The past week has been a flurry of activity on the education front. Fourteen bills were part of a bipartisan package that included a wide variety of changes, from the Governor's new birth-to-college education panel to Republican-led school choice issues. We thought it would be helpful to provide a quick list of all of the bills and what they are supposed to do. Chalkboard advocated specifically for one bill that ended up being a part of the package--SB 252 which builds on the success of the CLASS Project.
Outside of the package, Chalkboard also worked with OBA, Stand for Children, COSA and OEA to pass SB 290. This bill will lead Oregon to adopt educator performance standards that will be incorporated into educator evaluation systems across the state and include multiple measures of student learning.
SB 248 - Requires school districts to offer full-day kindergarten by 2015.
SB 250 - Allows school districts to opt out of regional Education Service Districts.
SB 252 - Establishes the School District Collaboration Grant Program, which will support teacher-led efforts to design and implement reforms. This provides state funding directly to districts to build on the success of programs like the CLASS Project.
SB 253 - Establishes the 40/40/20 goal-40% of Oregonians will have bachelor's degrees or more by 2025, 40% will have some post-secondary education, and 20% will have a high school diploma or its equivalent.
SB 453 - Allows more schools to be classified as "remote small elementary schools," which would increase their state funding.
SB 552 - Designates the Governor as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who will appoint a Deputy to run the Department of Education. This ends the Superintendent as an elected position after Susan Castillo's term runs out in January 2015.
SB 909 - The Governor's flagship bill, this establishes the Oregon Education Investment Board as one streamlined organization, led by the Governor, to oversee public education from birth through post-secondary schooling. Signed by the Governor on June 28.
HB 2301 - Raises the enrollment caps on virtual charter schools and allows students to attend these online schools with consent of their home district.
HB 3362 - Grants to fund improved career and technical education in middle and high schools.
HB 3417 - Makes changes to the financial management of charter schools and requires that charter school students are counted separately from others in school districts.
HB 3474 - Creates the Educator Preparation Improvement Fund to improve teacher and administrator preparation.
HB 3645 - Allows public universities and community colleges to sponsor nearby charter schools.
HB 3681 - Allows students to enroll in schools outside their district.
HB 5055 - Adds $25 million from a reserve fund to the already approved $5.7 billion K-12 public schools budget; also includes $5 million to fund the School District Collaboration Grant (SB 252).
