"Please vote for a new regional income tax for schools."

Jack, I hope you're kidding.

If not, how can you justify squandering more tax dollars on such a bloated and wasteful system?

That's what I expect them to say, not me. I may vote for it (we'll blog about that prospect when we get to it), but I wouldn't go out and advocate for it.

The people who often complain about a "bloated and wasteful [school] system" tend to be the same ones who continually vote for folks who love handing out no-bid contracts to the Halliburtons and KBRs of the world.

Funny, that.

We need more thinking like this in the United States:

http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/2004/april/default.htm

I will advocate for it. No school system can endure a 20% cut in budget. If you think the teachers union needs to be reined in, or that the administrative costs are a problem, or have other *real* solutions, then voice your concerns and by all means run for the school board.

But to penalize a generation of children and put our city at risk to make a political point about your low tax philosophy is shortsighted and foolish.

If you are a real supporter of schools, you simply must vote for the regional tax. If you don't want Portland to become a yuppie paradise, this tax is vital. Otherwise, incipient middle class flight from the area will turn into a flood.

By the way, Chris, our "bloated" system currently:

- has no sports in middle schools
- has class sizes exceeding 40 in middle schools
- has PE one or two days / week at most
- has almost no arts and music left

There is not much left to cut.

But to penalize a generation of children and put our city at risk to make a political point about your low tax philosophy is shortsighted and foolish.

Well said. And 100% correct.

Pay no attention to that hand rooting around in your hip pocket.

So that's what the PPS gets for it's $1.2-million marketing budget.

I'd be willing to send out their emails for half of that amount.

"No school system can endure a 20% cut in budget."

Yes they can, businesses do it all the time.

Here's some suggestions:
-Completely repeal CIM/CAM.
-Freeze all performing teacher's & administrator's wages and bennies. Reduce underperforming T&A (snicker) wages and bennies.
-Cut administrative staff 25% if not more.
-Drop ESL classes.
-Drop "feel good" diversity mandates.
-Expel consistently problematic children
-Concentrate curriculum on the basics, bag the fluff.
-Allow charter and private schools to run and fund expansion projects and or existing schools.

"-Allow charter and private schools to run and fund expansion projects and or existing schools."

But Chris, with all that rampant quality available elsewhere - how is the NEA going to maintain it's union stranglehold on things?

If you are a real supporter of schools, you simply must vote for the regional tax...

Must? A moral imperative? I'd say "maybe"...but we need a discussion of how PPS spends money, and how it will use those revenues. A FULL budget discussion, not just the General Fund.

If you don't want Portland to become a yuppie paradise

Is there something WRONG with Young Urban Professionals that you are so derisive and dismissive of them? Isn't the "Creative Class" folks we're hoping to recruit and nurture here?

incipient middle class flight from the area will turn into a flood...By the way, Chris, our "bloated" system currently:- has no sports in middle schools

That's hysterical nonsense. My stepson plays basketball at Hosford Middle School.

There is not much left to cut.

Every budget has much to cut. It may be painful and it may be wrong, but an open discussion of budget priorities and spending will show people how much PPS students are being shortchanged, and how and why. Which has to start with an acknowledgement of the slugs in Salem...

Of course Katz & Klowns gave away $60 million EVERY YEAR in all those urban renewal districts. And it will continue for years to come.

$60 million is the amount of property tax ACTUALLY BEING PAID, but kept in the urban renewal districts EVERY year. Lets all give Katz, Sten, Hales, Saltzman and ??? a big round of applause for screwing the schools, police and fire while they built all their pet projects. (I thought we elected them to run the city not rebuild it into some planner’s wet dream of utopia.)

Oh, by the way, there is another $20-30 million in abated (forgiven) property tax to encourage various development around town, including high density in your neighborhood. Thanks again Katz & Klowns. (See SavePortland.com for a list of tax exemptions in Multnomah county.)

Of course we got the Pearl district, the SoWhat and toy trains mucking up traffic all over town. Wonderful. Just keep repeating: Portland is one of the nations most livable cities.

