Mooney takes leadership role for the state
By Terry Murry on Friday, November 29th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
SALEM – Hermiston School Superintendent Tricia Mooney has been named vice chair of Oregon’s Quality Education Commission. She has served on the commission since 2020. The members are volunteer educators from throughout the state.
Created by the Oregon Legislature, the commission is charged with determining the level of money needed to meet the state’s goals in education. The commissioners issue a report before each biennium that sets the amount that needs to be budgeted to ensure public education is of high quality.
According to the Oregon School Boards Association the state has never come close to meeting the spending goal since its inception in 1999. Instead, OSBA says it has become “a leverage point in debates about what the state should be spending for K-12 education.”
The 2024 report, which was announced in August, says Oregon needs to add a $12.7 billion state school fund and set aside an additional $822 million to the Student Success Act funding to “successfully provide adequate environments for all students to pursue their goals.”
In addition to Mooney, the retired executive director of the Oregon Community College Association, Cam Preus, serves on the commission. She was president at Blue Mountain Community College. None of the other commissioners has direct ties to Eastern Oregon.
