Senate Bill 1045 has education leaders worried

Published 7:00 am Thursday, April 6, 2023

LA GRANDE — Local control of Oregon school districts is at risk, something a number of local education leaders believe as they eye the progress of Senate Bill 1045.

Senate Bill 1045 would allow the Oregon Department of Education to withhold state funding from school districts if they are out of compliance with state rules and laws.

State Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, believes the bill poses a threat to the power school districts now have to govern themselves.

“This would totally take local control away from school boards, in my opinion,” he said. “I am absolutely opposed to it.”

The senator said SB 1045, which was introduced by Gov. Tina Kotek, would for example not allow school boards to adopt curriculums for their districts unless they had been approved already by the Oregon Department of Education. Hansell said supporters of SB 1045 point out that school districts could still choose curriculums, but he said there is a big catch — they could only select among the state-approved curriculums.

“That is not really a choice,” he said.

Presently, school districts are able to select curriculums the state has not approved if they go through the required channels.

“You can do it as long as you follow the proper process,” said Lance Dixon, superintendent of the North Powder School District.

He noted that his district earlier adopted a math curriculum the state has not approved. Passage of SB 1045 would mean North Powder could no longer use the curriculum, which it paid $80,000 for.

“That is a lot of money for a small school district,” Dixon said.

Cove School District Superintendent Earl Pettit said during the COVID-19 pandemic school districts lost some autonomy when the state took greater control over how schools operate and that trend would continue with the passage of SB 1045.

“There would be more erosion of local control,” he said.

Pettit believes there is a good chance SB 1045 will pass. He said because it was introduced by a Democratic governor into a Legislature controlled by the Democratic Party, it likely will receive a lot of support.

“Unless legislators get pushback in their districts, it could pass,” he said.

Mark Mulvihill, superintendent of the InterMountain Education Service District, also is concerned about the loss of local control SB 1045 could cause.

Mulvihill said representatives of a number of organizations anxious about the bill, including the Oregon School Boards Association, are now meeting with legislators and state officials in an effort to make amendments to SB 1045, which is in the Senate Rules Committee.

Kotek’s education adviser, Melissa Goff, said SB 1045 is an attempt to address the Oregon Department’s “extremely limited action options … when our schools are out of compliance,” according to a Oregon Public Broadcasting story.

Under current state policy, according to OPB, school districts fill out assurance forms pledging they are following state requirements. The education department collects those assurances, but only investigates district practices if someone files a complaint.