The only ray of hope that I have seen is the rejection of the tax abatement for the Alexan.(Genuine thanks Bog, Randy, Sam & Dan for a job well)

Next they need to
1. Cancel the two planned light rail lines that will take more local tax money to build.
2. Zero out the planning department.
3. Get rid of PDC.
4. Figure out how to make the tax freeloaders in the million dollar Pearl condos pay, instead of increasing everyone’s tax.
5. Cut off ALL FURTHER urban renewal district projects.
6. Sell off all the PDC property at real market value, not $1.(I think there is a couple hundred million here)
7. Sell off all of those housing department buildings to private landlords.
8. Quit building subsidized housing for people making MEDIAN AREA INCOME.
(I bet this list could go on for pages and pages)

Save the schools, not the Goldschmit/Katz/Hales urban renewal, tax abatements and toy trains.

Thanks
JK

I agree with Jim Karlock. Too much property tax money is being diverted from schools and services.... way too much. And remember, a full third or more of your city property tax is going to the Police and Fire Pension and Disability. They itemized it on the last tax bill. I don't think the Clackamas and Washington county voters are going to buy into the regional tax idea.

I drive by Tigard HS on Durham Rd. every weekend. It's a nice facility with well maintained grounds. There appear to be activities going on there every weekend. Maybe someone who lives there can enlighten me, but it looks like they are doing very well. I also heard today that all of Lake Oswego's schools were rated "excellent" by the state in the recent grading. Why would the voters in these areas want to help buoy up the Portland Public Schools?

I suspect when it finally hits the ballot what we will see will be an extension of the Mult I-Tax.

Boy...people DO read Bog's Blog.

Mea culpa. (Which means I may have misled). More than one person has jumped me for suggesting my step-son Parker plays basketball at Hosford on PPS's nickel. That wasn't my point. He plays in their gym, with a "volunteer" teacher as his coach, in a program organized by Portland Parks and Recreation. It costs us $50 or something like that (not to mention all the basketballs I keep buying that disappear).

No...PPS does NOT supply a PE teacher. But if you ask Parker, or his team-mates, they are Hosford's team. I took exception to the idea this somehow doesn't "count." Their "school team" means something to them.

If you want to reduce class size and increase the amount of money available per student, get rid of illegal aliens. Protect our borders and deport the illegals.
Then we can talk about the bloated administration and criminal PERS.
Imagine if the parents of all these students were tax paying Americans that spent their money here and didn’t escape taxes and send a majority of their income to mexico.
What about the Children? You say. I am only thinking of the children. The reduced class size and every thing taught in English only. Language classes should be offered as a second language only and as an elective. We are in America people! English is spoken here. Protect your children by demanding that only English is spoken in the class room and NOTHING is reprinted in a second language.

If a regional income tax were accepted by the voters, how long would it take before the Legislature cut state support to make up for the local tax? If there weren't a Portland guy in the governor's seat, that could have happened with the Multnomah County income tax.

Didn't I read somewhere that the PPS student population is shrinking? If true, that trend might escalate as folks move their kids out to the good districts in the burbs.

I live close in NE portland. I'm to the point that I don't want to pay anymore for the "schools." Where is all the money going that local gov't can't afford to keep the schools afloat? Every election cycle there is seems to be an education "crisis." What the hell are they squandering the money on?

All that I expect from my local gov't are good schools and reasonable public safety. The other stuff is ancillary.

The schools are perpetually in financial crisis and we can't afford to keep offenders in jail. At some point the convenience of living close to work downtown won't be worth the price. How many more times does our home have to be burglarized or my taxes raised before we pull the plug? We are getting close...

Open Question to McMullen, Sam, Jay, Scott-in-Japan, and Nick:

Do you have children that currently attend PPS? I am curious if you are speaking from experience or if you are simply offering a knee-jerk support of a policy concept.

I am not being sarcastic or flippant. I just think I am either being a sucker or you have no real concept of the consequences of the current fiscal policy on families in the district.

I have kids in two different schools in PPS and I am sick of my kids coming to me hocking goods to fundraise for their school. I receive a supplies list only to learn that instead of it being personal property of my child, it gets dumped into a heap in the classroom for all kids (which has been resolved). I also dedicate my time to landscape and clean the school grounds because there are "no funds" for simple maintenance during the summer. My daughter is in a much larger class because they closed the other elementary school this summer. The middle school implemented $100 fee for outdoor school (which we pay because we have money but there are more school fundraisers to pay for indigent students), we pay for elective programs, we pay for recreational programs. We pay for each field trip. We pay for TAG programs if we so choose to participate. We pay and pay and pay out of our pocket and pay and pay and pay with our time.

