On August 21, the Bulletin published an editorial on Oregon K-12 education funding. The editors encouraged us to read a primer by James Scherzinger, which I found very accurate and insightful. There were a few key takeaways: (1) Schools are essentially funded by the state of Oregon, (2) Students receive the same (roughly) equitable allocation regardless of the where they live or the school they attend, (3) Due to years of measure elections and idiosyncratic legislative actions, the funding system has gotten needlessly complex and is in need of a sweeping reset.

What Scherzinger’s report did not answer is whether K-12 public education is adequately funded. The public education establishment certainly thinks it is not. I will revisit this question further on.

The Bulletin editors asked two follow up questions for which I offer answers based on my experience as a school district CFO with responsibility for reporting on student outcomes (a.k.a accountability). The first question: “How do we know we are getting good returns on those dollars (the dollars already spent on K-12 education)?” An answer requires three things, a clear understanding of priority learning goals, matching measures of student achievement, and cognitive ability scores.

The Oregon State Department of Education has developed and published required learning goals by subject and grade level (tinyurl.com/ORK12goals). These are a description of the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn in all public schools in Oregon.

In turn, the Department used the goals to design achievement tests in three areas, English language arts (reading, language usage), mathematics, and science at various grade levels (tinyurl.com/ORstudents). If the learning goals are worthy, then the state achievement tests are a fair measure of their attainment. In theory, the statewide assessment tests should provide some of our needed accountability information. Regrettably, too few students currently take the tests to compare school and district results across the state.

Even if enough students took the statewide test, accountability would remain elusive. Students also need to have a cognitive ability test score to make sense of the achievement scores. Unfortunately, there is no statewide assessment of cognitive ability. Cognitive ability profiles create a level playing field when comparing schools and districts.

Here’s the bottom line: a functional accountability system to determine whether we are getting a “good return” is unavailable, even for basic academic skills, although all the components are widely available. Unfortunately, there seems to be no momentum for changing the status quo.

The Bulletin editors also asked a second question: “If we spent the same money differently, could we get better outcomes?” This is a good question, but needs to be informed by the answer to a preliminary question. Is the current K-12 teaching and learning model being effectively implemented? Based on international comparisons like the PISA testing program, there seems to be ample room for improvement (tinyurl.com/EdPisa). Before we consider system alternatives, let’s see if we can get the current public education model tuned up within the available resources.

Let’s now return to the question of funding. Should per pupil allocations be increased in the future beyond the general rate of inflation? Before answering and at the risk of stating the obvious, public education is an entrenched bureaucracy with many special interest groups and a penchant for mission creep. So the pressure to increase funding will be constant and conveyed with a sense of urgency.

But the case for increased funding needs to be based on accountability data which are currently unavailable. An accountability system is needed to provide clear linkages to improved learning outcomes and justify additional resources. Accountability should come before increased funding.

Hopefully, this can happen before the next legislative session so a rational funding proposal can be fashioned capable of gaining wide public support.

Ron Smith lives in Bend.

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