Oregon Live – Betsy Hammond
“Oregon lawmakers are hotly debating a bill that would gradually change state school funding to a formula based on the number of students who come to school rather than the number enrolled. Principal-turned-legislator Rep. Betty Komp, D-Woodburn, is pushing House Bill 2657, which would make that switch, starting by funding kindergarten based on kindergartners’ attendance in 2016-17. By 2020-21, all grade levels would be funded that way. But several members of the House Education Committee said Monday they will vote against the bill, which is exactly the position that the state teachers union and the Oregon School Boards Association urged them to take. Students who come from low-income homes are most likely to miss a lot of school, so schools in poor communities would be harmed, and family factors outside of schools’ control contribute to absenteeism, said Portland Democrat Lew Frederick and Salem Republican Jodi Hack. Schools need more money and more support, not a hammer hanging over them that they will lose funding if they don’t fix high rates of chronic absenteeism, they said.”(more)