BLOG: We Must Stop Lurching From One “Temporary” Local School Funding Crisis To The Next...
Sam Adams
Today’s Education Summit at the Convention Center identified some of the raw materials for our school funding solutions:
• one-time local government contributions;
• limited school districts budget cuts;
• business tax surcharge with tax reform;
• local property tax levy in the fall;
• new funding source for schools, like a cell phone tax.
Of these, the limited school budget cuts, property tax levy, and a cell phone tax could be considered permanent solutions.
And on the issue of permanence, State Senator Richard Devlin basically said a state legislative fix for Portland wasn’t going to happen.
He and all our local state legislative delegation have always worked their hearts out for more school funding. If they say a special fix for Portland area schools is not in the cards, we should listen.
That means we must stop thinking about our local school funding efforts as a short-term fix until the state legislature rides to our rescue.
That outlook certainly matches our 15-year collective experience on this issue.
Does that mean let Salem off the hook?
Heck no!
We should pursue Mayor Tom Potter’s suggestion to sue the state government for not fulfilling its constitutional duty to provide adequate public school funding. And each session, we must keep putting the state legislature’s feet close to the fire.
But we must also accept Devlin’s message. In doing so, we will stop lurching from one “temporary” local school funding crisis to the next. Instead, we must work to put into place a package of permanent local school funding elements.
Posted by Sam Adams on February 16, 2006
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Comments by site visitors
Recalling the Sunday Oregonian front page story of a few months ago with the two tanned, young, early retired teachers in Arizona....
What would they be thinking about our "failure" to support the children.
Posted by: Jon | Feb 17, 2006 7:53:27 AM
I attended the summit, and was both discouraged and encouraged. At first I was discouraged because the rhetoric was the same. "No solutions but more money." However, once the formal presentations ended, and the public was allowed to talk, people from every side of the issue agreed that the Mayor’s plan was not going to work. A straw vote showed those in attendance voted 2 to 1 against going forward.
I was encouraged by the start of real problem solving, looking for ways to cut costs and re-prioritize city spending to find money for schools. New taxes, except for the cell phone tax, were taken off the table.
Finally, with the new cost cutting and open book budgeting Vicki Phillips is bringing to Portland Public Schools – we are now starting to see the “elephant in the living room.” PERS and health care. For every dollar we give a teacher in salary, we give them 44 cents in taxes and benefits. That’s almost double the private sector. City employee are even higher, 61 cents! The average cost of all school employees in PPS is $87,000. The average city employee is approaching $100,000.
We will not be able to pay for schools or any other government until we rein in the costs of PERS and health care. Look at your own compensation. How much is paid in payroll taxes, health insurance, and pensions by your employer? Find out and let me know please! Post the numbers here. I am in the first year of a new job. My total is 12%. It will go up to about 15% next year when you add in a 401k. I also have to pay for all of my dependents health care coverage.
Posted by: Ethan Dunham | Feb 22, 2006 10:43:46 PM
Not investing in education, K thru post-Doc, in the 21st century is kind of like collective economic suicide.
To be a player in the global economy, you have to pay.
Posted by: Lenny Anderson | Feb 23, 2006 2:49:36 PM
I am curious. How many people are like me. I will vote for a tax, fee, whatever, to get the school funding we require, but I will not support any funding option that is temporary and insufficient. The mayor's proposal, although amazing in that the City is finally getting involved in the Portland School funding crisis, is too little and way too late. Even if the .95% tax were passed, it still would only bring in about $32 million when the shortfall for next year alone is $57 million. That's not even a band-aid solution. (If it were, we would all continue to bleed to death.) So, let's talk about solutions that are sufficient, equitable, and sustainable. No more of these ridiculous half-assed, and TEMPORARY, solutions.
Posted by: julie | Feb 25, 2006 6:47:18 PM
Education needs long-term support. And it is only fair that fees on telophony be equalized. There is no reason that there should be a fee on land-lines and not on cell phones . Please pass a phone equualization fee to support the schools.
Posted by: Jim | Mar 16, 2006 2:45:27 PM
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As I said before Sam - the schools are NOT the business of the city. Had the school board done what it was suppose to do way back when the last contract was negotiated, including making the teachers pay more in the way of medical costs ... then maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. Alas, the amount the teachers have to pay is tiny, hardly enough to talk about. In the meantime we are looking at another round of labor negotiations with the teachers union. All in all its been a joke and it's about to be an even more unfunny joke.
Amazing that in 'tough' times unions like the auto workers, airline pilots and numerous others see the light and give back when thier jobs are in jepordy - wanna bet we don't see that from the teachers union. Nope, they will hold out, not give back anything and in the face of mounting red ink they will demand more money and less hours.
But remember - it's for the children.
Posted by: mmmarvel | Feb 16, 2006 11:06:10 PM