Oregon Quality Education Commission Finds Severe Lack of Resources

On January 10, 2005, the Oregon Quality Education Commission (QEC) released its 2004 report on the state’s Quality Education Model to the Governor. Created by the state legislature in 2001, the QEC is responsible for biannual assessments of the state’s education finance system, which itself is based upon the Quality Education Model 2000. The model used professional judgment methodology to analyze the performance of Oregon schools, list best practices that would create improvements in achievement, and calculate the costs associated with these recommendations and analyses. The current report continues the research begun by the QEC by reexamining the cost of quality education in the state and making recommendations for improving Oregon’s education system, which has been working without sufficient resources since the model was first released.

Persistent Underfunding

A primary emphasis of the QEC’s report was the severe lack of resources for implementing the commission’s goals. The QEM sets forth prototype schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels based on their best practices research. Though these prototypes are costed-out by the model, the legislation establishing the QEC allows the legislature to

appropriate…a sum of money sufficient to ensure that the state’s system of public education meets the quality goals established by law. It further requires the Legislature to publish a report that either demonstrates that 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.

Additionally, the model calculates an “Essential Budget Level,” which reflects the minimum amount of money necessary to maintain current programs in the following biennium. However, because the governor and legislature have consistently undercut the “Essential Budget Level,” each subsequent biennium’s recommendation is based on a lower figure. In other words, school funding in Oregon has not even kept up with inflation levels, let alone the higher education expenses, such as health care, pension, and costs to meet rising achievement goals.

The QEC reports the underperformance of Oregon’s students on state assessments (while highlighting the need to develop a more thorough measure of achievement), but reports that the QEC’s calculations of the cost of a quality education continue to be correct, and demand adequate funding by the legislature. The need for adequate funding is made all the more urgent by the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which holds states responsible to an unusually high level of achievement and imposes sanctions on schools and districts that fail to meet these standards. This is the first QEC report that considers the costs of NCLB, and it reaffirms the conclusion by many states that the achievement standards of the law will require a significant investment of new funds by states.

Policy Recommendations

The charge of the QEC is to determine the elements of a quality education in Oregon, and to provide the funding associated with various degrees of implementation of these policies. Thus, the report sets forth a number of policy areas, divided by priority level, essential to significantly improving educational achievement in the state. Amongst these recommendations are a substantially expanded, streamlined, and accessible data reporting system designed to allow teachers, parents, administrators, and legislators access to correct and constantly updated measurements of various quality indicators. Another priority of the Commission is early childhood education, which recent research has consistently demonstrated is a very cost-effective and essential element of improving literacy and achievement. The QEC also recommends an improved accountability system, which amongst other benefits will allow taxpayers to see the results of the increased tax revenues that would be necessary to truly achieve the improvements envisioned by the Commission.

Conclusions

The funding gap between the Essential Budget Level included in the report and the full implementation of the QEC’s recommendations is $1.78 billion; the governor’s recommended budget for 2005-2007 is $5 billion, $2.1 billion below the level required for full funding of the Quality Education Commission’s recommendations. Though the governor has demanded austerity in the face of economic challenges, the Commission repeatedly criticizes the short sightedness of insufficient education funding, arguing that the long-term savings of a quality education system demand significant investment now. Oregon is launched several steps ahead of most other states by the research and recommendations of the QEC, which use real needs, best practices, and in-depth research to substantiate their proposals; the only remaining step, though certainly a substantial challenge, is for lawmakers to find room for their proposals in the state budget.

Prepared by Nelly Ward, January 31, 2005