Oregon Education Investment Board

Kimberly Melton

Gov. John Kitzhaber plans a powerful Oregon education board, connecting school funding to performance

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/02/gov_john_kitzhaber_plans_to_cr.html

Date Retrieved: 2/13/2011

Topic: Performance based funding for schools

With ever increasing budget cuts to schools, there is a constant debate on how money should be spent and to what schools should the money go to. We obviously want our money to provide better education to students, but how do we know which schools deserve the funding? Gov. John Kitzhaber is creating an Oregon Education Investment Board that he will chair, with the purpose to use funding for education in a manner that will also push schools to produce higher performing students. The board will replace the Oregon Board of Education as well as the State Board of Higher Education. Intended Audience: Anyone involved in a school system.

Key Points:

-The Board will control 51% of the state’s general fund and place it in schools determined by performance, rather than student enrollment.

-This new board will place a lot of focus on student achievement

-The board will be established by the end of 2012

-An early learning school council will be appointed to advise the investment board on how to spend a yearly $380 million for early childhood and education programs

Relevance: This change will affect anyone who works or has a student in an Oregon school. I think it is great that this will place focus on getting students and schools to perform better, however how will these performances be measured? Will this create the same affect that standardized testing is creating now—instead of getting teachers and students to worry about learning, will this place an emphasis on better scores, regardless of how they are achieved?