News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Central Oregon students are poor relations when it comes to funding the Educational Service District (ESD). A bill introduced in the state legislature by Representative Ben Westlund seeks to change that.
Central Oregon's Crook-Deschutes ESD, which includes Sisters, gets $52 per student in funding, the lowest in the state. That money provides specialized support services for the region's school districts.
Westlund told The Nugget that his bill, HB 3592, "is designed to take a very small bite of the apple," raising the Deschutes ESD and the Jefferson ESD funding to $115 per student.
That would be a big boost for Sisters schools, according to schools superintendent Steve Swisher.
Currently the Deschutes ESD mainly provides Sisters with school psychologist services, Swisher said. There is also some curriculum coordination service and help managing funding for programs for disabled or handicapped students.
"All of this is very minimal because our ESD is funded so poorly," Swisher said.
The ESD funding average is a little over $200 statewide and some districts are funded much higher. According to Swisher, Multnomah ESD gets $450 per student.
Better funded ESDs provide staff development services, curriculum development, textbook selection and coordination and extensive special education support.
Sisters schools fund almost all of those kinds of needs out of the general fund. Some, such as special education, are very expensive.
"Our special education costs are very high," Swisher said. "If we had that all covered (through the ESD) it would make a big difference to us.
The Sisters School District stands to gain a net benefit of $75,600 worth of ESD services if Westlund's bill passes, which, Swisher notes, would free up that amount of money for other school needs.
Westlund's bill creates a fall-back position from the more radical HB 2566 introduced by Representative Ken Strobeck.
That bill would raise the funding for the four lowest-funded ESDs to $150 and freeze the funding for the state's 17 other districts.
"I hope his bill passes," Westlund said. "I don't think it will, because in this very tight budget cycle, his bill costs $10.5 million."
Westlund also believes that flat-funding the other 17 districts in the state - many of them in the heavily represented Portland metropolitan area - is not politically viable.
"Fair as it is, when you do that, you generate a ton of political opposition," Westlund said.
Westlund believes his bill - politically innocuous and much cheaper with a price tag of $1.5 million - has a very good chance of passing.
The bill has been assigned to the House Revenue Committee and should wend its way through the House and Senate for final action in May, according to Westlund
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)