The View from Hillsboro - Advocating for Public Schools

Stable and adequate

I worked in the semiconductor manufacturing industry for 8 years, and at each of the companies I worked for, the mantra was always "don't tell me why something can't be done, tell me what you need to get it done". It is one of the pillars of successful businesses. Don't just look for reasons and excuses for not meeting a difficult but important goal, find ways to accomplish the goal.

What does this have to do with education in Oregon and here in Hillsboro?

During his state of the state speech a month ago, Governor Kulongoski basically said that his 5.0 billion proposed budget for K-12 education is inadequate, but that there is nothing we can do about it because we can't have a stable and adequate revenue stream for education, health care and other basic needs of Oregon. I was at a town hall meeting last night, with state representative Chuck Riley (disclaimer: I volunteered in Chuck Riley's campaign), and it sounds like the idea that there is nothing we can do this session is pretty much everybody's opinion down in Salem (at least the opinion of Rep. Riley, who is on the House Revenue Committee).

It sure looks like those oregonians who want and benefit from public services and don't want to have to pay for them (the moral equivalent of shoplifters) have won because the people who should be fighting for all of us have given up.

But things can be done, it is just a matter of getting enough support. Personally I like the proposal in SB 382, which would cut income taxes in half and replace them with a sales tax that would roughly bring an equivalente revenue stream. And the money collected from sales tax would go towards K-12 education and the Oregon Health Plan. Section 145 of the bill:

Moneys in the Sales Tax Fund are dedicated to funding:
 (a) Kindergarten through grade 12 public education in this
state; and
 (b) The Oregon Health Plan and other health care needs in this
state.

We have found in the past few years that funding education mainly from the very volatile personal income taxes lead to significant changes in funding year to year. This is the wrong way to fund long term investments like the education of the next generation of oregonians, or other important services that need more funding when the economy and the revenue for income tax are down, such as the Oregon Health Plan. With SB 382 we have a proposal on the table, signed by both republican and democratis senators and representatives. We should work on getting the support of the business community and the public opinion behind this or another proposal that would stabilize the sources of funding for K-12 education.

Let's stop finding reasons why this will fail, and work on finding ways to win.

posted by Unknown @ 9:32 AM