Schools hope for a bump in funding
By Terry Murry on Thursday, April 1st, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
HERMISTON – The proposed public education budget for Oregon schools is supposed to maintain district funding at the same level as budgeted in the last biennium. Hermiston School Superintendent Tricia Mooney says she’s concerned.
“With roll-up costs, it doesn’t actually provide for our students the same level of service that we have had in the past biennium,” Mooney said.
She’s not the only educator who believes that. Both the Oregon School Boards Association and the Coalition of School Administrators want to see more.
“Districts are working with COSA and OSBA around advocacy for an increase in that funding,” Mooney said.
Lawmakers on the Joint Ways and Means Committee said they felt the $9.1 billion would allow school districts to continue current staffing and programs. The OSBA disagrees. For the current biennium, the State School Fund was $9 billion. An increase of just over $100 million is an increase of about 1 percent. The OSBA points out that’s not enough to keep up with inflation and could be devastating.
