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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 7, 2005 Esquivel: It doesn’t add up Medford rep ontinues search for $350 million in state school funds that aren’t made public By DAMIAN MANN Mail Tribune For eight months, State Rep. Sal Esquivel has been on a crusade to discover exactly how much is spent on Oregon’s education system. After lengthy meetings with education officials, the Medford Republican is still baffled by $350 million that he says hasn’t been accounted for, and the possibility that other revenues might not be clearly reported. "If they don’t know, how in the devil are we as legislators supposed to make our decisions?" he asked. When he confronted the state superintendent of public schools about this discrepancy, the Medford Republican said he told her, "Either you know what the revenues are and that’s unacceptable, or you know and you don’t want me to know, and that’s more unacceptable." Esquivel said that at minimum what he’s found doesn’t speak well for getting a clear picture of where government spends its money. Advertisement "This is not transparency," he said. Superintendent of Public Schools Susan Castillo said she understands Esquivel’s frustration. "Actually, I agree with him," said Castillo. "We need to make it more transparent." She said state education officials have met with Esquivel, researched his questions, but ultimately, "He felt like the dots were not connected enough with him." Castillo said the state isn’t trying to hide anything, but the complexities of the budget make it difficult for most people to understand. Esquivel’s interest was piqued when he tried to find out all the revenue sources that together make up the education budget, which includes money from the general fund, federal dollars, property taxes, the lottery, grants and local sources. When he first went to Salem as a freshman representative last January, Esquivel said he received information that the total budget was $8.1 billion. But he later discovered it was more than $9 billion, and now believes it could be even higher. Part of the $900 million discrepancy turned out to be reserves schools had kept aside as a budgetary cushion. "It was about $550 million that they had rat-holed," he said. The remaining $350 million, he said, still hasn’t been explained. Esquivel said he unsuccessfully attempted to get a breakdown of revenues from each school district in the state to uncover the explanation for the extra revenues and to paint a clearer picture of the overall budget. But most didn’t respond. "Fifty percent of schools tell you to go kiss a pig and won’t give you that information," he said. However, from those that did respond, he said the budget number varied greatly from those presented by the Department of Education. Castillo agreed with Esquivel that some districts overreacted to recent downturns in funding by building up their reserves beyond a reasonable level at the end of the 2003-04 budget cycle. However, many of these districts already have dipped into these reserves during the current budget period, she said. She said the Department of Education will continue to work with Esquivel to find an explanation for the other $350 million. "We’ll try to run that down for him," she said. Jan McComb, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said the revenues presented to Esquivel don’t include gate receipts from games, foundation grants and other money. "He wanted all money from all sources," she said. "It seemed like a perfectly legitimate request." She said there are other budget reports prepared by the schools that include these numbers, but they are prepared for review by accountants and may be difficult for the general public to understand. Since Measure 5 passed in the 1990s, the Department of Education has been so focused on state money that it has provided only a cursory view of federal dollars and other sources of income, McComb said. Before Measure 5, 70 percent of a school’s revenue came from local sources, compared with about 30 percent today. McComb said the Department of Education is looking at creating budget reports that do itemize every revenue source, but she said it would require more cooperation from the districts. Esquivel said he will continue to press for more information, particularly an accounting of all money sources for schools. "Once I bring it to light, I will blow the lid off it," he said. Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail Esquivel: It doesn�t add up ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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