Oregon Plaintiffs File School Funding Lawsuit

On March 21, 2006, six school districts and three parents, on behalf of their school-age children, filed a school funding case against the State of Oregon and legislative leaders. Based on the state constitution’s requirements to provide “a uniform and general system of Common schools” and to appropriate funding “sufficient to ensure that the state’s system of K-12 public education meets quality goals established by law,” plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the current finance system unconstitutional and order the state to create and fund a constitutional system.

In the Pendelton School District v. State complaint, plaintiffs point to, inter alia, the Quality Education Model (QEM) created by the state’s Quality Education Commission. The legislature established the Commission to determine – using the QEM – the specific qualitative changes and funding required for Oregon’s schools to be able to attain the education goals set by the legislature in 1991. Plaintiffs also recount some of the social and economic costs of the state’s inadequate education, such as lost revenues and increased prison costs.

The state’s large revenue shortfalls and major reductions in school funding have resulted in shortened school years and damaging cuts in programs and teaching staff, garnering significant coverage from national media.

Prepared by Molly A. Hunter, March 31, 2006