IMESD wants to fix Salem’s funding mistake

SALEM – The InterMountain Education Service District is gearing up to get the Oregon Legislature to correct what it sees as a big mistake in funding for a vital early learning program. IMESD Superintendent Mark Mulvihill said that the rush to get finished by the legal deadline means lawmakers made mistakes.

“One of the biggest mistakes made in my opinion was the funding for the early intervention/early childhood special ed program,” he said. “That’s a multi-million dollar contract for us to serve our highest needs kids from birth to 5 in seven counties in Eastern Oregon. We’re about $2 million short.”

He said that the shortfall in funding means that funding for education isn’t as solid as lawmakers believe it to be.

“This oversight in the session resulted in reductions to our most vulnerable kids,” he said.

Mulvihill said IMESD is working on getting its lobbying efforts ready to make the case for more funding in the 2024 session. Sessions held in even-numbered years are short, but the superintendent believes there is a mess created by the nature of the 2023 session that will need to be cleaned up, and this is one of those.

“Going into January, there have to be a lot of things we need to address and clean up because of the way the long session ended,” he said.

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