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I live in the Hillsboro school district. Arts funding in the school has been minimized for more than a decade. Here are things that have worked:

Art literacy programs run by parent volunteers in the elementary schools. (This is great at certain schools, but not all. It depends on the level of parent involvement.)

Coordination between the part-time music and P.E. teachers for elementary school 'concerts'. I've seen those teachers work their hearts out to make great programs out of thin air.

Parent/Booster clubs that run fundraisers that pay for artist-in-residence programs or arts assemblies. (Again, this depends on the level of parent involvement for the schools. Examples are Lenox, Jackson, Imlay.)

Flexibility at the middle school level that allows occasional trade-off of P.E. for other 'art' electives for individual students.

Century HS music director Jim Dunlop runs an amazing evening music program for middle school band students all over the district. It's low-cost and involves high school students as mentors.

Things that need improvement:

Access to more art for all elementary students. Some teachers incorporate it as well as they can, but not all teachers have the apptitude to teach art as well as ALL the core elem. subjects, and none of them have enough time in the school day.

I have gained a deep appreciation for Oregon's elementary teachers while I volunteered for Art Literacy. Teaching a lesson (and getting it cleaned up) in one hour is very hard. It's even harder with large classes (25-32 kids). Every time we scheduled art literacy lessons, the teachers had to reschedule regular lessons. That's not easy with pressure to get all the kids performing at or above academic benchmarks.

Sandy

posted 2 years, 12 months ago
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Oregon's citizens will all feel the cuts and reductions to essential services like schools and public safety. Shorter school years, or even larger classes? Seniors or disabled people that can't get the services they need? Lack of police or fire-fighters?

I think most people want a fair and shared way to stop the most devastating cuts by raising some new revenue. Fair means shared among private citizens and businesses.

These solutions include:

1) changing the outdated corporate minimum tax of $10
2) Increasing the tax rates on profitable corporations (currently the 49th lowest in the nation)
3) Asking the wealtiest Oregonians to pay marginally more on income exceeding $250,000.

Voting for these revenue measures will be difficult for legislators unless the public supports them in making tough choices.  Let your state representative and senators know that you want a solution and ask them to support reasonable, fair revenue increases.

Here is an easy way to contact your legisaltors: Send a Postcard!

Sandy Ellis
Hillsboro chapter of Stand For Children

More than 5,000 profitable corporations operating in Oregon paid no income taxes in 2006 beyond the $10 minimum, according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy.

posted 4 years ago
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Long term solutions are needed to take Oregon's education system off the existing funding rollercoaster. We got big kicker checks two years ago, and yet we face budget cuts now. This doesn't make sense.

Shorter school years and bigger class sizes are short term solutions that will have rotten long term effects.

I support my legislators to make those tough decisions to raise new revenue by enacting reasonable increases to taxes on profitable corporations & the wealthiest Oregonians and reducing tax loopholes.

We can do something-send a message to your legislators today to ask them to raise revenue and prevent further harm. Click on this link - www.stand.org/or/postcard.

posted 4 years ago
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Can someone state (or repeat) how much money will be saved by SB 411? If you can't define it in $$, how much time will really be saved? Do school districts currently have a REAL estimate of how much time/money is spent on reporting?

I am glad that this bill suspends reporting reqm'ts for two years rather than totally eliminating them. Taxpayers and pearents have asked for the reports and programs for valid reasons.  I am willing to trust my district board and administrators over the next two years, but look forward to reinstating programs in the near future.

posted 4 years ago
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