Immediately after the November 1978 general election, the Education Finance Center of the Education Commission of the States conducted a public opinion poll by telephone in four states that had tax and expenditure limitation measures on the ballot: Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, and Oregon. Those who voted positively and negatively on both tax cut…

Is there a crisis in Oregon school finance? Before policymakers can formulate answers, assessment and definition of the problem are necessary. This paper examines the current state of Oregon school finance, including reform efforts over the last 20 years from policy and grass roots level perspectives. It then assesses the current school funding…

This paper describes the research that has been required to develop the factual evidence for challenges to inequitable school finance laws and for defenses of school finance reform legislation in Oregon and Wisconsin. Both the challenge to and the defense of school finance legislation use an analytical framework that focuses on the following…

Although the Oregon Legislature has succeeded in creating a funding formula that equalizes per pupil spending, it is struggling with budgetary inadequacies. There is no dedicated funding source for schools, voters have enacted further property-tax limitations, and some schools have had to cut programs and staff every year. Nevertheless, Oregon's…

Since 1989, citizen-generated ballot initiatives have appeared in several states. Common to several of these initiatives have been questions dealing with the funding of elementary, secondary, and higher education. The focus of these initiatives has shifted to how much the public is willing to pay for education. This project examines the causes…

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the issue of statewide tax and expenditure limitations (TELs). Through the use of public opinion surveys and case studies of the campaigns, the author explains the politics of the TEL issue. Chapter 1 uses a multivariate analysis to determine whether or not differences exist in the voting…

This report examines the current school finance system in Oregon and recommends changes to make the system more equitable and less subject to variations in local property wealth. After briefly describing the inequities of the present system, most of the report discusses the committee's legislative recommendations and their probable impact. The…

This report attempts to provide a useful statistical profile of Oregon's educational system as of 1970 by comparing a number of commonly accepted indicators across a population of comparable states. Many of the tables present data on educational expenditures and fiscal effort for education, but other tables provide statistics on such educational…

This preliminary report summarizes much of the work and findings of the research staff of the Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity of the Oregon Legislature. The research staff's task was to analyze Oregon's current school finance system and its various alternatives and to develop a computer simulation for predicting the impact of…

The Oregon educational system confronts a set of legislative challenges similar to, yet different from, the rest of the nation. Like the rest of the nation, distrust of government runs high, politicians are wary of raising or restructuring taxes, the economy is expanding, and the November 1994 state election shook up the political leadership of…

This book was prepared by the research staff of the special Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity of the Oregon legislature to examine alternative patterns of school finance reform that have been considered for adoption in Oregon. It presents analyses of a variety of school finance formulas, discusses possibilities for increasing school…