So, where the hell is this bloated budget going? I really would like to know. Seriously, send me a link or something.

If you do have kids that go to the schools in PPS, what is your personal strategy? Do your kids not go on field trips, do electives, play after school sports, bring supplies, et cetera? Do you not donate time and energy to better the school because of "budget cuts?"

I seriously am beginning to think a lot of people with means are getting a free ride off of my stupidity and gullibility. I used to think I was being conscientious. Perhaps I should say “no more” to my kids becoming aggressive tax assessors for a bloated system.

T Rex: Your frustration is clouding your anger - you're getting your targets confused. Which is understandable. But you need to know that being a parent has NOTHING to do with outrage at over-paying for our school district.

On the plus side, you did ask THE relevant question:
Q: "So, where the hell is this bloated budget going?"
A1: Retirement (23% of budget this year, 28% next year).
A2: $1.2-million in Marketing & Advertising for the school district. The district has ZERO need for this.
A3: Too much to list. Listen to Lars Larson, he can cover the exhaustive list faster than I can type.

Potter fumed over $1 million

Then, in his anger he decided to hand over $1.4 million.

New school in North Portland gets green light
New Columbia
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1129115149147840.xml&coll=7

,,"city showed some reluctance to hand over $1 million to help pay for the school"

"Potter fumed last week at what he called an "assumption" that the city would simply hand over the money"

"the city will pay a total of $1.4 million"
Towards a $17.5 million school project which could have been built for NOTHING by a charter school company. (no mention of this option)

Now the district will pay out $8.8 million towards the school with money it has to borrow.

"The financing requires that the district pay the last three years' interest on the loan from the operating fund."

Must be coming from all the extra operating money they have. Right?

The PPS did not even consider a charter school for New Columbia.
I guess they figured they weren't that hard up for one.

Scott, which target are you referring to?

Myself for encouraging the district to budget for programs it can't pay for by feeding the beast most times when a new fundraiser comes home? Or taxpayers whose reflex to any tax discussion is to first stab at educational budgets as the sacrificial virgin to punish city mismanagement?

I suggest that targeting educational budgets has the same effect as embargos..it punishes the wrong class of people. Solve fiscal malfeasance by committing to an all out offensive and quit dropping highlight reel bombs on soft targets.

As for "being a parent has NOTHING to do with outrage at over-paying for our school district," we'll have to agree to disagree.

I otherwise enjoy your posts, BTW.

"Too much property tax money is being diverted away from schools"

Since Measure 5, state income taxes provide the main source of funding for schools, not property taxes. And Jack is correct, the Legislature would have liked to have undercut our state funding after Multnomah County passed the I-tax. We must be very careful that anything we do to help our local schools doesn't result in even more of our income and property tax money going to the rest of the state... while remembering it was voters here who passed Measure 5, which authorized those payments out.

"we can talk about the bloated administration"

Only 4% of the Portland Public Schools district's budget goes to administration.

Amanda Fritz at October 12, 2005 11:15 PM:
Only 4% of the Portland Public Schools district's budget goes to administration.
JK:
Hi, Amanda, where did you get that number?
I looked in Multnomah County's T.S.C.C report report and found this on page 156:
Administration $87,122,373
TOTAL REQUIREMENTS $577,609,062
Doing the division, 87 is 15% OF 577. This report appears to put admin at 15%

On Page 155, I found this little gem:
Number of Employees (FTE’s) 4,897
Average Daily Enrollment - ADMr 44,138

Doing this division, they have 9.01 students per employee. To the extent that the student-teacher ratio is higher than this, I presume it is because these employees are not teaching.

http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/orgs/tscc/graphics/04-05annualreport.pdf

Thanks
JK

The 4% number is in Vicki Phillips' speech to the City Club 9/16/05

www.pps.k12.or.us/news-c/09_16_05_City_Club.pdf

I heard it in a citizen's presentation during Wilson High School's Back To School night.

T Rex:

My kids go to BPS (Beaverton Public Schools) and I get the same fundraising literature from them (as well as a steady diet of diversity and tolerance literature). Beaverton is in the same predicament as Portland; BPS is the second largest school district in the state and growing rapidly.

