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Background
On March 21, 2006, a lawsuit, Pendleton School District 16R, et al v. State of Oregon, et al, was filed against the State of Oregon for failing its Constitutional duty to adequately fund our K-12 public schools. The Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation came together in November 2005 for the dual purpose of managing the strategy of the action against the state and raising the necessary funds to see the effort through Oregon’s court system.
There are many reasons why the Foundation and the lawsuit came into being. Our Board Chair, Paul J. Kelly, Jr., former Global Director of Public Affairs and General Counsel for NIKE, Inc., says, “We at the Foundation strongly believe that a vibrant economy and the unique quality of “livability” for which Oregon is famous are inextricably intertwined with a high quality public education system, from kindergarten through college. Without strong public schools, we cannot produce the well-educated and trained workforce Oregon’s businesses need, and they cannot recruit talented employees from elsewhere”. Bruce Samson, former General Counsel for Portland Public Schools and NW Natural articulated it this way, “Although I have spent my career in the private sector, in 1999 I came out of retirement to work for three years as General Counsel and Public Affairs Director for Portland Public Schools. In that job I learned firsthand how seriously under-funded our schools are and witnessed the crippling impact inadequate funding has on class size, curriculum choice, number of school days per year; an impact that hurts every one of Oregon’s 550,000 school age children”.
Perhaps the most salient reason for our efforts though can be found in Article VIII, Sec. 8 of the Oregon Constitution, which requires the Legislature to fund public education at a specific measurable level. The key provision reads as follows:
"The Legislative Assembly shall appropriate in each biennium a sum of money sufficient to ensure that the state's system of public education meets quality goals established by law…”
Such goals have been established by law, yet in each of the past three sessions the Legislature has failed in its constitutional duty to provide sufficient funding to meet those goals. At the Foundation we believe that this lawsuit is necessary to break the legislative logjam that plagues school funding by simply requiring the Legislature to carry out its constitutional duty as set out above.
We look forward to your support as we advocate on behalf of Oregon’s school children for the Constitutional education to which they’re entitled.
Kathryn Firestone, Executive Director