Opinion: Cuts at Salem-Keizer schools reflect a looming financial crisis for districts statewide (2024)

Editor’s note: This op-ed is the third in a series of commentary pieces The Oregonian/OregonLive will publish this year offering different perspectives on education funding in Oregon. Readers can find previous op-eds at https://www.oregonlive.com/topic/oregon-education-funding/

Andrea Castañeda, Tyler Scialo-Lakeberg and Edie Buchanan

Castañeda is superintendent of Salem-Keizer Public Schools. Scialo-Lakeberg is president of Salem Keizer Education Association. Buchanan is president of Salem Keizer Education Support Professionals.

Over the last year, Oregonians watched tension between school districts and unions spill out into communities over contract bargaining. The intensity ofnegotiations may suggest that districts and unions are fundamentally and irreconcilably at odds with one another. We – leaders of Salem-Keizer Public Schools, Salem Keizer Education Association and the Association of Salem Keizer Education Support Professionals – offer this op-ed as proof to the contrary.

We come together as a group to share three important points with all Oregonians.

First, working in schools is dramatically more complex and difficult than ever before. Our communities are suffering– we only need to walk our city streets, talk to our neighbors and watch the news to see the evidence. It is unavoidably true that when our community is suffering, our students are suffering. And when students are suffering, public schools often are expected to provide the solution. We do far more than educate Oregon’s students. We provide two meals per day, basic health care, crisis management, mental health services and so much more. The ever-increasing demands placed on schools and educators are taking a toll, but our educators keep showing up every day, regardless of the conditions.

Second, our staff are committed professionals who are passionate about the work they do. Students are in school seven hours per day, but our staff routinely work 10 or more hours per day to keep up with ever-expanding needs. Working in schools needs to be fulfilling and sustainable, but our public schools are increasingly dependent on employees performing acts of heroism on a routine basis. This heroism currently takes many forms: teachers who shuttle students’ laundered clothes to school, instructional assistants who drive families to the emergency room, and principals who quietly help staff get through personal and financial emergencies. Heroism inspires love and loyalty, but it cannot be a job requirement.

Third, Salem-Keizer Public Schools is serving as an alarm bell for Oregon’s public schools and the 550,000 students we collectively serve in districts across the state. Our district is making $70 million in budget adjustments and reductions for the 2024-2025 school year. These reductions include the elimination of almost 400 positions at every level of the system. In other words, at the very time that we need improved conditions for teaching and learning, Salem-Keizer will face fewer adults, larger class sizes and less support for teaching and learning.

Oregon schools are sliding into a financial crisis caused by inadequate state funding. In the last few months, almost a dozen school districts have announced reductions and many more are predicting deeper cuts next year. We offer one glaring example: in 2023, the state estimated that personnel costs in school district would increase by 5.45% during the two years of the biennium. Our actual increases are over 14%. This grave expense forecasting error left Salem-Keizer and school districts throughout Oregon underfunded and with no choice but to make reductions or begin tapping reserve funding to simply make it through this year and the next.

We must have meaningful change in the state funding for public education in the 2025-2027 biennium. Without it, districts across Oregon will follow in Salem-Keizer’s painful footprints of reduction and loss.

Salem-Keizer Public Schools, Salem-Keizer Education Association and the Association of Salem-Keizer Education Support Professionals stand together as educators in our commitment to faithfully serve our students and stand together in joint advocacy for our district, our state and every one of our students. We may have areas of disagreement, but today, our shared values and beliefs are more powerful than our differences. We partner to advocate for change and to prioritize the needs of students, staff and our community.