teach-
ers should refl ect the state’s
demographic makeup, leg-
islators said. Some money
would be dedicated to help-
ing local school districts
“grow their own” future
workforce with scholarships
for students from “racially
and linguistically diverse”
backgrounds who want to
become teachers
Smith said he supports
the committee’s requests—
but it’s not clear if his fellow
Republicans agree.
In an interview this week,
Senate Republican Leader
To make it more palat-
able and not a shock to the
economy, legislators would
have to trim the package.
“We need to prioritize,”
House Speaker Tina Kotek
said “I will be the fi rst one
to say we are not going to
be able to fund everything,
so what are those key sets
of investments we know
will have the most return
on investment in terms of
the outcomes we want, and
focus on that ‘what’ and then
get to the ‘how.’”
Kotek said revenue ideas
should start to trickle out of
committee hearings soon.
The legislators said for
years, Oregon has failed to
address school funding. If
it’s going to take a shot at
reform, lawmakers need to
make up for past neglect. It’s
time to aim big, they said.
“If there was ever a time
in Oregon’s history when we
really needed to take a look
at educating our children
and getting maximum value
for our dollar, it’s now,”
Smith said.
The Capital Bureau is
a collaboration between
EO Media Group, Pamplin
Media Group and Salem
Reporter.
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Other goals reach higher,
aspiring not to just fall in
line with national averages
but exceed them.
The legislators want
state-subsidized education
for teachers, with an empha-
sis on those going on to
instruct career and technical
education.
A state-organized men-
torship system would bump
up salaries for teachers
who agree to mentor others
and create an advancement
council inside the state edu-
cation department to help
Transform the system
The proposals would
transform Oregon’s school
system in every way, from
how the state intervenes
with toddlers at risk of abuse
to technical training for high
school seniors who aren’t
college bound. Fewer kids
would go hungry and more
children in poverty would be
able to go to preschool under
the new plan.
The lawmakers empha-
sized bolstering services for
low-income families with
young children, starting the
help at infancy.
“Kids in crisis can’t
learn,” Smith Warner said.
“We have students all across
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