C
ongress may have just passed its stopgap budget, but because of that last-minute squabbling, schools in a vast majority of Oregon counties are taking a big hit this year.
Since the turn of the 21st century, rural schools in Oregon have gotten a financial boost from Congress through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. Under that bill, counties that have seen reduced logging and timber revenues on federal forests, due to species protections that went into effect in the late ’90s, have gotten a boost to their school, road, wildfire and conservation budgets to help fill the gaps. Some 30 Oregon counties received $74 million for fiscal year 2023. Going into 2025 — and the remainder of fiscal year 2024 — that amount will reduce to zero, thanks to the budget squabbles in the U.S. House. As many know, the House passed a stopgap spending bill in late December that allowed the government to continue functioning into March. But meanwhile, House Republicans could not agree on how to fund the Rural Schools bill, and it did not get a vote.
“At this point, there will be no payments in 2025 for FY24 unless Congress acts to reauthorize the program retroactively,” Hank Stern, press secretary for Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, wrote in an email to the Source Weekly. Wyden, who’s served Oregon as senator since 1996, was a co-author of the original bill.
“Even if the program is reauthorized, payments could be delayed while payment elections are made and amounts are calculated. Worth noting that even without a missed or delayed payment, the lapse has already likely affected school and county budgeting,” Stern wrote.
The incoming administration, and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, have vowed to cut some $2 trillion from the budget. If this is any indication of what the next four years are going to be like, it spells trouble for students in a state that already struggles with abysmal graduation rates. Oregon saw an 81% on-time graduation rate in 2023, far below the national rate of 87%. And just this week, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education projected Oregon’s number of high school graduates will go down by close to 20% by the year 2041 due to “declining birth rates, flat high school graduation rates and lower enrollment in elementary grades,” according to reporting from OPB. That means a potential workforce shortage — a pain point felt by many throughout the pandemic.
“This sad state of affairs due to congressional Republican failings is pointless and regrettable,” Wyden wrote in a statement to the Source. “But I am committed to working with anybody, anywhere at the start of the new year who’s serious about reauthorizing these vital investments ASAP for rural communities in Oregon and nationwide.”
Rural voters in Oregon have historically voted Republican. Right now, those voters should be leaning on the party that has earned their votes, and that will be in the majority in Congress in the coming session.
As of this writing, two of Oregon’s members of Congress — Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR2) and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR5) — are among the House Republicans who could, and should, be working to secure this critical funding for rural Oregon schools. As of Jan. 3, when a new Congress is sworn in, Chavez-DeRemer will be replaced by Democrat Janelle Bynum, leaving Bentz to be among those to take up the charge for Oregon’s rural schools, and to see this important bill pass the House. If that doesn’t happen and this bill doesn’t pass retroactively this year, it’s going to be a very tough start to 2025 for Oregon’s rural communities.
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 2, 2025.
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Education has never been a Republican focal point.
Sad that Republicans are cutting support to their very large voting bloc districts. But what is interesting is the Oregon Dept of Education provided data on a wide range of demographics in the impeded link in the article, but not an urban/rural breakout. Might turn a few heads if the data shows higher rates of diplomas earned in districts like Crook County as opposed to Bend LaPine or the Portland metro districts.