In
the end, the budget battle in Salem comes down to one
thing: education. Of the $232 million that separates the
Democrats' and Republicans' proposals, $225 million is
funding for elementary and secondary schools.
As the two sides have postured behind their respective
K-12 numbers--$4.725 billion for the Republicans, $4.95
billion for the Democrats--reason has often been overtaken
by rhetoric. Here are some facts.
Per-Pupil
Spending
Republicans say Oregon's per-pupil expenditure
of $6,095 is higher than any state's west of the Mississippi
except Alaska's.
In fact, Wyoming and Washington also spend more on
schoolchildren (as does West Virginia). In fact, Oregon
is slightly below the national per-pupil spending average.
According to the National Education Association, in
1999 Oregon ranked 21st in the country in per-pupil
spending--below the average of $6,208. Those stats don't
look so bad until you consider this: In 1980-81, when
the state's economy was a sliver of its present might,
Oregon ranked fourth. More importantly, Oregon now spends
less on a per-pupil basis--if you adjust for inflation--than
it did in 1990, according to the Oregon Department of
Education.
Teachers
Salaries
Republicans say teacher salaries are out of control.
Oregon does pay its teachers slightly better than the
national average. Oregon's average teacher salary of
$42,300 ranks 13th in the country, according to a recent
survey by the American Federation of Teachers. Still,
teacher salaries are barely keeping up with inflation.
(In 1997-98, private-sector salaries in Oregon increased
at twice the rate of inflation.) Oregon teachers receive
generous benefits, but state-to-state comparisons are
unreliable because of differing taxes, living costs
and other factors.
School's
Needs
Republicans point out that the 1997 Legislature
provided $200 million more for K-12 education than Gov.
John Kitzhaber initially requested. They claim this
as evidence that the state already has sufficient educational
resources.
Even if the Democrats get their $4.95 billion, Portland's
school budget will increase less than 2 percent. That's
not enough to maintain all existing programs, let alone
hire more teachers. According to a recent NEA survey,
Oregon's classrooms are the fourth most-crowded in the
nation, with 19.5 students per teacher.
Republican
Stinginess
Democrats have rapped the Republican budget because,
on a percentage basis, K-12 education gets the smallest
increase (8.5 percent) of any major category.
In the Democrats' own budget, education gets the second-smallest
percentage increase. In dollar terms, the Republicans'
proposed $370 million increase is not chump change.
The
Bare Cupboard
Ken Strobeck, chairman of the House Revenue Committee,
says he'd love to spend more than $4.725 billion on
schools but, echoing a familiar Republican refrain,
laments that the state simply doesn't have the resources.
In a time of unprecedented prosperity, we have the
money; we just don't want to spend it on education.
Twenty years ago, according to the Confederation of
Oregon School Administrators, Oregonians spent 5.1 percent
of their per-capita personal income on K-12 education;
today that percentage has fallen to 3.5 percent. Another
way of looking at what's changed: Between 1990 and 1996,
property-tax receipts declined 12 percent while the
market value of taxable property in the state rose nearly
100 percent. Over that same period, personal income
increased 60 percent.
Conclusion:
Legislators say they want to make Oregon's educational
system the best in the world, but you can't buy a world-class
system by being an average spender. Educators say they
can't effectively implement school reform with increasingly
crowded classrooms and budgets that have shrunk in real
terms over the past decade. Mix partisan politics in
with these fundamental disagreements and you get what
we have now--gridlock. The question in Salem, says the
bipartisan Council on the Oregon Quality Education Model,
headed by former Speaker of the House Lynn Lundquist,
shouldn't be whether $4.725 billion or $4.95 billion
is the right number, but rather what it will cost to
make our schools the best.
The current budget debate won't come close to providing
an answer.
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Willamette Week | originally
published June 30, 1999
