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- Healthy Kids Plan Picks up Steam
- Education Debuts in the Capitol
- Governor Kulongoski Goes to Washington
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| Healthy Kids Plan Picks up Steam |
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The momentum for the Governor’s Healthy Kids plan, which provide health care for the 117,000 uninsured children in Oregon, continues to grow as it passed out of the House Revenue Committee last week – picking up the support of of Republican Rep. Vicki Berger (Salem). The next step is the Joint Ways & Means Committee and is expected to move onto the House floor in the next couple of weeks.
Other developments this week include a major endorsement by U.S. Senator Gordon Smith, who agreed that this is the right proposal to help Oregon kids and that the tobacco tax is the right way to pay for it. As he told reporters, access to health care for children is “an issue that should unite Republicans and Democrats.”
Also new this week, a coalition of labor, business, health, education and community groups have launched a public campaign to help win passage of the proposal. The coalition called out on Tuesday that the plan’s chief opponent is the tobacco industry, which has spent over $500,000 on lobbying and campaign contributions in Oregon over the past three years. To learn more about the coalition and the campaign to pass Healthy Kids, click here.
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| Education Debuts in the Capitol |
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This week the legislature’s focus turned to education, which includes Head Start, k-12, community colleges, universities, and workforce training. On Monday, thousands of education advocates rallied on the Capitol steps to hear Governor Kulongoski call for a k-12 budget that reduces class sizes, strengthens training for teachers, ensures a full school year and restores art, physical education, and other important programs for students.
The Governor also testified before the Senate Education Committee to urge passage of his program make college affordable for all Oregonians. He pointed out that in the 1970s, a student who worked summers and part-time during the year could pay for tuition, room and board and books. Today, the costs of a college education are so high, a student needs to work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, to cover those same costs, which is impossible for most students.
The Governor closed the week by meeting with hundreds of college students on the Capitol steps, where they rallied for ending the trend of cutting investments in community colleges and four-year universities. If the legislature passes the Governor’s budget, this trend will end.
K-12
The Governor’s 2007-2009 budget starts with an increase of more than $754 million—or 13 percent – over the last biennium. The budget calls for overhauling the state’s corporate minimum income tax, which is currently only $10, to make Head Start available to all eligible three- and four-year-olds. The overhaul will also expand access to higher education and workforce training.
Community Colleges
The Governor’s budget invests $483 million in Oregon’s 17 Community Colleges, an increase of nearly 13 percent over the current biennium—the critical first step toward a stable and sustained investment in this important sector of the state’s education system.
The proposed budget also strengthens capital construction investments begun two years ago, allocating approximately $175 million for 12 construction projects to help upgrade and expand facilities.
Oregon Universities
The Governor’s budget for Oregon’s universities begins to reverse the trend of disinvestment, starting with a 17-percent increase over the current level of funding. The Governor has also included $40.7 million to support campus operations, including increased salaries for faculty, which lag far behind the national average. The budget will improve the faculty-student ratio and meet the demands of enrollment growth.
Making College Affordable for All Oregonians:
On Tuesday, the Governor testified before the Senate Education Committee in support of Senate Bill 334. The bill restructures Oregon Opportunity Grant Program and establishes the “Shared Responsibility Model,” an innovative way to ensure that lack of money never prevents any qualified student from going to college.
The Governor called this bill “the most important legislation I have introduced as Governor.” His budget allocates $32 million from the increase in the corporate minimum income tax to bolster funding for financial aid for students, raising it to $152 million for the 07-09 biennium.
The Shared Responsibility Model enables students, their families and the state to form a partnership that makes college affordable for anyone who has both the interest and the academic qualifications to pursue a higher degree after high school. Under the model, students work part-time during the school year and full-time in the summer to help cover their education costs, while their parents contribute what they can. Students also utilize federal grants and financial aid, and the state helps make up any remaining difference (link to SRM OUS Fact Sheet). Under the model, paying for college becomes a responsibility that students share with their families, the federal government, and the state.
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| Governor Kulongoski Goes to Washington |
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Governor Kulongoski will travel to Washington D.C. this weekend to meet with congressional leaders and governors from across the country. He will visit Oregon’s congressional delegation and other members of Congress to stress the state’s position on several important federal issues.
Payments to Counties
While attending the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, Governor Kulongoski will meet with Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He will tell them how badly Oregon needs an extension of the federal payments to counties, which is the mechanism that compensates rural communities for the revenue they lose because of logging on federal lands.
Last year, these payments amounted to more than $220 million, money that counties used to pay for critical public services, including law enforcement, schools, prisons and libraries. If Congress fails to extend the program, rural counties across Oregon will need to make cuts like those suffered during the recession of the late nineties. Because of his commitment to minimizing such losses, Governor Kulongoski will continue to lobby Congress to live up to its promise to support these communities by extending the federal payments to counties.
Healthy Kids
The Governor will also make the case to Congress that states need a strong federal partner in caring for children’s health under the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Reauthorization of the program will come before Congress this year.
The Governor’s Healthy Kids plan would make an investment to ensure every child in Oregon has access to affordable health care—something that has never occurred before. Reauthorization of the SCHIP program at the current level of funding is critical to helping the Healthy Kids Plan succeed and providing the needed federal matching money to care for Oregon’s 117,000 uninsured kids.
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| Contact Information |
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Governor Kulongoski
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047
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