Knute Buehler Kicks Off Campaign for Governor With Pledge of Longer School Year, More Money for Schools

State Rep. Knute Buehler (R-Bend) unveiled the first substantive policy proposals of his campaign for governor today at Davis Elementary School in the Rockwood neighborhood of Gresham.

Buehler, a Republican, is challenging incumbent Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 260,000 in Oregon, an advantage of about 10 percentage points. That means to have a chance, Buehler will have to attract non-affiliated voters (who outnumber Republicans) and disaffected Democrats. That may be why he kicked off his campaign with an issue that affects all voters, rather than highlighting more traditional GOP issues such as taxes and the economy.

Buehler made it clear today he will try to appeal to Oregonians for whom education is not a partisan issue, with a plan to address the state's chronically under-performing schools.

"Fixing Oregon's schools is my top priority," Buehler said. "Today, I'm releasing a plan to rescue our kids."

The plan proposes to move Oregon's K-12 education system from one of the five worst in the country to one of the five best in five years, an endeavor Buehler termed "ambitious but achievable."

Buehler emphasized two parts of the plan: extending Oregon's school year, currently one of the nation's shortest at 165 days, to 180 days, the standard in Washington and other states.

Second, he proposed increasing the K-12 budget by a minimum of 15 percent over the next two budget cycles and paying for the increase with cuts to public employee pensions and benefits.

Buehler wants all public employees to contribute to the cost of their pensions (many currently do not); he wants to cap the salary on which benefits are calculated at $100,000; dial back medical coverage to more modest healthcare plans;  and move all new employees from a pension plan to a 401k-type plan.

Although Oregon courts have previously struck down pension cuts, Buehler told reporters that he's received legal advice that the changes he's proposing would be legal because they are forward-looking rather than retroactive.

Buehler noted that the state budget—of which K-12 education is the largest component—has never been larger, but increasing pension and benefit costs are stilling causing teacher layoffs around the state, including in the Reynolds district where he spoke today.

"The dollars are not getting to the classroom," he said. "The single biggest failure of Kate Brown's is failing to fix Oregon schools."

Buehler is attempting to tap into widespread dissatisfaction with Oregon schools. A joint legislative committee is currently conducting a year-long listening tour around the state in preparation for what is likely to be an ambitious push for reforms and new funding in 2019. Yesterday, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Children First for Oregon released new data on conditions for kids in Oregon. The left-leaning Oregon Center for Public Policy highlighted in a tweet today the data in that report that makes Buehler's point—our schools are in trouble.

Christian Gaston, Brown's campaign spokesman, says Buehler's enthusiasm for fixing schools is campaign-season opportunism, noting the Bend lawmaker has voted against K-12 funding bills in each of his two legislative sessions.

"Like so many times during his political career, Knute Buehler had a chance to stand up for students and invest in classrooms and he voted no," Gaston says. "It's a disturbing pattern."