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Rural schools object to urban split By Damian Mann Rural school districts are crying foul over the state�s plan to give a portion of Jackson County�s $1.3 million in federal timber bailout money to large urban areas. "Other counties that don�t have one damn tree will get this money," said John Huey, board chair for the Butte Falls School District. "The Willamette Valley will end up getting most of these dollars." Prospect School District Superintendent Don Alexander said, "I don�t think the bill was intended to benefit Portland school districts." A continuing decline in logging dollars spurred Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith last year to back a national bill that increases funding for states that have suffered reductions in timber harvests on federal lands. A total of $28 million earmarked for Oregon schools is just one part of a combined $250 billion bailout package for affected counties. Most of the money is earmarked for transportation, the bulk of which is going to rural counties. The original intent of the plan would have given Jackson County schools a minimum of $1.3 million to offset the loss of logging dollars, according to estimates prepared by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.But because of the way Oregon distributes school funding, this money would be placed directly into Gov. John Kitzhaber�s proposed $5.2 billion education plan and distributed more or less equally to students statewide. Rough estimates by the Oregon Department of Education show $22 would be allotted for each student, amounting to about $638,000 in Jackson County. Wyden has been urging the Legislature and governor to allocate this money back to the school districts that have suffered from a loss of logging dollars. "When I pushed on a bipartisan basis to increase education funding for rural schools, my intent was to supplement current state funding of our schools, not relieve the Legislature of its duty to responsibly fund education in Oregon," Wyden said. Frank McNamara, director of school services for the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators, said the equalization of state education money for the past 10 years by the state has actually helped smooth out the budgets of rural schools and this practice should continue. "It is clear to me he (Wyden) doesn�t understand how the Oregon finance system works," McNamara said. Exactly how much school districts would benefit from the federal bailout plan has been a matter of debate, McNamara said. John Marshall, director of legislative services at the Oregon School Boards Association, said that his organization has estimated that counties like Jackson could even end up losers under the plan to distribute the money to timber-dependent areas. He estimates that schools in Jackson County would only receive $14 a student on average. All this political wrangling has left local school officials fuming. Butte Falls� Huey said the Legislature needs to live up to the spirit of the federal bailout money as have other states involved in the program. "As far as I know, we are the only state doing it this way," he said. Prospect Superintendent Alexander said Forest Service staff in the area has dropped from a high of about 250 down to its present 100. "As these jobs disappeared, our enrollment shrank," he said. "I want the federal government to keep the money if it�s not going where it�s supposed to." Greg Lecuyer, finance director for Eagle Point School District, said his district hasn�t been dramatically impacted from a loss of timber dollars, but he believes the money should go where it was intended. Galen Anderson, Medford schools� finance director, said his district has faced some loss of timber dollars, but couldn�t say how much. He said it would be difficult for the state to determine the impact on a particular district. "It gets to be a speculative kind of thing," he said. Like many local school administrators, however, Anderson said he would welcome any additional income from the state. "Senator Wyden understands full well schools are funded in Oregon, he�s just not happy about the current formula that hijacks moneys intended for rural counties," said Josh Kardon, Wyden�s chief of staff. Wyden specifically added language to the timber-bailout legislation to make sure it would go to these affected school districts, Kardon said. "But the senator didn�t intend to micromanage the Legislature." Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.