Support Public Education

House Bill 2632 – Lower property taxes & boost school funding?

May 22, 2013

There is a new idea in Salem in the form of House Bill 2632. Check out this short story from the Oregonian and if you are in support, contact your legislators and let them know today!

Oregon House will vote on bill to divert $4.5 million from PDC to schools

on May 22, 2013 at 12:11 PM

jules bailey

SALEM — Because of Oregon’s quirky property tax system, a bill heading to the floor of the Oregon House
could simultaneously lower property taxes in Portland and boost funding for schools.

That contradictory effect is the result of the interplay between the taxing authority of Portland’s urban  renewal agency, the Portland Development Commission and Portland Public Schools.

Currently, the PDC can divert funding from other property tax districts such as the city of Portland, Multnomah County and Portland Public Schools. And because the agency’s taxing authority predates 2001,     it can also divert money raised by local option levies.

House Bill 2632 would remove that authority. It would affect nearly 100 urban renewal agencies statewide,   but the vast majority of the monetary impact would be seen in Portland, where the PDC currently diverts    $7.5 million from Portland school levies.

If the bill passed, that $7.5 million would be sent back to schools. Along the way the tax would be subject to “compression” thanks to Oregon’s property tax limitations, resulting in $4.5 million in new revenue for Portland Public Schools and a $3 million tax cut for property owners.

“We think the voters want that money to go to education and we want to find a way to get that back,“ said David Williams, a lobbyist for Portland Public Schools.

There’s one glitch left to work out. Multnomah County thinks it could cost up to $300,000 to reprogram the county’s tax assessment system to handle the complex transaction.

The House Revenue Committee unanimously approved the bill Wednesday morning, acknowledging that the Senate may need to amend the law to make it phase-in over time, allowing for tax assessors to upgrade software.

That’s a small price to pay for a $4.5 million shot in the arm to schools, said Rep. Jules Bailey, D-Portland.

“We shouldn’t let a small one-time cost in administration get in the way of getting more money to schools and critical services,” Bailey said.

–Christian Gaston

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Understanding Oregon K-12 School Finance

February 17, 2013

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Came across this nice PowerPoint presentation from Michael Elliott,    State School Fund Coordinator, Oregon Department of Education.

If you would like a better understanding of how and why we are where we are at with Education Funding here in Oregon, this just may help.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2013R1/Downloads/CommitteeMeetingDocument/1966

And with President’s Day, please remember, comes another important way to advocate for better school funding. Write an e-mail to your state legislators … it is a quick and easy but important process … see details in this previous post:

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https://www.sesptsa.org/featured/oregon-pta-virtual-lobbying-day-presidents-day-february-18-2013/

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Funding educationAlso a recent Letter to the Editor in the Oregonian that gets to the point:Ed funding image

Oregon chief education officer Rudy Crew wants to “fix” our schools by changing their “educational architecture” and buying a lot of new technology (“Call for new ‘educational architecture’ in Oregon,” Feb. 11).

Our present model doesn’t serve students well, he says, completely ignoring the effects of years of inadequate funding on the schools we have. Remember the state’s Quality Education Model? In every biennium, the gap between what the QEM has established as resources needed and actual funding has grown. That gap was $1.64 billion in 2007-9 and is projected to be $2.44 billion in 2013-15. This reminds me of G.K. Chesterton’s words: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

In Oregon, stable, adequate and equitable funding has been found difficult and not tried. Instead, our leaders continue to take resources out of classrooms, spending scarce education dollars on bureaucracy, consultants, testing and expensive technology. Let’s focus on the basics: students and teachers working together in schools that are supported with the wherewithal for learning.

Until we try appropriately funded schools, we won’t know how effective they can be.

WENDY SWANSON
Southwest Portland
Swanson is an education instructor at Portland State University and has 31 years of elementary teaching experience in Oregon.

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The Future of Public Education in Oregon

January 13, 2013

Things are still pretty quiet on the Education Funding front here in Oregon but should warm up when the legislature starts their session. In the meantime, if you are interested in this topic, you may want to join State Representative Jules Bailey, and co-hosts Senator Diane Rosebaum and Carolyn Tomei for:

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The Future of Public Education in Oregon

This Education Panel and Community Town Hall will include Special Guests: 

Dr. Rudy Crew, Oregon’s Chief Education Officer, 

Gwen Sullivan, Portland Teacher and President of the Portland Association of Teachers, 

and 

Lisa Frack, public school parent and education advocate. 

When: Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 6:00-8:00 PM

                *Submit questions beginning at 5:30 PM

Where: Vollum Lecture Hall at Reed College

                   3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.

Parking:  The best place to park is the east parking lot (just east of 36th Avenue on Woodstock Blvd.). The Vollum Lecture Hall is centrally located and can be found as #37 on the campus map here:  Reed Campus Map.

 

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