By Khushboo Rathore
Oregon Journalism Project
– The New Era staff contributed to this story
As Oregon public school leaders face reductions in state funding, they turn to their biggest expense to find cuts – about 85% of their budgets go to personnel.
This time around, they have more staff to cut: Over the past five years, the number of full-time employees at the state’s 197 school districts has grown by nearly 17%, according to an analysis of Oregon Department of Education data.
At the same time, student enrollment has shrunk nearly 3%.
The staff growth – 11,740 full-time equivalent employees, according to state data – is the product of more than $1 billion a year in additional funding from 2019’s Student Success Act. The landmark legislation is mostly paid for by a corporate activity tax.
Kevin Strong, business manager for Sweet Home School District, said the district pays close attention to “aligning staffing with student needs and available resources.”
He said that, over the past five years, the Sweet Home district has reduced one district office administrative position, held the overall number of teaching positions steady, and increased counseling and instructional assistant staffing to “better support students.”
“We are focused on aligning staffing with student needs and available resources,” said Strong, who touches on the connection between student numbers and staffing almost monthly at School Board meetings. “Enrollment trends are a key part of our budget planning and long-term decision-making, and we monitor them closely throughout the year.
“Our priority has been maintaining strong classroom instruction, providing targeted support for students who need additional help, and remaining fiscally responsible.”
Since state funding is calculated per student, fewer students, significant federal funding cuts, and a lagging state economy have shrunk the pool of money available for school districts, and some education leaders fear cuts of 2 to 5%.
But if decision makers look at where staff growth took place since 2020-21, they will find increases in instructional assistants, administrative staff, special education and student support roles.
The number of teachers during that period barely budged, increasing 1.7%.
These additional jobs were used to address behavioral and emotional needs of students following the pandemic, says Andrew Dyke, senior economist specializing in education at ECOnorthwest, a Portland research firm.
The investment of the Student Success Act, which in part supported rising salary and pension costs, finally brought the state above the national average for per-pupil K–12 funding. Oregon now ranks 19th in state funding for K–12 education, according to the Education Data Initiative.
But this didn’t slow years-long declines in elementary reading and math scores.
Dyke, however, says it’s premature “to expect to see immediate, stunning results after just a couple of years of increased investment.”