Not good enough: The $7.255 billion K-12 Budget

Editor's note: Yesterday, the Oregon Legislature passed the K-12 school budget. By permission, we're re-publishing a statement by Sen. Chris Edwards (D-Eugene).

Today I made one of the most difficult votes of my public service: to approve the proposed $7.255 billion K-12 schools budget for the next two upcoming school years.

After heartfelt remarks on the Senate floor, I gave my ‘yes’ vote to an inadequate budget that I have concluded is the result of structural problems in the economy, the state’s revenue system, demographic changes that are pushing caseload growth in human services, and crime sentencing, and parks funding mandates passed by voters.

Particularly in human services, an aging population, increasing incidence of developmental disabilities such as autism, and structural underemployment among certain populations have driven human service safety net needs to unbearable levels. While school funding is my top priority, it is a reality that for every $1.00 we cut in state human service spending, we forgo that plus well over an additional $1.00 in federal matching funds. The remedies to this conundrum go way beyond this single budget vote, and I have concluded that holding this budget up today would not have facilitated a solution in the coming weeks that we would not have otherwise been able to address.

For me, today marks the day that I re-double my efforts to stabilize revenue, increase employment opportunities in every corner of the state, and create healthier environments that will lower public costs of disability and health challenges.

If there is one thing that I have learned from studying this budget and the other major budget choices we have, it is that we are at a critical crossroads in Oregon. Official unemployment rates are good right now, but that doesn’t reflect the economic reality of stagnating wages and underemployment that is affecting overall average income across the state. In other words, this is potentially as good as it gets if we don’t address the structural issues crippling our ability to fund our schools.

As far as I’m concerned, from here on out, when we are working to address these problems, the burden of proof no longer falls on those who want to change the status quo… because the status quo clearly isn’t working. The status quo isn’t pushing middle class wages up. The status quo isn’t lowering the cost of living, and the status quo isn’t reducing incidence of disabilities and chronic disease. As far as I’m concerned, the burden of proof from here on out is on the naysayers that will fight against change, because the system is broken and the solutions can’t come fast enough. It is time for all of us that truly care about the future of our children and our communities to pick up the battle flag and tell the naysayers to step aside. It is time to fix Oregon.

Some of the efforts will upset the left. Some will upset the right. But all of them will be with the end goal in mind…… fixing Oregon.

While we need to get the solutions right, perfection cannot be the enemy of the good. We cannot turn away from the solutions before us because of the political feathers that they ruffle. No major change can leave everyone unaffected. It is not possible. But it IS possible to fix the system. The time is now. Let’s get to work.

April 07, 2015