News

If they finish high school, they stumble in college
Business leaders say Oregon's average schools and student success aren't good enough, but politicians say reforms may be too costly

Monday, September 25, 2006
BILL GRAVES and SHELBY OPPEL WOOD

For the first time in years, political leaders are talking about something other than how to keep Oregon schools open and out of the Doonesbury comic strip, which made a national joke out of the state's shortened school year in 2003.

With more tax money rolling into state accounts, candidates are promising to improve schools, not just help them stay afloat.

The Oregon Business Council has concluded that the state's economic future depends on dramatically improving K-12 so that at least 80 percent of students advance beyond high school to earn college degrees or technical expertise. Despite a growing buzz about education, however, no one is proposing the kind of sweeping reforms necessary for achievement on that scale.

And few leaders are even mentioning the state's struggling higher education system. House Speaker Karen Minnis says the state can't afford big increases in spending on universities and community colleges.

"You're doing triage," she says. "K-12 needs to be stable, and then you can move to the next thing. And that is the largest component of the budget. If you try to overreach in one fell swoop, I think we can get ourselves in trouble."

Even with the political spotlight on Oregon's 560,000 schoolchildren, the state's economic rebound doesn't end battles over funding. If voters approve Measure 41 or 48 on the November ballot to curb state spending, K-12 will be hit the hardest because it receives 43 percent of the state budget.

Oregon's 81,000 university students are paying more but getting less, evident in bigger classes, fewer full-time professors and less advising and mentoring. Most public universities are on a dead-end financial path, spending down their reserves to make it through the coming academic year as expenses outstrip state support and tuition revenue. Enrollment growth began to slow in 2004, prompting cuts at most campuses this fall.

Such trends are at odds with Oregon's growing pool of high school graduates and the economic imperative to turn more of them into the college-educated workers who pay higher taxes, use fewer costly government services, attract new businesses and raise the standard of living.

Several factors improve the likelihood of action when the 2007 Legislature convenes.

Having more money makes it easier to make deals. The success of lawmakers' six-hour special session in May impressed them with what is possible when they work together -- in contrast to 2002, when the Legislature met for five special sessions before settling on a budget, or 2005, when haggling stretched to seven months.

Many lawmakers say they feel pressure to avoid partisan politics and make things happen.

"I would love nothing more than to focus on policy rather than just the dollars," says Minnis, R-Wood Village, who is in a tough re-election fight.

Whether lawmakers will have that choice hinges in part on the fate of Measure 48. The ballot measure would limit growth in state spending to inflation and population growth. State officials estimate it would reduce spending the next two years by roughly $2 billion of about $36 billion in projected state spending.        

How Oregon rates

Most leaders agree -- and quality measures show -- that Oregon public schools and universities rank about average for the nation at a time when the economy increasingly demands higher levels of education and skills.

"We haven't improved, and in some cases we're falling," says Sue Hildick, president of the Chalkboard Project, a nonpartisan, foundation-supported effort to improve public schools.

Only 15 of every 100 Oregon students who enter high school graduate, advance to college the following fall and earn a community college degree within three years or a bachelor's degree within six, compared with the U.S. average of 18, according to a 2004 national report.

Oregon fourth- and eighth-graders have made gains and perform at or above the national average in reading, math and science, but they are losing ground relative to other states. The state now spends less than the national average on its public schools, and class sizes in elementary schools are now the second largest in the nation, behind Utah. Last year, the average Oregon elementary class had 24 students, although most metro Portland classes are bigger.

Big classes in part are driven by Oregon's Public Employee Retirement System, health and other employee benefits, which are more generous and expensive than benefits in other states, costing the state $282 million above the national average. Though the growing economy is producing more money for schools, a downturn would mean more cuts and instability unless the state can build a rainy-day savings account.

In higher education, Oregon is being outpaced by other states in faculty-student ratios, participation rates, affordability, research capacity and faculty pay -- all factors that hurt the state economically. Oregon ranks 19th in the nation for adults with bachelor's degrees, about the same as in 1990.

When educators talk about what it will take to move forward, money is the typical answer. In higher education, for example, leaders are reluctant to make dramatic changes to the university system. As a result, seven public universities compete with one another for students and prestige in a state with only 3.5 million people. Gov. Ted Kulongoski and the board governing the campuses have yet to seriously attempt different approaches, such as consolidating expensive programs or insisting that the big universities stop trying to be everything to every student.

More money to spend

Nationwide, state economies are rebounding. In Oregon, lawmakers will have 17 percent more revenue for 2007-09, state economists predict -- unless voters approve the spending limits of Measure 48.

Kulongoski, the Oregon Business Council and legislative leaders from both parties say they want to dedicate part of the general fund each biennium to provide a stable money flow to education. Ron Saxton, the Republican challenger for governor, says schools need to do a better job with the money they have, and has called for more choice programs, merit pay for teachers and other steps.

Yet more money is no guarantee that school funding won't become as divisive as it has been in recent legislative sessions. K-12 will compete with higher education and community colleges for a bigger share. And education will compete with state police, prisons, human services and other agencies hit by the past recession.

