Education funding needs fixing now.

Byline: Beth Gerot and William D. Thorndike Jr. For The Register-Guard

Our state is at a crossroads; we can't wait any longer for stable and adequate school funding in Oregon.

As voters we have elected the Legislature and the governor to do a job. As members of the public we expect the Legislature to fulfill its most essential responsibility and pass a budget providing necessary services. As Oregonians we believe that education is the most basic service that the state provides, and we expect adequate and stable funding for that service.

As a statewide, grassroots, nonpartisan organization, the Coalition for School Funding Now has had hundreds of citizens visit Salem over the last two months to talk to their legislators about the importance of funding education. After spending the day in the Capitol, coalition members' parting words are often, "They need to do something - if not now, when we have closed schools early in half the state's school districts and have borne the brunt of front page stories in the national press, then when will we ever fix this problem in Oregon?"

The coalition firmly believes that our legislators must creatively work to ensure adequate, stable, predictable and long-term funding to provide every child in Oregon with a high-quality education. One of the most fundamental responsibilities of the Legislature and the governor is to create a funding system that allows each child enrolled in public schools in this state to have a high-quality educational experience.

Substantial work has been invested to measure what a high-quality educational experience should look like, and what it should cost. The coalition believes that the Quality Education Model is a valuable tool to target the funding levels needed to achieve a high-quality education in all districts.

Our children are our future. We have an obligation to make sure they are educated to be successful community members. Each student should graduate from high school with the ability and skills to pursue a college education or to enter the work force.

We should be very proud of how well our schools are doing. Test scores are rising, dropout rates are falling and on achievement measures we compare very favorably with other states. However, we have just endured a school year of increased class sizes, elimination of important programs and staff members, and the reduction of instructional time in many schools across the state.

We reject the idea that Oregonians are willing to settle for the shortest school year in the nation. We believe Oregonians know it is time to step forward to protect the quality of our children's education next year, and every year. If we fail, the negative consequences for our economy, our society and our future will be profound.

Although it is late in the legislative session, we applaud those legislators who are engaged in serious efforts to develop new and sustainable sources of revenue for education and other vital public services. We are pleased that hearings are being held on bills that would provide for comprehensive tax reform. We hope that these hearings will allow the kind of conversation that is needed for a solution to our current unsustainable tax structure to emerge. The Legislature and the governor need to fulfill their responsibility to adopt a budget that provides adequate funding for vital public services, particularly public education.

We appreciate that different proposals will be brought forward, and we welcome the opportunity for the Legislature, the governor and the public to participate in a conversation about the pros and cons of each. The coalition would welcome the opportunity to support a tax reform package that is fair, equitable, provides adequate funding for vital public services, provides for full funding of the Quality Education Model, is more stable and sustainable than the current system, and has broad-based support from individuals and groups that span party and geographic lines.

We urge the Legislature to stay in session until it deals with the issue of tax reform. Now is the time to do something. We all know that our tax system is broken. And we are looking to the Legislature to fix it - the time is now.

Beth Gerot is chairwoman of the Eugene School Board. William D. Thorndike, Jr. is CEO of Medford Fabrication Inc. They are writing as members of the Coalition for School Funding Now (www.schoolfunding.org).