Schools Spend Money from 2007 Legislative Session

The Statesman Journal has an article detailing how Oregon school districts are using their increased budgets after the 2007 legislative session resulted in a major increase in school funding:

To the victors belong the spoils, or so the saying goes. And Oregon's 197 school districts were clear victors in the 2007 legislative session, with the K-12 education budget up a whopping 18 percent, to $6.2 billion.

But some of that money came with strings attached. Lawmakers set aside $260 million of it in a special "school improvement fund." Districts were told they could only use the money for certain programs, and that they'd have to show tangible results.

The Associated Press reviewed new plans for 50 school districts across Oregon, including the state's largest districts, to get an idea of how the money will be spent.

The review, which covered about $90 million of the $130 million the state will dole out this year, showed that the bulk of the money will go to two areas: Reducing class sizes in the elementary grades, and remedial or alternative learning programs.

The two areas will consume about one-third of the available funding, according to the AP's analysis. Most of that money will go to teacher salaries and benefits.

The funding will help alleviate large class sizes that have plagued Oregon schools:

Large class sizes have been a persistent issue in Oregon. It's a problem both for high-growth districts and in districts that have been forced to cut their staff because of falling enrollment, leading them to consolidate classrooms.

Oregon has the second-biggest elementary school class sizes in the nation, behind only Utah, according to data from the 2003-2004 school year that was compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Remedial courses have also been a hot topic statewide, given that the Department of Education estimates that a full 40 percent of Oregon graduates have to take one or more remedial courses in college, a potential waste of tuition dollars.

Spending on the other priorities allowed by the school improvement fund levels off considerably after the top two areas, according to the AP's analysis.

Another third of the spending is split between programs aimed at closing the gap in test scores between white students and their minority counterparts, reading programs and early childhood education.

Read the rest. There is also an article showing specific budget numbers for various districts.

Discuss.