Gov. Tina Kotek has been saying for months that Oregon’s public schools need more money, and they need to be held accountable for better academic outcomes. Now, her efforts may be coming to fruition.
Kotek — along with fellow Democrats Senate President Rob Wagner and Speaker of the House Julie Fahey — pushed two complementary bills forward to legislators this week.
House Bill 2009 had its first hearing Monday afternoon; Senate Bill 141 is set to have its first hearing on Wednesday. Both were presented earlier in the session as placeholder bills meant to study the adequacy of public education and school accountability. They now carry amendment proposals that lay out more specifics. This is the latest of several efforts in recent months to give Oregon more teeth when it comes to education.
“Over the last few years, Oregon has made significant investments in our K-12 education system, but our student outcomes remain amongst the lowest in the nation. That is unacceptable,” Fahey told reporters in a press conference Monday. “It’s unacceptable to the Governor, the Senate President and I, and it’s unacceptable to educators, families and administrators all around the state.”
This week’s bills would set new metrics for public schools, paying more attention to existing markers, like graduation rates, but with some additional measures as well, such as eighth-grade math and early grade attendance rates. They also aim to fine-tune what the Oregon Department of Education is responsible for.
“We’ve already directed the state Department of Education to get started on what I would call the administrative streamlining from the agency,” Kotek said. “We have a very complex system of programs and funding here in the state. So, what the Department of Education is working on … (is) taking 110 grant streams down to seven.”
Kotek said these efforts will have immediate impacts on school districts to be able to work more effectively.
But perhaps the biggest change is that the bills would require districts to take certain steps if they aren’t showing enough improvement.
As it stands now, districts that have been struggling and qualify for state “intensive” support can choose whether to opt in — a measure that was designed and funded through the Student Success Act in 2019. As of this fall, only a fraction of the districts that qualify have taken the state up on their offer.
Fahey sees these cohorts as a pilot for the new bills. “We learned a fair amount about how those intensive supports are working in those districts,” she said, “and what we might need to do a little bit differently.”
If the previous federal No Child Left Behind Act — which brought punitive measures such as leadership changes and, in some cases, school closures when schools didn’t meet key metrics — is one end of the spectrum, and Oregon’s current incentive-focused approach is on the other, the new bills seem to fall somewhere in the middle.
Under the proposed legislation, there’s a ramp-up system of support. More real-time data and annual reviews would be factored in to gauge progress — data that would be available to the public. And should a school district fail to meet their metrics for two or three years, they must accept coaching from the state. If they hit four years or more, they may have to give up control of some of their money.
“The bottom line is, getting public education right is one of the biggest promises we make to Oregonians,” Kotek told reporters. “Students and families rely on us to make sure the money we spend goes to a high-quality public education that we know works.”
A handful of leading education advocacy groups have voiced their support for the effort, including leaders of the Oregon Education Association, who testified in favor of the amended House Bill 2009 on Monday.
“It is clear to us that new investments, such as investments in special education, and improved accountability need to go hand-in-hand as Oregon strives to provide our students with the education they deserve,” the statewide teachers union wrote in its statement.
Stand for Children, the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators and the Oregon Association of Education Service Districts were among fellow supporters.
Portland Public Schools leaders responded to the governor’s accountability proposals at a Tuesday press conference, largely agreeing with the goal of improving outcomes for students. But as PPS Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong put it, the increase in expectations and accountability had to be paired with an increase in funding.
“A goal without a plan is a wish — so an accountability system without support is aspirational at best,” Armstrong said.
“We’re at crisis level.”
Armstrong went on to point out that PPS is working to close a $40 million budget gap, much of it through staffing cuts that will undermine educational efforts. PPS officials hosted the press conference at Roosevelt High School, which is slated to lose five full-time staff positions.
Armstrong and PPS Chief of Schools Renard Adams didn’t respond directly to the specifics in the governor’s accountability bills. But Adams said that given adequate resources and time, the district should be able to meet the state’s growth targets.
However, not everyone sees this as the right fix.
Ways and Means Education Subcommittee member Rep. Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, released a statement Monday, calling Kotek’s school accountability plan “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“Kotek’s not fixing failing schools — she’s consolidating power,” Yunker said. “After years of state mandates that have lowered standards and created chaos, she now wants to usurp even more local control from school districts, disguised as ‘accountability.’ ”
Yunker claims Kotek’s efforts will bloat bureaucracy, take away local control and punish schools.
Instead, he’s suggesting a competing proposal: House Bill 3055, which would require schools to meet federal guidelines for standardized test participation.
Oregon has one of the most lenient laws in the country when it comes to allowing students or families to opt out of annual state tests. As a result, the state regularly falls below the federal 95% participation rate.
Yunker’s bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
Proponents of the bills heard this week argue these efforts will make the state education department more effective and will help empower schools to deliver the kind of education everyone — including parents and school staff — want.
“Our teachers are doing incredible work, often in difficult circumstances, navigating the lasting effects of the pandemic and increasing student needs beyond the classroom,” Fahey said. “They need and deserve our full support, and that is why strengthening our accountability measures is so critical.”
Rob Manning contributed to this story.