We have to pay a lot out of pocket for extra-curricular activities as well. Now, BPS is pushing for a $200 Million bond levy to build more schools. BPS is not going to get on board with this proposed regional income tax.

That being said, my youngest is going to a private preschool right now, and I have to say he's doing swimmingly. He's way ahead of my other kids when they were that age.

It's frustrating that Public Schools refuse to at least look at how private and charter schools are run. My school board rep takes a very offensive tone whenever I bring this idea up to her.

It's obvious to me the unions have a stranglehold on public schools nationwide.

Jim writes>>>Administration $87,122,373
TOTAL REQUIREMENTS $577,609,062
Doing the division, 87 is 15% OF 577. This report appears to put admin at 15%

Jim, the discrepancy is undoubtably caused by what one labels "administration." The lower percentage cited by Amanda is most likely the central admin figure, the higher % you quote most likely includes all hands-on school admin as well. Surely you don't want to cut principals and such in pursuit of less "bloated" admin?

(I remember when the school's on-site secretarial staff were cut -- that was when my 18 year old was in elementary school... That's when kids started answering the phones at their schools.)

This has been going on for a long time. It is depressing, and the endless resort to short-term solutions has been a long-term strategy error -- as it's drained the good will of citizens, much the same way the endless nickel-and-diming of parents has drained their good will. However, back when the problem first started there was a strong belief that a permanent fix was just an election away. Pretty naive, it turned out, but no evil was intended.

I do agree with both my hubby and Jack that it's time for all cards on the table in the name of fiscal openness. But in return folks who wish to be taken seriously discussing these critical issues need to put more work into their personal education on the subject than just listening to Lars Larson. Sheesh.

Thanks Chris. Tops.

Hey Jack,

Heard you on KXL news on this topic this AM.

Anne, judging by the amount of administrative staff in my son's middle school, I'd say it's bloated.

There's one principal, two VPs, three councilors, a social worker and a psychologist. That's not including the secretarial staff, nurse, maintenance staff and volunteer staff (which doesn't count, but hey, they don't get paid). Granted they have 900 students, but I still think it's overkill.

Conversely, I went to a K–8 in the 70's with 350 students. We had one principal and one secretary.

Let teachers (and other public employees) opt out of PERS.

That single change would be sufficient to fix PERS in the near term.

And, it would enhance the chances of successfully demanding that the PPS and CoP pension obligation bond proceeds be returned to the local general fund budgets and thus obviate the need for the planned regional tax. An accountant knows that the bond proceeds are fully fungible with other resources, notwithstanding the little tweak in the statutes to keep them off-budget. Heck, the tweak was designed to deceive. There is a facial conflict such that we don't need some particular fact situation to reveal the absurdity.

If a teacher does not have the option to opt out of PERS how could they possibly have a contract claim?

It is all transparent to the lawyers who have specialized in the field, but they are already loaded up with clients.

jim karlock - Nice info, thanks.

Anne Dufay - Even in *MY* school days the PPS was VERY seriously overdone with useless staff. And we didn't have psychologists. But we could afford folks to mow the grass int he summer, go figure.

Chris mcmullen - Amen, brother. I mean, hiring a real man as Principal at a school would solve 90% of the problems at a school, which all the goofball women-with-degrees are there to "address". At the risk of sounding obvious - quit coddling the kids and get them to move on.

Vicki Philips - Sheesh. Psychologists for kids?! Good grief. Have the Dad talk kids through it and let them grow up.

Ron Ledbury - "Opt our of PERS"?! No union hack would do that, get real. Seriously, the whole point of joining a union is to sponge off the working folks in lieu of having capability in the free market
(^_^)

T Rex - See my email.

My god. Things really are bad here if these foolish replies represent the informed blogosphere.

Chris calls this staff bloated for *900* students There's one principal, two VPs, three councilors, a social worker and a psychologist. That's not including the secretarial staff, nurse, maintenance staff

I mean, holy crap Chris! 300 students per counselor? Three hundred students per administrator (principal and two vices). ONE social worker for NINE FRIGGIN HUNDRED STUDENTS! And you think that is administrative overkill??

Schoop and T Rex and Pat don't seem to realize that property taxes don't pay for public education in Oregon. And that cutting condo abatements won't put a dime into the schools. Get a clue, folks!

