Oregon governor has $6 billion school plan

PORTLAND — Today, Gov. Ted Kulongoski goes public as the man with the $6 billion plan.

In a speech to the PTA of Oregon, Kulongoski is expected to formally announce that he'll ask the Legislature to provide $6 billion for schools in the 2007-2009 budget cycle.

The number, which has been floating around education circles for the past few weeks, is $775 million more than the $5.25 billion legislators earmarked for schools during the current cycle. The governor's proposal is traditionally a jumping-off point for negotiations over public-school funding, which consumes about 50 percent of the state's budget.

Kulongoski also is expected to use today's speech to promote his "education enterprise" — a proposal to dedicate 61 percent of the state's general fund to schools, from pre-kindergarten proposals through the university and graduate system, which he said would bring down the state's notoriously high class sizes and add programs that have been cut in the past few years.

The proposal, which first surfaced late in the 2005 legislative session and never garnered much traction among lawmakers, would send any extra money to two accounts, one a rainy-day fund to guard against future recessions and the other an "investment" fund for areas where extra money is needed.

The plan is affordable, Kulongoski has said, because of revenue projections that show the state's economy growing at a healthy clip over the next 10 years.

But Kulongoski's opponents in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and leading candidates in the GOP race have drawn different pictures of how to best fund schools.

The governor's plan also has competition from Republican House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, who herself has proposed a plan to dedicate 51 percent of the state budget to the state's 198 school districts, her plan for removing the biennial guessing game over how much schools might receive.

Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson, who is challenging Kulongoski in the May 16 primary, has said the governor's plan will offer no new revenue for schools, and has proposed increasing taxes on the state's largest corporations to generate new funds.

Portland attorney Ron Saxton, a GOP gubernatorial hopeful, has dismissed the 61 percent proposal as "a mirage," telling attendees at a recent Oregon Education Association convention that "as costs continue to grow faster than revenues, eventually even 61 percent won't be enough."

Saxton has called, instead, for a re-examination of the money the state spends on teacher retirement benefits and health care, saying that such costs are out of whack with neighboring states. He's also called for higher starting salaries to keep new teachers in the field and merit pay for exceptional educators.

Another GOP hopeful, former State Rep. Kevin Mannix, has called for a move to a 401(k)-style defined-contribution plan for public employees as a money-saving plan.