Senate, House education committees unveil 2025 legislation themes

Published: September 24, 2024

By the end of this week, legislators must submit their ideas to be drafted into presession bills for 2025. Many of those concepts are being aired this week as part of the regular Legislative Committee Days.

A House and Senate education committees joint hearing unleashed enough fodder Monday for dozens of bills to interest school board members. A packed agenda included reports from the Statewide Educator Salary Schedules Task Force, the Substitute Teachers Task Force, the Summer Learning Workgroup and the Chronic Absenteeism Workgroup.

The groups can offer only recommendations, but with legislators on each group, some of the recommendations will likely become proposed bills. OSBA staff have been actively involved with these important groups and others, offering input.

"The work of the Legislature never stops," said Efren Zamudio, OSBA Legislative Services specialist. "We are school board members' eyes and ears in the Legislature."

The Legislature holds Legislative Committee Days about every two months during the breaks between session. Committees hold hearings on potential bill topics, listen to updates on legislation and take reports from task forces and state agencies. OSBA assisted a team representing school board members, including OSBA Board President Sami Al-Abdrabbuh and OSBA Board Secretary-treasurer Dawn Watson, who met with legislators.

The educator salary task force started meeting more than a year ago, and it was a key discussion point during OSBA's 2023 Legislative Roadshow. A statewide educator salary schedule could make it easier for school districts to bargain with teachers by setting expectations, but it could also infringe on districts' local decision-making. School board members have been split over the issue.

Former OSBA Legislative Services Director Lori Sattenspiel was on the panel, which approved its final report at its Sept.13 meeting.

The task force found Oregon average teacher pay is generally in line with national rates but has challenges in some areas, especially with low beginner teacher pay. Task force members raised several ideas for increasing educator pay and making it more equitable, but members representing school leadership repeatedly pointed out that districts are limited in what they can do by how much money the Legislature allocates to their budgets.

Among the task force's stated values to guide its work was "adequate, stable and equitable funding of Oregon schools." The task force recognized that the state appropriations process did not work well with local districts' budget timelines or collective bargaining, nor did it fully address school funding inequities.

The task force adopted 14 recommendations with notes on who proposed them. The lead recommendation was to establish another workgroup on educator compensation. The recommendation was championed by task force members Sattenspiel, Vale SD Superintendent Alisha McBride, North Marion SD Business Manager Linda Murray and Northwest Regional ESD Chief Human Resources Officer Debbie Simons.

Sattenspiel said the task force did important and detailed work but it needs more time and more resources to do the research.

Rep. Courtney Neron, Interim House Education Committee Chair, co-chaired the task force.

"We don't feel like we have arrived," said Neron, D-Wilsonville, during the hearing. "We feel like we have laid some foundational reference material."

Neron, a longtime champion for better education funding, personally signed onto three recommendations: seeking an equity impact study, statewide educator workforce data and a cost of living equity study.

Many of the recommendations called for additional data, and school leaders warned those become unfunded mandates if schools must produce additional reports without being given more money.

The Substitute Teachers Task Force adopted its final report Sept. 12. Sattenspiel was a member, and Rep. Hoa Nguyen, a David Douglas School Board member, was also on the task force.

Many Oregon districts have struggled to find enough substitute teachers, which in turn increases the stress and burden on all other school staff. The task force offered seven recommendations to provide greater support, structure and professional development for substitute teachers.

Nguyen, D-Portland, co-chaired the Chronic Absenteeism Workgroup along with Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10% of class time, roughly two days of school per month.

Soaring rates of absenteeism are a national problem following the pandemic, and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek declared September as Attendance Awareness Month. OSBA has made combatting chronic absenteeism a central association goal, and Zamudio is a member of the absenteeism workgroup.

The group has met monthly since April, and Nguyen plans to keep it going into 2025. The workgroup has four legislative proposals to invest more in attendance supports and to increase attendance data reporting.

The Summer Learning Workgroup is working on a December report on the Legislature's $30 million investment in 2024 summer programs and a plan for long-term and sustainable funding of afterschool and summer programs.

Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, chaired the substitute teacher task force and co-chaired the educator salaries task force. Dembrow is the Interim Senate Education Committee chair, although he has retired and won't be back next session.

"One of the things we have heard … is that districts don't like it when the Legislature tells them to do something that might cost them money and doesn't give them the money to do it. Now, I have no idea why they might object to that," Dembrow said to chuckles from the hearing room. "They even call it by this term 'unfunded mandate.'"

He said the Legislature needs to do a better job determining what policies cost schools and then making sure that money is provided.

"It's like a broken record," Dembrow said.

- Jake Arnold, OSBA
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