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School funding lawsuit complicates budget picture

By Julia Silverman, AP Education Writer
KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon www.katu.com

March 21, 2006 - (Portland, Ore.)--The debate over how to best fund Oregon's public schools shifted to the courtroom Tuesday, opening a new chapter in the state's long-simmering debate over education spending.

Six school districts and three families filed suit against the state, accusing legislative leaders of violating the Oregon Constitution by chronically underfunding schools.

The six school districts are Pendleton, Eugene, Corvallis, Coos Bay, Crow-Applegate-Lorane and Three Rivers; the families are from Hillsboro, Ashland and Portland. The suit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Oregon is the 39th state to turn to the courts for direction on school funding. Of the other cases, 21 have resulted in courts ordering lawmakers to restructure school funding, eight have been won by the state and nine are still pending.

"We have 15 years of public education in front of our family," said Maria Peyerwold, who joined the suit on behalf of her 7-year-old daughter, Grace, a student at Portland's Alameda Elementary school. "It is so easy to see that this is constitutionally mandated; you can't pick and choose what you decide to follow."

The case turns on Measure 1, a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000 that requires legislators to set aside enough funding to meet the goals outlined by an ambitious education blueprint, or publicly explain their failure to do so.

That blueprint, known as the Quality Education Model, projects it would cost $7.1 billion over a two-year period to pay for the smaller class sizes, up-to-date technology and extra teacher training that experts estimate would bring at least 90 percent of students up to grade level in reading and math.

That's almost $2 billion more than the $5.24 billion that legislators and the governor set aside for schools in the 2005-2007 biennium.

Per-pupil school funding in Oregon has been on the decline since 1990, when voters passed Measure 5, capping local property taxes and shifting the bulk of responsibility for school funding to the state. When Oregon's economy skidded in the early 2000s, driving down income tax revenues, school funding dropped accordingly.

Jim Keene, superintendent of the Pendleton district - the only district from east of the Cascades to join the suit so far - said Tuesday that in recent years, the district has cut 80 positions and closed a building, in response to constricted state funding and dwindling enrollment.

In 2006, Oregon ranked 31st in per-pupil spending nationwide, according to a survey by Education Week, which said the state spent an average $7,491 per pupil, below the national average of $8,041.

Lawyers for the state have 30 days to respond to the suit.

"There's $1.8 billion that is apparently at issue here, so this is going to be a matter that we take extremely seriously," said Kevin Neely, a spokesman for the attorney general's office. "It's impossible at this point to predict how long litigation might take."

Neely said lawyers will examine the text of the Oregon Constitution and voter intent in passing Measure 1.

Among lawmakers in Salem, there's no evident agreement on how to provide more money for schools should a court order legislators to do so. Some lawmakers have long argued for reform in the state's tax system to generate more money, while others say schools must redirect more existing funds to the classroom.

Senate President Peter Courtney, who is named in the suit, called Tuesday for sending $42 million in surplus lottery money to public schools.

"After we do that, I'll talk to you about the lawsuit," Courtney said in a statement.

Kathryn Firestone, the executive director of the Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation, the group backing the lawsuit, said the group will try to raise about $450,000 in the next few months to defray court costs.