What Happened to Using the Corporate Kicker to Fund Education?
By Marty Smith
Remember 11 years ago, when we voted to give the corporate kicker to K-12 education so that there would never be rat-infested saunas in schools—i.e., Measure 85? What happened to this golden goose? Is it possible that there’s a lost pot of money that would solve all the school issues? —Jessie G.
If your kid’s school has a sauna, Jessie, how bad could its budget problems be? Just kidding! We all know Oregon schools aren’t exactly ballin’ these days—I’ll assume that by “sauna” you mean “classroom where the A/C hasn’t worked since 1991.”
As touched on in a previous column, education funding has been a challenge statewide since at least 1990, when Measure 5 dumped responsibility for around 70% of K-12 education funding into our Legislature’s hummus-stained lap. Oregon’s income tax rebate program, aka “the kicker,” only makes things harder.
