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Senate OKs school aid $4.81 billion will leave holes, local superintendents say BY PETER WONG SALEM -- Medford and Ashland school superintendents say the $4.81 billion for state aid that the Oregon Legislature cleared Friday will not help their districts a lot and may hurt. The Senate approved the two-year budget largely along party lines, 18-10. It goes to Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who says the amount falls short of the $4.95 billion he endorsed but has left his intentions unclear. Under a $4.81 billion budget, Medford and most Southern Oregon districts would gain about 3.5 percent in per-student spending next school year, which starts in September. Medford's per-student amount would go from $4,743 to $4,916, plus $40 pending in other bills for technology improvements and high-growth districts. "It means class sizes will continue to be relatively large," said Medford's Steve Wisely, superintendent of the state's seventh largest district. "We will be unable to fulfill a request for $1.5 million for the textbooks and other materials we need to align our curriculum with the state assessment tests." But Wisely said the district will be able to hire two instructors to expand special education at the middle schools. He said it will buy some social studies textbooks, mathematics materials for primary grades, and accelerated-reading materials for libraries and computers. Ashland's John Daggett said his district will be left short, but principals and some parents will sit down with him and other administrators Monday to assess how much. He said he expects to leave vacancies unfilled and seek more efficiencies. "It is difficult to give a concrete answer, because I am not sure what $4.81 billion offers us," Daggett said. "But we have to think how fortunate we are. We are not a Third World country yet. If most of the world had what we had, they would be thankful. So let's take what we get and make it work." Ashland's per-student amount would go from $4,781 to $4,946, plus a projected $32 for technology. Two-thirds of the 30 senators spoke during Friday's debate, which lasted almost two hours. Aid to Oregon's 198 school districts is the largest item in the $11-billion state budget. Because of property tax limits that Oregon voters have approved this decade, schools rely on the state general fund for 70 percent of their support today, compared to less than 30 percent at the start of the decade. This session started with Kitzhaber and Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, proposing $4.6 billion. Kitzhaber boosted his request in March to $4.95 billion, including an increase in corporate income taxes and retention of excess personal income taxes, as the amount needed to educate students to the state's new academic standards. A coalition of school advocates pushed for $5.1 billion. "We could have done better, and we still could do better," said Sen. Lee Beyer of Springfield, one of 10 Democrats who opposed the $4.81 billion budget Friday. At least four Republicans, including Sen. Lenn Hannon of Ashland, said the amount had to exceed the $4.73 billion that House Republicans proposed but never put to a vote. "I think it is a credit to the process and how it really works that people of differing persuasions worked together to maintain the integrity of our school system," said Hannon, who voted with the 16 other Republicans and one Democrat for $4.81 billion. Kitzhaber said if the final amount is to exceed $4.81 billion, leaders of the Legislature's Republican majorities must offer more money, most likely from the state's initial share of $180 million from the national tobacco settlement. Leaders were prepared to ask lawmakers to refer a ballot measure to lock up the money in a trust fund. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA