A8
OREGON
East Oregonian
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Fractured relationship
Hospitals dig deep
for Kate Brown’s
tobacco tax only
to get spanked in
governor’s budget
By JEFF MANNING
AND HILLARY
BORRUD
The Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Oregon community colleges have seen major declines, and
higher education offi cials are especially concerned to see that
decrease refl ected in students from marginalized communities.
Colleges concerned
about marginalized
enrollment decrease
By MEERAH POWELL
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — Both Ore-
gon community colleges
and public universities have
seen a decrease in enroll-
ment amid the coronavirus
pandemic. Community col-
leges especially have seen
major declines, and higher
education offi cials are espe-
cially concerned to see that
decrease refl ected in stu-
dents from marginalized
communities.
Since fall 2019, Ore-
gon community colleges
have seen a 23% decrease in
enrollment, while public uni-
versities have seen an aver-
age decrease of 3.8%, accord-
ing to data from the state’s
Higher Education Coordinat-
ing Commission (HECC).
Much of that decrease has
come from career and techni-
cal education programs and
adult basic education — like
GED preparation or English
as a second language.
“We’ve remained con-
cerned in particular about
the students we’ve seen not
coming back,” Oregon Com-
munity College Associa-
tion Deputy Director John
Wykoff said at a HECC meet-
ing earlier this week.
According to the OCCA,
enrollment in career and tech-
nical education programs has
fallen 25% for community
colleges. Adult basic educa-
tion programs are down 48%.
“We’re also seeing that
with communities of color
and systematically marginal-
ized communities in particu-
lar, [they’re] unable to access
a community college educa-
tion right now,” Wykoff said.
According to HECC data,
Oregon community colleges
have seen 1% fewer Hispanic
and Latinx students since last
year. That’s compared with
1.6% fewer white students.
While those percentages
are close, white students
make up the majority of com-
munity college students in
Oregon, about 56%, while
Hispanic and Latinx students
make up only about 17%.
Oregon community col-
leges have also seen declines
in enrollment by Asian,
Black, Native American and
Pacifi c Islander students.
Something similar is hap-
pening nationally as well,
according to the latest fall
enrollment data from the
National Student Clearing-
house Research Center.
That data shows since
last year a more than 13%
decrease in Native Ameri-
can students at public two-
year colleges, a roughly 13%
decrease in Black students,
and a more than 10% decrease
in Hispanic students.
SALEM — Memories
can be short in politics,
goodwill a fl eeting com-
modity. Just ask Oregon’s
hospitals.
They called out Ore-
gon Gov. Kate Brown ear-
lier this month after she
unveiled a budget blueprint
that would cut hospitals’
Medicaid reimbursements,
costing them hundreds of
millions of dollars. They
blasted the governor for
even thinking about paring
back state support when
they’re facing the worst
pandemic in a century.
The budget fl ap came
barely a month after hospi-
tals spent $10 million on a
successful drive for higher
tobacco taxes to fund health
care. They did so at the gov-
ernor’s behest and assumed
they’d earned substantial
brownie points with Brown
as a result.
But it didn’t work out
that way.
On Dec. 1, the governor
fl oated her budget plan. It
slashed at least $245 mil-
lion per biennium from var-
ious programs that support
hospitals.
Tina Edlund, Brown’s
health care adviser, said the
governor had little choice
but to pencil in the reduced
reimbursement rates and
other cuts. Enrollment in
the Oregon Health Plan,
the state’s health insurance
plan for the low-income,
has increased by more
than 110,000 since the pan-
demic derailed the state’s
economy.
“We can’t protect the
Oregon Health Plan and not
Cathy Cheney/Associated Press, File
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown attends a news conference on Nov. 10, 2020, in Portland. Brown
and Oregon health offi cials warned of the capacity challenges facing hospitals as COVID-19
case counts continue to spike in the state.
pursue any cost savings in
the health care system all at
once,” said Brown spokes-
man Charles Boyle. “Gov.
Brown needed to balance a
budget now.”
The whole mess could
just go away if Brown gets
shortfall in 2021-23.
A funding shortage to
care for Oregon’s needi-
est residents during a pan-
demic makes a stark politi-
cal case for federal funding.
The same can’t be said for
the state of Oregon’s overall
“THE NEED TO INVEST IN
HEALTH CARE HAS NEVER
BEEN MORE URGENT.”
— Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem
her way and a wave of new
federal money fl ows into
the state.
When she introduced her
budget proposal she called
on Oregonians to push their
congressional representa-
tives to pass another federal
aid package. She repeat-
edly called for the federal
government to increase
funding for Oregon’s ver-
sion of Medicaid, the Ore-
gon Health Plan. Between
the big increase in case-
load and the way she struc-
tured her budget blueprint,
it faces a $400 million-plus
budget, which doesn’t make
for a sob story to present to
Congress. The state’s rev-
enue stream has continued
to grow, albeit more slowly
than before the pandemic,
and its robust rainy day
funds can fully cover any
hit to schools.
There have been no
widespread layoffs in Ore-
gon government, no big
cuts to services or even pay
freezes, and Brown isn’t
proposing any.
Spurring
hospitals,
which have proven to be
deep-pocketed
power-
houses in Oregon lobby-
ing and electoral politics, to
throw their weight behind
a federal lobbying effort
could be Oregon Demo-
crats’ best hope for a fed-
eral lifeline.
Perhaps not surprisingly,
Brown is not the only Dem-
ocratic leader in Oregon
making the projected Med-
icaid shortfall a centerpiece
of their appeal to Congress
for more COVID-19 aid.
Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, sent
a letter to Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell
and House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi on Dec. 11 also citing
Oregon’s Medicaid budget
problems as the top reason
to pass “a large economic
relief package.”
“The need to invest
in health care has never
been more urgent,” Court-
ney wrote. Courtney’s let-
ter painted the situation
as even more dire than
Brown’s proposal actually
is, since he neglected to
note the state will receive
approximately $300 million
from the increased tobacco
taxes, leading him to cite a
$718 million budget gap.
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