On the quality front, most groups and legislators are choosing narrow and cautious over sweeping and visionary.

They've watched Oregon's last attempt at wholesale reform -- the 1991 school improvement act -- slowly unravel with little to show for it. Most legislators and education leaders are ready to abandon the certificates of initial and advanced mastery (CIM and CAM), the high school credentials that were centerpieces of the reform effort. What remains are Oregon's academic standards, which have produced achievement gains through more testing and more focused instruction.

Most new proposals would do little more than help Oregon catch up with the rest of the nation.

A state Senate commission proposes full-day kindergarten statewide, already a reality for 60 percent of the nation's 5-year-olds. A key recommendation by the nonpartisan Chalkboard Project is to limit class size to 15 in kindergarten and first grade. Washington and California and at least 24 other states have passed laws to limit class sizes.

The state Board of Education is crafting a tougher high school diploma that will include some features of the CIM and CAM in requiring students to prove they've mastered subjects to graduate, instead of simply passing enough courses to make it out the door. Nineteen states have high school exit exams and seven more -- including Washington -- are phasing them in.

Still, any action to address quality would give Oregon schools a break from endless debates about money.

"For so long, we haven't been able to have this conversation about how students are doing academically," says state Superintendent Susan Castillo.

Investing in the future

Lawmakers who champion schools are guaranteed to score with a vocal parent constituency that arrives by the busload at the Capitol. Higher education doesn't enjoy the same cheering section -- except on game days.

"A lot of Oregonians look at higher education as a luxury and not as a necessary investment in the future. And as long as we have that attitude, it's going to be real difficult to reverse trends that we have going on right now," says John Von Schlegell, a Portland venture capitalist recruited by Kulongoski to serve on the State Board of Higher Education.

More than any Oregon governor in recent history, Kulongoski has argued in public forums that the state's success depends on a highly educated work force and a vigorous research enterprise at the campuses.

But his talk has boiled down to tangible results in two areas: additional money for repairs and construction at the universities and community colleges, and more financial aid for low-income students. In 2005, he persuaded lawmakers to increase funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant by 77 percent, making tuition assistance available to all eligible students for the first time in years.

Lawmakers went further, boosting budgets for universities above what Kulongoski proposed in order to slow tuition increases. The Legislature did not, however, devote enough state cash to cover rising expenses at the universities due to inflation, growth, salary increases that followed a two-year pay freeze and spiking utility costs.

So, though more low-income Oregonians receive help to pay tuition, middle-income families who don't qualify for aid continue to feel the pinch. Universities depend more than ever on tuition dollars, as state funding per student declines. Average annual tuition and fees for an Oregon student aiming to graduate in four years have increased 47 percent since 2001, to $5,520 this fall.

Even with higher tuition and more money from the Legislature, there is little money left to hire more full-time faculty and advisers to teach and guide students quickly to degrees, to hire enough instructors to ensure students get courses they need in time to graduate in four years, to keep classes to a reasonable size or to offer competitive salaries necessary to attract top researchers.

The board that governs the public universities will ask the 2007 Legislature to dramatically reverse course and grant a 25 percent increase to reduce faculty-student ratios, lure top-notch researchers and teachers, and address a backlog of debt and maintenance. Board members also want more control over finances, including the ability to reduce employee health benefits in order to boost salaries that lag behind national averages.

Kirby Dyess, a retired Intel executive who is vice president of the State Board of Higher Education, says campuses would be required to produce measurable results.

"Every Oregonian should say, for every additional dollar I put in here, I want to see an increase in graduation rates, more Oregon students graduating, students getting placed in jobs that are going to benefit the state," she says.

If voters reject Measure 48, the Legislature will have more money to spend in the next two years. Board members sense an opening, a chance to avoid a "helpless slide into mediocrity," as they warned in a 20-year plan released this month.

Without more state support, the board has signaled that tough choices are ahead: higher admissions requirements, or shuttered departments or institutions, which would limit enrollment; higher tuition; or becoming more independent from state oversight, similar to Oregon Health & Science University.

Yet history suggests the universities won't receive a big cash infusion. Some observers say leaders should be looking at structural changes in line with what Oregonians are more willing to support.

Possibilities: more extensive use of distance education; closing one of the small, regional universities; or consolidating the state's three public business schools or two engineering schools so that one of them can attain national prominence. Dyess floated closing or selling a campus earlier this year, but her proposal went nowhere.

"We've got duplication, and we've got limited resources. That may mean you're going to have some things that get shut down and get lost, but overall that means other things are going to get better," says Mike Burton, a vice provost at Portland State University who was a member of the Oregon House from 1985 to 1995.

Otherwise, Oregon might need to limit its ambitions to keeping college accessible, says David Longanecker, executive director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, who advises Oregon leaders on financial aid and other issues.

"Lots of students are going to those institutions, and lots of students are being well educated," he says. "For all practical purposes, I think your institutions are going to have to learn to be comfortable with what they have today."