Remember when education got a whopping 4% of the federal budget? Well, those days are officially over. The U.S. Department of Education’s budget fell by $73 billion this year, from $268.4 billion in 2024 to $194.7 billion in 2025, bringing the DOE’s spending to a 1.3% trickle. Oregon’s COVID relief funds are also now exhausted, leaving school districts scrambling.
Oregon schools get their money from three main places. As the Oregon Department of Education explains, the state provides about half the funding through the State School Fund. Local property taxes cover around 40% and federal money makes up the remaining 10%. With federal education funding cut nationwide and state funding remaining tight, local districts are feeling the squeeze. The financial impact really became evident in spring 2024 when Bend-La Pine Schools’ levy failed and the Redmond School District cut $4 million from its 2024-25 budget. With the Oregon legislature having finalized the State School Fund and districts finalizing their budgets, here’s what’s changing for Central Oregon schools.
Bend-La Pine Schools: Numbers don’t tell the whole story
Bend-La Pine Schools is getting ready to, “decrease the 2025-26 operating budget by approximately $3 million,” the district’s Director of Communications Scott Maben recently told the Source, because the “State School Fund revenue has come in less than what we were expecting.” Bend-La Pine Schools plans to bring this new operating budget to the school board in September.
Maben explains that this year’s original operating budget was $345.35 million, a 6.1% year-over-year increase for the district’s operating budget. However, this new proposal would lower the budget, making the true year-over-year budget increase 5.2%, says Maben.
“Reductions in funding for any program leads to difficult decisions about cutting services.” —Bend-La Pine Schools
The district’s 144-page adopted budget plan shows the financial pressures behind these changes. Rising personnel costs come from cost-of-living increases and higher Public Employee Retirement System rates. As the plan puts it, because of climbing personnel costs, “we project that we will consume our already limited reserves at a compounding rate every year.”
The district has avoided laying anyone off so far by relying on attrition-based cuts. This method eliminates positions through retirements and turnover. The district is “reducing staffing for 2025-2026 by about 60 positions overall,” says Maben. Certified staff, like teachers and librarians, make up over half of these eliminated positions.
Districts usually staff to their required ratios at first, but when revenue falls short, budget cuts become necessary.
In addition to attrition, Bend-La Pine Schools has found several ways to save money. It has cut back on watering grass, switched from buying iPads to short-term leasing them, and sold some land to Habitat for Humanity.
Redmond School District: Bond funding provides relief
Last year, Redmond voters approved a $97.7 million bond, which will fund projects for the Redmond School District’s 2025-2026 school year. The bond funding timeline spans five years, with the largest expenditures scheduled for 2026 and 2027. Redmond’s enrollment has remained relatively stable compared to other Central Oregon districts (like Bend-La Pine Schools), with a slight increase of 1.2% projected for the upcoming school year. This growth has allowed the district to maintain most existing programs while adding new positions.
The district is adding positions in special education and nutrition services, which will support expanded free meals at Redmond schools. It has also added a position for the dual language enrollment program at Obsidian Middle School. The funding will also go toward building projects, such as the Redmond High School renovation. Budget adjustments are coming due to changing PERS rates and contract negotiations with classified and certified unions.
In addition to local funds, school districts like Redmond’s also rely on state and federal funds. On July 25, the U.S. Department of Education said it would release the federal education funds that had been frozen since July 1.
“This was good news for the district as well as our 2025-26 school year budget,” Redmond School District’s Director of Fiscal Services Kathy Steinert told the Source. Without those federal funds, she explains, the district would have been looking at losing over $400,000 from this year’s budget.
High Desert ESD:
Regional services face cuts
As one of 19 regional education service districts statewide, the High Desert Education Service District serves multiple local school districts including Bend-La Pine, Redmond, Sisters and Crook County. It provides crucial services such as support for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, early childhood special education, speech therapy and migrant education, among many other services. Like Bend-La Pine Schools and Redmond School District, the HDESD receives a mix of funding, including federal Department of Education funding, state funding, contracted services and grants.
“Over the past few years, we’ve experienced a significant increase in federal funding due to pandemic relief grants. With those grants now concluded, we are projecting a decrease in federal revenues for the 2025–26 fiscal year. Specifically, we anticipate a 22% reduction, approximately $1.46M in overall federal grant funding,” explains the HDESD budget summary.
The HDESD recently approved a $90.5 million budget for 2025-2026, a budget that’s 2% smaller than the previous year. Based on a myriad of factors including increasing district costs and decreasing funding, early intervention and special education programs are facing nearly $4 million in cutbacks over the next two years, and administrative and occupational therapy positions are looking at about $400,000 in cutbacks. Budget cuts are forcing leaders at HDESD to rethink its spending while also keeping services running. This includes shortening some contracts, expanding Medicaid billing and looking to prepay facilities costs.
