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Lawsuit Challenges State for Unconstitutional Funding Level
March 21, 2006 - (Portland, Ore.)-- A group of school districts and parents from across Oregon filed a lawsuit against the State of Oregon today, alleging that lawmakers have failed in their constitutional duty to adequately fund schools.
In the Multnomah Co. Circuit Court filing, the plaintiffs, supported by the Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation, said, “This lawsuit is being filed to ensure that Oregon’s children receive the high-quality public education to which they are constitutionally entitled.”
Attorneys David Angeli and Robert Van Brocklin of Stoel Rives LLP filed the action on behalf of the plaintiffs, which include the Pendleton, Crow-Applegate-Lorane, Eugene 4J, Corvallis, Coos Bay and Three Rivers School Districts, along with individual parents on behalf of their children.
In addition to the State of Oregon, Defendants include Senate President Peter Courtney, Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, Republican Leader of the Senate Ted Ferrioli, Speaker of the House Karen Minnis, Majority Leader of the House of Representatives Wayne Scott and Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives Jeff Merkley, in their official capacities and on behalf of all other members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly.
“The state is not meeting its constitutional mandate to adequately fund public education,” said Paul Kelly, Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation board chair. “The Legislature has failed to fund our schools at a level sufficient to meet the quality goals established by law in 1991.”
Two provisions of Oregon’s constitution are at the heart of the lawsuit against the state. Article VIII, Section 8, which requires the Legislature to appropriate in each biennium a sum of money “sufficient to ensure that the state’s system of K-12 public education meets quality goals established by law;” and Article VIII, Section 3, which requires the Legislature to “provide by law for the establishment of a uniform and general system of Common schools.”
The Legislature created the Oregon Quality Education Commission (QEC) for the purpose of determining the amount of money sufficient to ensure that the state’s K-12 public education system meets the Legislature’s articulated quality goals. The QEC was also directed to identify “current practices in the state’s system of K-12 public education” and “the best practices for meeting the quality goals” established by law.
According to the QEC, as a result of the 2005-07 K-12 funding shortfall, “the gap continues to widen between actual funding levels and the resources needed to achieve Oregon’s educational goals.” The result of such massive underfunding, the Commission has warned, “will be an inadequate school system, a burden on the state economy, and the loss of our status as a high quality-of-life state.”
Oregonians pay an enormous cost as a result of these deficiencies in K-12 public education. Reductions to school budgets have forced the loss of programs that aid retention of marginal students - counseling, tutoring, enrichment programs, fine arts and free athletics participation for example - and this has a long-term impact on the state’s dropout rate and other student achievement indicators.
A 2004 Oregon Department of Education study calculated the “net annual state revenue per person” (an individual’s economic contribution to the state versus the amount spent on that individual in state services) in four different groups: high school dropouts, high school graduates, individuals with “some college” education, and college graduates. The study concluded that each high school dropout costs Oregon taxpayers $8,460 per year on average, more than the current state level of funding per K-12 student. Further, nearly 80 percent of all prison inmates in Oregon are high school dropouts, at an average cost to taxpayers of more than $23,000 per inmate each year. Conversely, a college graduate contributes $8,250 annually to state coffers.
The Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation board includes Chairman Paul Kelly, Attorney and former Global Director of Public Affairs for NIKE, Portland; Vice-Chair Arthur Johnson, Attorney, Eugene; Secretary Bruce Samson, Attorney and former General Counsel for NW Natural, Lake Oswego; Attorney Bill Deatherage, Medford; Attorney and Multicultural Director at Willamette University College of Law Marva Fabien, Salem; Attorney Dennis Karnopp, Bend, and former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Betty Roberts of Portland.