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In the News
Crisis has made school funding lawsuit necessary
By Dean Livelybrooks and Beth Gerot, guest viewpoint in the Eugene Register Guard
April 9, 2006 - (Eugene, Ore.)--The Eugene and Crow-Applegate-Lorane School Districts have joined in filing a lawsuit against the state of Oregon for failure to provide adequate resources to meet state education quality goals. An editorial in the March 23 Register-Guard posed the question: ''What would victory in this challenge bring?''
The editorial dismissed the lawsuit's importance, essentially saying: We agree that there's a problem, but there's nothing we can do, and therefore we should choose to do nothing.
We respectfully disagree. We cannot continue to pay lip service to the best research or simply talk about our student achievement expectations or increase mandates for schools. We have to act.
As directors of two school boards serving two very different communities, we can tell you that doing nothing is not an option. Our districts joined this lawsuit because we've watched session after session of the Legislature do nothing to improve resources for schools, while increasing expectations and mandates.
Today, our academic expectations are higher than ever. But our schools are not what they once were. Class sizes are larger. Course offerings are fewer. You won't see librarians or physical education teachers in most elementary schools.
In many small districts, such as Crow-Applegate-Lorane, school nurses have been eliminated. The district has reduced programs and cut high school academic advisers.
In large districts such as Eugene, students have less opportunity to explore music, art, foreign languages, business education and other electives. Nearly all vocational and technical programs have been eliminated.
Both of our districts have tried to keep cuts away from the classroom. In Eugene, administration and central staff have been cut 29 percent since 1990.
Crow has a half-time superintendent who also serves as the district's special education and Title I coordinator. But it's been impossible to preserve reading, writing, math and other "basics" without dismantling strong and successful school programs that enriched learning.
Yet Oregonians consistently say that they want and expect high quality schools. A statewide poll conducted in 2004 by the Chalkboard Project reinforces the message that we hear regularly: Oregonians want excellent public schools that graduate students who are ready to enter college or to learn workforce skills.
Both the state and federal government have set high benchmarks for student achievement without providing adequate funding. Oregon high school graduation requirements have steadily increased. The 2005 Legislature mandated four years of English and three years of math. Increased requirements in science, foreign language and social studies will be considered.
Federal mandates are chronically underfunded. Two decades ago, the federal government promised to pay up to 40 percent of special education costs mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, yet it actually funds only 17 percent while still expecting schools to meet these requirements.
In short, Oregon's schools have been buried under a growing pile of spending "shoulds" and "shalls," while per-student funding levels have been flat for a decade.
In Oregon, we have set quality goals for education, and we have defined what it costs to meet them. A legislative committee has just delivered the state's annual report on the adequacy of education funding. Its findings are no surprise - state funding falls far short of what is needed to meet our education goals. Worse yet, we are losing ground. Since 2001-02, the gap between resources and goals has grown.
Does it make sense to continue to skimp on education and expect a bright economic future for Oregon? We think not.
Does it make sense to do nothing? Again, we think not. Rather, we believe that we have an obligation to act, and the courts may well be the last recourse for Oregon's schools and students. We hope that victory in this legal challenge will be for every student to receive the "world-class education" that we set in statute in 1991, and to be able to meet the quality standards the voters overwhelmingly supported with the passage of Measure 1 in 2000.
It is at our own peril that we continue to ignore the school funding problem. Providing schools with the funding needed to meet our state's quality education goals is the only way to ensure the future prosperity of our students and of all Oregonians.
Dean Livelybrooks is a member of the Crow-Applegate-Lorane School Board. Beth Gerot is a member of the Eugene School Board. Art Johnson, a Eugene attorney who serves on the board of the foundation that filed the lawsuit in support of adequate school funding, joined them in preparing this column.