School says no to tax, State gets sued.

School says no to tax, State gets sued.
The Tribune reports that a group called the Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation is planning to sue the state for inadequate funding of our schools. This biennium the state funded the schools for $5.8 million. The Oregon Quality Education Commission determined $7 billion was the correct amount for adequate education. The Oregon Education Quality Foundation (OEQF) is part of the bipartisan legislator for the state. It is the OEQF’s duty to determine the amount the state funds schools, and it is the legislator’s duty to fund the schools, as it is deemed so in the Oregon constitution. News Review however doesn’t seem to think that the group has a case. Review seems to think that no where in the constitution is it written that the state must provide “adequate” funding.

Article VII, Section 8 reads as follows:

Section 8. Adequate and Equitable Funding.
(1) The Legislative Assembly shall appropriate in each biennium a sum of money
sufficient to ensure that the state’s system of public education meets quality
goals established by law, and publish a report that either demonstrates the
appropriation is sufficient, or identifies the reasons for the insufficiency,
its extent, and its impact on the ability of the state’s system of public
education to meet those goals.

(2) Consistent with such legal obligation as it may have to maintain
substantial equity in state funding, the Legislative Assembly shall establish a
system of Equalization Grants to eligible districts for each year in which the
voters of such districts approve local option taxes as described in Article XI,
section 11 (4)(a)(B) of this Constitution. The amount of such Grants and
eligibility criteria shall be determined by the Legislative Assembly. [Created
through initiative petition filed Oct. 22, 1999, and adopted by the people Nov.
7, 2000]
Note: Added to Article VIII as unnumbered section by initiative petition
(Measure No. 1, 2000) adopted by the people Nov. 7, 2000.
Note: The lead line to section 8 was a part of the measure submitted to the
people by Measure No. 1, 2000.


The full Oregon constitution can be downloaded here. It’s required that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. If you are unable to view PDF formats you can access the web version here.

On another note, the school board has declined the tax proposal by Potter, making it clear that the city has had enough tax hole fills. This does however leave a $56 hole in the budget after the current tax expires this summer, at least that’s what the tribune reported. From the Tax Proposal Potter released (summary), it seems to state that the I-Tax has already expired for all but Centennial, Parkrose, Reynolds and David Douglas. Potters Tax was shot down for obvious reasons. For one it would mean that rather than the city or state paying for the schools using the taxes Oregonians already pay, we would be paying more. For another fact, Potter tries to make it look as though the city will be going in halves with the people, and the truth is he merely noted that he would “request” money from the city for the schools.

- - - Excerpt from the Tax Proposal - - -
The Mayor will make a request of City Council members to dedicate $5 million in
one-time money to the Portland Schools’ Preservation Plan; $1 million to each
district. Mayor Potter believes strongly that every stakeholder must share in
making Portland’s schools better.
- - -