Chris and Nick say Ah Ha! It's the illegals and ESL! Right! Well ESL is a FEDERAL MANDATE boys. Can't just cut it. And besides, much as you seem to hate the wetbacks (except when they pick your fruit and vegetables), they ain't in Portland. Another myth.

Ron L. harps on PERS. Ron, this is great. But how does cutting funding 20% next year fix PERS? You have good posts on this Ron, so run for PPS Board on a platform of fixing PERS. But if you cut the budget next year you know darn well PERS won't get cut. It's contractually mandated. Instead, class sizes will crest past 50, more programs will get cut, and the middle and lower classes in Portland will get shafted.

Paul writes Schoop and T Rex and Pat don't seem to realize that property taxes don't pay for public education in Oregon. And that cutting condo abatements won't put a dime into the schools. Get a clue, folks!

Paul...pay attention. Local Option Levy. Look it up.

"(Washington County's property tax statements) being sent out will total $610.4 million, nearly half for education." (Oregonian 10/14/05)

What Frank said seems right if you look at acutal tax bills. The ones I looked at from Gresham, Portland and Clackamas all adjusted for a $200,000 house.

TOTAL Education mill rates from actual tax bills including Bonds

Clackamas
$1,120
65% of taxes paid
City of Portland
$1,521.63
37%
City of Gresham
$2,290.43
56%

The big elephant in the living room for Portland is as is so often pointed out in this blog is cost of urban renewal and deferred tax base. Suburban schools need to make sure they don't end up subsidizing PDC.

How is it possible that someone can be so out to lunch?
Paul wrote,
""""Schoop and T Rex and Pat don't seem to realize that property taxes don't pay for public education in Oregon. And that cutting condo abatements won't put a dime into the schools. Get a clue, folks!"""""

And HE advises us to "Get a clue"?

Paul must then also think our schools are run with only the $5300.00 or so share the State distributes.

Gee I wonder how Portland crosses the $12,000.00 per student spending then.

Paul, You seriously need more homework.

With school funding, and urban renewal and developer "incentive" programs.

The city diverts millions upon millions of basic services dollars every year.

Scott, Could the current unions keep every single union and non-union member of PERS from asserting an individual right to opt out? No way.

Paul, PPS has, in excess of their lawful authority, pledged to pay more money than was in their budget. But hey, the DA is game.

Paul's rather puerile post included this:

"I mean, holy crap Chris! 300 students per counselor? Three hundred students per administrator (principal and two vices). ONE social worker for NINE FRIGGIN HUNDRED STUDENTS! And you think that is administrative overkill??"

Paul, you conveniently left out the the three councilors, the social worker and the secretarial staff.

You also obviously missed the last of my post mentioning that my school had 350 students with one principal and one secretary.

Moreover, you'd be taken much more seriously if you avoided playing the race card.

Ron - PERS needs enrollees to survive, the politicians will make sure folks aren't given a chance to opt out.

But back to my point: NO ONE will voluntarily opt out. PERS promises an amount of money that no other retirement plan can (or should) sustain. PERS may bankrupt the state, but the retirees would be stupid to pass it up.

Scott, chat with non-tier-one members. Imagine the red in their eyes as they witnessed the jubilation of tier-one folks after Strunk was announced. Read pdxape.us -- I formed my own union didn't you know? It just takes one to assert a violation of a liberty interest; followed by a flood.

Chris,

I was not the one who blamed school expenditures on out of control ESL expenditures for illegals. That isn't playing a race card (besides being factually wrong)?

Here are your exact words: Anne, judging by the amount of administrative staff in my son's middle school, I'd say it's bloated.

There's one principal, two VPs, three councilors, a social worker and a psychologist. That's not including the secretarial staff, nurse, maintenance staff and volunteer staff (which doesn't count, but hey, they don't get paid). Granted they have 900 students, but I still think it's overkill.

So how did I misrepresent your post?

900 students/3 counselors=300 per counselor. 900/1 psychologist=900 student per psychologist. Pretty simple math. Exactly what I posted.

No, Chris, I did not respond to your comment about the halcyon days of yore. I suppose you walked 10 miles through the snow to school also.

I don't know what school you went to, in what state, with what income distribution. And yes, we did do things differently 30 years ago. The world changes.