Senate Bill 1552 carries current needs and future dreams

Published: February 26, 2024

OSBA Legislative Services Director Lori Sattenspiel testified Thursday before the Senate Education Committee and Chair Sen. Michael Dembrow (left) on a school bus emissions standard in a bill about stop-arm cameras, an example of the short session's cobbled-together bills. (Photo by Jake Arnold, OSBA)

A short session is a chance to queue up issues for the long session the following year and to make quick fixes to laws that aren't working as intended. But legislators are sharply limited in the number of bills they can put forth.

"That's one of the reasons we see so many Frankenstein-type bills in a short session," said Sen. Michael Dembrow during a Thursday Senate Education Committee hearing.

With few vessels and so much to be done, several education bills this session stitch together multiple policy initiatives. Unlike the monster of Mary Shelley's book, though, these bills are often welcome, putting education advocates many requests into one package.

Senate Bill 1552 is among the most significant of these bills, proposing crucial immediate changes as well as long-lasting education funding scrutiny. OSBA staff are watching it closely and participating actively in amendment discussions.

Dembrow, education committee chair and a long-time public schools champion, is in his final session before retiring. SB 1552, a committee bill he has helped shape, is one of his last chances to steer education policy.

SB 1552 packs 19 distinct policy directives into 52 sections that include an emergency clause so it will take effect on passage. With so much riding on it, it has a good chance to pass, but its final form is still in doubt.

The bill has already been amended in the Senate Education Committee. SB 1552A could face still more alterations in the Joint Ways and Means Committee, where it is awaiting a hearing, and as it passes through the House.

Most important to OSBA members:

Sections 12-14: After the Portland teachers strike raised questions about districts' budgets, Gov. Tina Kotek called for a review of Oregon's school funding methods. SB 1552 would help get that ball rolling.

The bill would require the legislative policy and research director to study the state's public education funding system and the Quality Education Model, the state's attempt to quantify what a high-quality public education would entail and what it would cost. The director must submit a report to the Legislature by Jan. 25.

The funding review is tasked with identifying disparities in student performance based on funding, establishing baseline costs for an adequate education system, examining special education costs and exploring alternative funding formulas.

The review of the funding system will run parallel with a legislatively established advisory committee examining education accountability. The committee, which includes OSBA Acting Executive Director Emielle Nischik and several school board members, began meeting Friday, Feb. 23.

The QEM review could also have far-reaching repercussions. For more than 20 years, the model has set a school funding bar that the Legislature has never come close to reaching, sometimes to legislators' obvious frustration. Legislators have increasingly questioned the model's validity as aspects of it have grown out of date with changes in the education world.

SB 1552A calls for a major QEM review, looking at the best practices in the model, operating expense estimates, quality indicators and the overall cost calculations.

Section 11: The bill would establish direct admissions for community colleges and public universities. Giving students automatic admission would require creating a method of collecting student data, but it is seen as an added encouragement for students to pursue post-secondary education. It aims to increase opportunities particularly for underserved and first-generation college students.

Sections 35-38:In 2022, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission allowed Chemeketa and Mount Hood community colleges to begin offering selected bachelor's degrees. Lane Community College is working on a degree program as well. The Community College Support Fund formula, though, does not count students in bachelor program courses.

The bill would allow community colleges to receive funding for those students. It also requires a report in 2025 to estimate the funding impact of bachelor programs and recommendations for future funding.

Sections 46-47: Senate Bill 283 (2023), Dembrow's complicated and far-reaching education workforce initiative last session, gave classified school employees additional employment protections, saying they could be fired or disciplined only for "just cause." Unintentionally, it covers management and confidential employees. SB 1552 would clarify that those protections extend only to positions covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Of interest to OSBA and its members

Sections 29-30: House Bill 2395 (2023) inadvertently required medicine to reverse opioid overdoses, such as Naloxone, to be placed in every school. SB 1522A would change the law to make it optional for schools and to identify which schools have the medicine. It would also ensure that school districts and their employees could not be held liable for not supplying the medicine.

Sections 48-49: Senate Bill 283 (2023) inadvertently increased the pay rates for substitute teachers working a half day. The amended bill would revert rates to the previous calculation method.

Sections 1-8: After failed legislative attempts in 2021, 2022 and 2023 to create a Racial Equity and Justice Student Collaborative, this bill would set in motion an Oregon Department of Education Youth Advisory Group. ODE would set up a work group to pick members. The Youth Advisory Group portion of the bill will be the subject of an informational meeting Tuesday in the House Higher Education Committee.

Sections 9-10: The bill would require ODE to create a plan for collecting course-level completion and grade data from school districts. The aim is to have a better understanding of where barriers to high school completion pop up.

Section 45: House Bill 2757 (2023) allowed specialized schools for students recovering from substance abuse. SB 1522 specifies which laws a school district must follow when setting up a recovery school.

Less direct impact on school board governance

Sections 15-19 would transfer control of the Oregon Opportunity Grants to the HECC and prioritize grants for foster children.

Sections 20-27 would change the funding method for students who are incarcerated.

Section 28 would put the HECC in charge of Oregon's Open Educational Resources Program.

Sections 31-32 would broaden the definition of "educator" for the purposes of the Educator Advancement Council.

Sections 33-34 would require a look at providing remedial supports, called corequisite courses, for college students at the same time they are taking required courses.

Section 39 would clarify the rules for part-time faculty health care benefits.

Sections 40-42 call for a forestry workforce study.

Section 43 would exempt the Transfer Council subcommittees from public meetings law.

Section 44 would allow people with criminal records to ask if they will be able to receive an occupational or professional license before starting a program.

Section 50 would update statutes related to the Early Success Reading Initiative.

Dembrow said SB 1552A is as an important bill setting up for the 2025 session, especially the comprehensive look at school funding. He plans to spend the interim between sessions working on education issues, although legislative solutions have been elusive.

"I'll be turning over the even harder work to those who come after," he said.

- Jake Arnold, OSBA
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