On the staffing side, the district is relying on natural attrition, choosing not to replace employees who quit or retire. According to the informational-budget committee minutes, the district has 18 fewer staff this year than last year. The district has only actually cut one teacher position so far, though it’s also looking at eliminating one administrative role and possibly some occupational therapy positions.
“If the funds are not released soon, this move will force schools to cut educators’ salaries as well as reading and math supports, student services, including summer and after-school programs, and support for migrant students and English learners” —National Education Association
From the outside, this might sound like a painless way to handle budget cuts. But staff and families will feel the changes. Fewer available staff can lead to problems such as larger class sizes, reduced services and increased staff burnout.
Federal government puts programs in detention
On July 19, the Trump administration froze nearly $7 billion in federal education grants, hitting thousands of school programs across the country. Less than a week later, EdSource reported that pushback from educators and lawmakers got the administration to change course and release some of the funds, though there’s no word on when the rest will come through.
“If the funds are not released soon, this move will force schools to cut educators’ salaries as well as reading and math supports, student services, including summer and after-school programs, and support for migrant students and English learners,” posited the National Education Association. “Educators will face layoffs leading to significantly larger class sizes.”
Budget cuts hit particularly hard for Central Oregon families who depend on programs that help migrant students, English learners and other vulnerable kids. The HDESD, which offers targeted support for these families, has received notices that their federal and state funding are in jeopardy. “We are deeply concerned about the uncertainty surrounding federal funding for Oregon’s Migrant Education programs in the upcoming year,” HDESD Communication Strategist Linda Quon told the Source. “Migrant Education provides critical, targeted support to some of our region’s most vulnerable students and families. In addition to Migrant Education, several key federal education programs are also at risk… These programs are essential to Oregon’s efforts to support multilingual learners and migratory students, provide professional development for educators, and expand access to afterschool and summer learning opportunities.”
Steinert, of the Redmond School District, is also concerned. “We remain concerned for the future because specific Title funds have been excluded from the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposed by the Trump administration.” Title programs are federal funding initiatives designed to improve educational opportunities for students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Steinert said that five title programs have been excluded. Title 1-C Migrant Education, which helps all migratory children reach challenging academic standards and graduate with a high school diploma that prepares them for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment. Also at risk are Title II-A grants that improve instruction, Title III-A English Language Acquisition programs offering specialized instruction to English learner students, and Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants that work to improve learning and “provide all students with access to a well-rounded education,” according to the Oregon Department of Education. Also on the chopping block is the Title IV-B 21st Century Learning Centers program, which the ODE says is “the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to the creation of before-school, afterschool, and summer learning programs.”
School budgets await their grades
Constantly changing budgets create problems for families and staff and make it tough to plan. District leaders are regularly pushing for steady, adequate funding to keep services fair and reliable across Oregon.
“We remain concerned for the future because specific Title funds have been excluded from the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposed by the Trump administration.” —Kathy Steinert, Redmond School District
From Bend-La Pine’s cost-cutting moves to Redmond’s approach backed by bond money, to HDESD’s changes to special education services, each district is handling budget limits differently. What they all share is dealing with unpredictable funding while hoping for steady state and federal support down the road.
If funds are eliminated or reduced, the specific programs being funded would have to be reduced or eliminated. Districts can’t support federal programs by repurposing state funds without compromising classroom efforts.
“Reductions in funding for any program leads to difficult decisions about cutting services,” notes the Bend-La Pine Schools Adopted Budget plan. Districts have promised to keep talking with families as they go through these changes and figure out new ways to provide services within their budgets.
This article appears in Source Weekly August 7, 2025.
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There is a significant amount of information to consider here, The situation is undoubtedly complex. However, one thing mentioned are the IPADS. It may be prudent to take a step back and reconsider this foundational decision to bring these devices into our schools without practicing due diligence. .Perhaps the iPads should not be a consideration to e leased at all. In many ways, this initiative has proven to be an experiment gone wrong.
The implementation of these devices has contributed to unintended consequences, including diminished engagement in learning, increased screen addiction, and behavioral challenges. As a result, its worth questioning whether technology in its current form belongs in the classroom at this scale. And I raise the question, what budget number would we be freeing up for programming, special needs services and teachers salaries?
Moving forward, schools should strongly consider banning cell phones entirely and refocusing on traditional educational
practices and encouraging students to read physical books, develop handwriting skills, and most importantly, learn how to think critically and independently.
Agreed- budget issues are a complicated issue to consider. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Now we see why voting matters and having the right people in place who know what is going on.
Agreed!