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Schools lose timber money Death of Wyden's proposal means less for Butte Falls and Prospect From staff and wire reports Sen. Ron Wyden has dropped an amendment that would have sent $14.4 million a year in federal school money exclusively to timber-dependent counties in Oregon. The Oregon Democrat's decision is a boon for Portland-area school districts, which would have been cut out of the extra funding. But one area's gain is another area's loss, leaving Jackson County school districts in Butte Falls and Prospect with less money than they had anticipated. "It all boils down to where the votes are," said Prospect schools Superintendent Don Alexander. "The lobbyists help sway the political process." Alexander agreed the amount of money wouldn't have made a significant impact on his district, but said the decision runs contrary to the original spirit of the legislation. The average student would have generated $18 more under the legislation, amounting to about $4,000 for each district. At issue is money Congress set aside for counties that lost revenue because of declining timber sales. Counties with national forests in their borders historically have received 25 percent of timber sale profits. The federal funds to timber counties, approved in legislation written last year by Wyden and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., was meant to compensate as timber sales dropped. The funds could be spent only on roads and schools. State officials, however, argued that state law already had a formula for equally sharing education money between rural and urban counties. They said the money should be divvied up according to this formula, with some going to urban school districts. Wyden's amendment would have required the timber money to be exempted from the state's formula. He said the amendment ensured that the state adhered to the original intent of Congress in disbursing the money only to timber counties. Superintendents from five large urban school districts objected, as did Reps. Earl Blumenauer and David Wu, both D-Ore. The amendment was supported by Smith and approved by the Senate. Wyden withdrew it from Senate-House negotiations over the labor, education and health and human services appropriations bill. Over six years, Wyden and Smith's original law provides $690 million in new money to Oregon, including $14.4 million a year in added funding for schools, according to Wyden's office. The battle over the school funding isn't over, however. Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff, said the senator will continue to push school and legislative leaders to find a way to get the additional school money to the mostly rural counties where Congress intended it to go. "In his county payments bill, he left it to the Legislature to do the right thing," Kardon said. "That didn't occur. He has now demonstrated his willingness to pursue this further, and his position won't change unless and until the interested parties sit down in earnest and work out a solution." Blumenauer and Wu objected to the amendment after Gov. John Kitzhaber urged opposition. In a Nov. 26 letter, Kitzhaber said that rural schools in Oregon had not suffered from the decline in federal timber revenue because the state has provided equal funding for all schools. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.