Oregon has had a long, troubled history with funding education. Throughout the ’90s, the budget for education was in a precarious state. In 1990, Measure 5 amended the Oregon Constitution and shifted the major responsibility of education funding from local property taxes to the state’s general fund. Property tax limitations impacted the ability for communities to tax themselves, with the exception of bond measures for capital construction projects. Measures 47 and 50 also negatively impacted higher education funding. In 1999, the legislature allowed cities to enact local option levies, providing revenue for operating expenses.
These measures created a burden for the state – a burden that the state is unwilling to fully accept.
Once again, the state’s education budget has been slashed. The Oregon Legislature cut the Governor’s Recommended Budget Request for post-secondary education institutions by nearly $300 million. To Kulongoski’s credit, he made good on his promise to attempt to increase the budget for post-secondary education by 16 percent.
The attempt, unsurprisingly, failed. Now, once again, Oregon looks distressingly like a state that does not care about funding higher education.
The cuts to Kulongoski’s proposal will reduce funding for regional universities by $7 million. The cuts will also effect base support for faculty salaries – cutting it by $1 million – and eliminating the $8.5 million incremental lottery fund.
The situation is not the worst-case scenario, but it certainly is not an optimal situation, either. Next year’s education budget will still increase, but only by a marginal amount. Nonetheless, the cuts to Kulongoski’s proposed education budget once again illustrate Oregon’s reluctance to make demonstrable improvements to its education budget.
Oregon’s higher education budget has been a point of debate for years. It is time to reverse this. Oregonians do not want to live in a state that does not invest in higher education. It is embarrassing to inhabit a state that does not understand the benefits of higher education or act like it respects the large number of students who go into debt seeking a college degree.
The Oregon State Legislature should make education a priority. Talk is cheap in situations like this; Oregon lawmakers must stop simply talking about increasing the funding for higher educational and start doing it. Universities like Oregon cannot support themselves with donations alone. Further, relying on a funding model predicated on donors can, possibly, create a less transparent funding scheme, in which the desires of the donors outweigh the concerns of the institution.
Oregon currently ranks 46th in the country in per-student funding. Oregon and its students deserve better.