The governor must get it right this time. Gov. Kitzhaber gave his political foes a free pass on the school funding issue by initially offering such a low figure. The hard truth is that neither the Legislature nor the governor's office up to now has done what is necessary to adequately fund Oregon schools. Republicans refuse to consider even modest tax increases and insist on returning the so-called kicker, or surplus tax receipts. The governor fends off spending cuts in the Oregon Health Plan and other programs.
Nobody seems to want to stop throwing money at the state's ever-ballooning prison system.
One new study notes that Oregon's class sizes are among the nation's largest. Another shows that its fourth graders read at a level below the average of their counterparts in other states. Yet the school funding debate in Salem never changes. Every two years, parents and educators and children clutching signs must trek to Salem and lobby for enough money to avoid more cutbacks in public schools. That's one more question for Gov. Kitzhaber, now that he's coming back to schools.