Teachers in Portland and across Oregon plan to hold an organized walkout this Wednesday, May 8, in an attempt to pressure Salem lawmakers to provide more state funding for K-12 education.
It will be the first state-wide teacher walkout in Oregonās history, according to John Larson, president of the Oregon Education Association (OEA).
āI honestly donāt believe that thereās ever been a statewide action on this scale before,ā Larson says.
School funding is one of the most talked-about issues of the 2019 Oregon legislative session, and for good reason: While the state hasnāt yet passed its next biannual budget, the legislatureās proposed budget is about $2 billion short of the $10.7 billion in school funding OEA says is needed to properly fund the stateās public school districts.
That funding gap would translate to a $17 million shortfall for Portland Public Schools (PPS), as well as a whopping $35 million deficit for the nearby Beaverton School District.
A bill recently passed by the Oregon House would eventually generate an additional $2 billion in biannual state school funding by slightly raising taxes for most corporations on all annual sales above $1 million. That bill has the support of OEA, and is expected to go to a Senate vote as early as Tuesday, May 7. Larson says he is āhopeful it will pass through the Senate this week.ā
But it's no silver bullet: That tax revenue wouldnāt kick in until after the 2019-2021 budget cycle beginsāmeaning that this bill alone wouldnāt solve the conundrum currently facing Oregon school districts.
Itās impossible to talk about the education funding crisis in Oregon without bringing up the stateās Public Employee Retirement System, or PERS. The stateās PERS fund currently faces a $27 billion deficitāso to continue paying promised benefits to retired public employees, the state is forced to siphon off funding from other areas, including education.
There are currently two proposed measures for the 2020 ballot that would attempt to convert Oregonās traditional employee pension program into a 401(k)-style retirement plan, which state business leaders say would help offset public costs. Larson says he favors solutions that can be accomplished through legislative action, rather than a ballot measureāsuch as eliminating Oregonās individual tax rebate and using tax surpluses to instead establish a rainy day fund to cover high PERS costs.
āWeāre the only state in the union that has a law where surplus taxes are returned, and not put into a rainy day fund to take care of the obligations the state has made,ā Larson says.
But regardless of how or when PERS is addressed, Larson says, itās important to remember that it is not the only factor in Oregonās poor school funding. Nationally, Oregon continuously ranks on the low end of both K-12 student performance and state funding per student. The problem began in 1990, Larson says, when Oregon voters passed Measure 5, which established limits for real estate property taxesāa major source for school funding.
āThat was a really big factor in disinvesting in our schools,ā Larson says. He adds that decreased state corporate taxes also played a role in defunding Oregon schools.
The squeeze of inadequate state school funding is felt more in some communities than others. While some districts and neighborhoods have the resources to pass funding levies and bonds and form private education-funding foundations, lower-income districts arenāt able to do the same.
āThe whole atmosphere of school bonds and school operation levies has really caused a great disparity in which districts have and which districts donāt,ā Larson says. āWhen youāre in a working class neighborhood, itās sometimes much more difficult.ā
So while the high-level objective of Wednesdayās walkout is to pressure Salem to pass a $2 billion corporate tax bill, the buildup to this unprecedented teacher demonstration stretches back decades. Larson hopes that its impact will be felt for decades to come.
āThis demonstration is not taken lightly by educators,ā he says. āThis is something they are doing to ensure the next three generations of students are not disenfranchised by our education system, like our last three have been.ā