Statement by Stand for Children Oregon Executive Director Toya Fick regarding House Speaker Tina Kotek’s revenue and cost containment proposal released last Friday:
“Praise is due for the leadership in the House for putting out a proposal that includes both additional revenue and cost controls. We also applaud the inclusion of full-funding for Measure 98, which is urgently needed to increase Oregon’s near worst in the nation graduation rates and prepare more students for careers and college.
Oregon kids need a solution that will allow for investments in their future. That means there must be enough new revenue to make substantial investments in education – from early childhood to college – and enough cost controls to ensure the new money actually improves the education and lives of Oregon’s next generation. To us and to most Oregonians, it is unacceptable to simply allocate more and more revenue without an actual increase in the level of services provided.
Our children need real leadership, and they need it now. School districts across the state are approving their budgets this month. They are handing out pink slips to teachers and aides and proposing cuts to much-needed programs. Universities and community colleges are voting to increase tuition by as much as 9%.
We urge legislators from both parties to come together in short order to agree on and pass a proposal that raises substantial new resources while also helping address the unacceptably high cost increases that threaten the next generation’s well-being and success.”
