Oregon schools need billions to close funding gap, education commission says.
This August 2022 story by the Oregon Capital Chronicle shows the funding issue is a perennial issue for Oregon schools. Here’s an excerpt—
To meet state education goals, Oregon schools are going to need more money from the Legislature, a new analysis finds.
Every two years, the Education Quality Commission estimates the funding required to operate “a system of highly-effective schools” in the state and recommends a budget to the governor and the Legislature.
For the 2023-25 biennium, the commission found that Oregon’s education budget needs nearly $11.9 billion, or $2.7 billion more than it currently receives.
“The state has made progress in recent years to narrow the investment gap between what it has historically budgeted for K-12 and what that system needs to achieve the state’s educational objectives,” the commissioners wrote. “Unfortunately, that progress has faced barriers.”
These include revenue shortfalls, the rising cost of goods and services and the discovery that some of the corporate taxes constitutionally dedicated to the education budget, appear to be going into the state’s general fund instead. The committee said that “bears investigation and correction.”
