Politics & You
BUDGET PROPOSALS NEED MORE WORK I
n March, the Oregon Legislature released the Co-Chair’s proposed budget for how to fund schools, community colleges, health care, public safety, and other important state services for the next two years. OEA and other education advocates
recognize that these are difficult decisions due to the continued impact of the recent economic collapse. Even so, we hope and expect that legislators will seek to invest in public education at a level that allows students to be successful and provides
school districts with a stable budget that will avoid another round of devastating cuts. The current budget proposal asks retirees, as well as working and middleclass families to carry the burden, without meaningful shared sacrifice from corporations and the wealthy. Some budget specifics: n The current K-12 proposal is $6.55 billion budget. When releasing their budget, the Co-Chairs talked about the K-12 budget as a $6.75 billion investment in our schools. However, included in their proposal is $200 million in so-called PERS savings as a result of reducing the COLA for public employees. Regardless of how the PERS savings is achieved, this $200 million will not be distributed equitably among Oregon’s 198 school districts. OEA and our coalition partners will continue to advocate for a minimum of a $6.75 billion budget in real dollars, distributed through the state school fund formula. n The proposed budget for community colleges is the same as the Governor’s proposal at $428 million. The budget falls substantially short of what our economy needs to provide Oregonians the skills, training and education they need to get back to work. n The budget calls for around $450 million of cuts to pensions for seniors and current public employees. This essentially equates to teachers, school employees and retirees having to pay for the increase in the budget for
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TODAY’S OEA | APRIL 2013