Oregon Legislative Assembly Office of the Senate President Office of the House Speaker

 

News Release

 

Contact:  Robin Maxey                        Geoff Sugerman                 February 24, 2009

            (405) 550-1196                           (503) 510-3704

robin.maxey@state.or.us         geoff.sugerman@state.or.us

 

Legislative Leaders Announce

Plan to Save School Days

 

House and Senate Leadership today announced the creation the School Day Restoration Fund, using an additional $51 million in federal stimulus funds to offset the hole in K-12 Education budget. The additional funds will be part of the budget rebalance package developed to fill the $855 million hole in the state’s budget.

 

Working with K-12 school districts, lawmakers hope that districts will manage to avoid cutting schools days, keeping kids in the classroom, and maintaining the services they depend on for the remainder of the school year.

 

            “We hope that districts who are contemplating a reduction in days will meet us halfway and do whatever they can to avoid any lost days due to the national recession,” said Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Clackamas County.  “It became clear that legislators were simply not comfortable with the potential loss of school days. This provides most districts in the state with a way to get through the rest of this year without cutting days.”

 

            “This agreement represents an opportunity for local school districts to partner with the Legislature to preserve both school days this year and our limited reserve funds for use over the next two years,” said Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem/Gervais/Woodburn. “Everyone – parents, legislators and teachers – has worked to find a solution that provides the best possible outcome, an uninterrupted quality education for our children.”

 

            Courtney and Hunt praised the work of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, led by Co-Chairs Senator Margaret Carter and Representative Peter Buckley. Carter and Buckley proposed the School Day Restoration Fund to leadership after taking public testimony, conferring with their legislative colleagues and meeting with advocates from the education community.

 

            “From the beginning this has been an open process in which we were all seeking the same thing, a way to continue to meet the educational needs of Oregon’s kids,” said Carter, D-Portland. “I want to thank everyone who provided valuable input to the committee, including students, parents and educators. Nobody cares more about the future of Oregon schools and our children than their teachers.”

            “We share a common goal – excellent education for every student in our state,” said Ways and Means Co-Chair Representative Peter Buckley, D-Ashland. “To reach that goal, the state, our school districts, our communities and our families must work together to keep schools intact during this unprecedented downturn. For this year, the legislature is working to meet districts halfway – finding additional funds to help complete this school year and asking districts to engage in a process of review and reductions to help now and in the next budget cycle as well.”

            The additional funds would be distributed using the school funding formula that allocates dollars based on average daily attendance.  Every district will be eligible to receive its share of the fund. Participating school districts will be asked to provide written documentation about how they would fill the rest of the funding gap and agree to use available resources and take appropriate actions to not close schools early, the co-chairs said.

 

            “Challenging times call for shared sacrifice all around,” said Senate Majority Leader Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin). “Teachers have demonstrated a commitment to getting our children through this rough patch with as little disturbance as possible. I want to commend those teachers, along with parents and schools, who have worked with the legislature to find an option that best protects classroom days.”

 

            “Members of our caucuses, from both chambers, made the case for additional funds for schools to help us close the book on the 07-09 budget,” said House Majority Leader Mary Nolan. “These are truly difficult times and while we have some resources to help us through this budget, we need to be mindful of the $3 billion gap we have for next biennium.”

 

            If the Legislature does not pass a 2007-2009 budget rebalancing plan by the first week in March, the Governor will be forced to make an additional $713 million in across the board cuts to all state agencies – resulting in a total cut of more than $300 million to K-12 schools. The Governor already made $142 million in across the board cuts, including $62 million in cuts to public schools.

 

            Creation of the fund and work by the Ways and Means subcommittees since last Friday’s quarterly revenue forecast, will reduce additional cuts to K-12 schools to just $54 million.

 

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