Oregon school finances have not been in greater jeopardy for decades.

Large Oregon school districts are cutting millions of dollars from their budgets, which translates into significant cuts in personnel and larger class sizes, as state funding has failed to keep pace with inflation and expanding expectations.

The problem isn鈥檛 limited to large school districts. Medium and small districts face the same financial stress. More school districts will face the dual threat of teacher strikes and deep personnel cuts as they enter collective bargaining this year.

The challenge faced by public education runs deeper than budgets. Schools have inherited a new generation of students and, along with them, a new paradigm for education.

Students in K-12 school classrooms today are demonstrably different than their counterparts just 20 years ago (Facebook was founded in 2004). Educating these students requires different teaching methods, updated classrooms and a wider array of support. It also requires a different approach to school funding that recognizes new demands on students, teachers and support staff.

Today鈥檚 students are internet natives, have experience with online learning, depend on school-prepared meals and fear college student debt. Classrooms are impacted by aging infrastructure, overflowing classrooms, lack of connectivity, increasing student diversity, chronic absenteeism and the threat of school shootings. More students face mental health issues, increasing demand for school nurses, counselors and social-emotional teaching techniques.

Teachers, many of whom are parents of school-age children, share the trauma. They are on the front lines of teaching students who need individual instruction. They manage in classrooms that lack adequate heating and cooling. They struggle to keep up to date on digital trends and educational innovation. Burnout is an occupational hazard. Good teachers leave because they earn more in other occupations.

Funding schools based on enrollment doesn鈥檛 capture the complexity of educating and preparing today鈥檚 K-12 students in the face of rapidly changing job markets. Head counts don鈥檛 capture the dimensions of pandemic learning loss, unequal digital resources, special education needs and emotional stress that are the everyday stuff of today鈥檚 K-12 classrooms.

Declining public school enrollments, resulting from low birth rates and flight to private schools by those who can afford it have resulted in funding reductions and will force closure of neighborhood schools, as parents in Seattle Public Schools are discovering.

We must find the right school funding formula. The one we have doesn鈥檛 work anymore because it doesn鈥檛 reflect demands schools are expected to meet every day and the individualized education students deserve.

Oregon lawmakers have tried to reconcile funding with emerging educational needs. But the result has been a hodgepodge of grants and directed spending that has been tacked on to a school funding formula designed to ensure equity among school districts after passage of major property tax limitations in the 1990s.

Finger-pointing is unproductive. We need an informed effort to rethink how schools are funded in light of current-day expectations. Just as important, we need to see school funding reform as critical to restoring public and parental trust in our schools.

There is no time to waste. The 2025 Oregon Legislature reconvenes in six months.

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When I asked subscribers to my how they felt about the law, which is scheduled to take full effect in 2028, the results were mixed.

Some parents were for it:

Min San: In a small class, teachers can hone in on those who need attention as well as those who need enrichment. I don’t pretend to know the budget and political maneuvering necessary to accomplish this.

Jordan Feigenbaum, member of Community Education Council 13: I鈥檝e seen first-hand the better learning, higher engagement and happier and more well-adjusted kids that occur in classes with fewer students, and conversely the opposite happen in 30+ kid rooms.

Some parents were against it:

Yiatin Chu: Many schools in NYC already have small class sizes. I know that to be true in District 1 where I served as a CEC member. Declining enrollment in the district has made class sizes quite small. Academic outcomes are not better. I’d like to see even a cursory analysis to show that small class size has delivered on the promise of a better education for those students. 

Jean Hahn, co-founder, : The idea that almost every single school in an overcrowded school district such as District 28 would have to reduce their enrollment by 20-30% while losing G&T, honors, AP classes and special ed services makes no sense at all.

But it wasn鈥檛 until Leonie Haimson, director of , put out the call that I heard from some 20 teachers in a span of 24 hours. All of them supported the class size law. 

They argued that large classes made their jobs more stressful, especially post-pandemic.

鈥淪ince COVID, my students are more behind than I ever expected,鈥� confessed West Bronx Academy鈥檚 Meg Stewart. 鈥�Their behaviors, skill levels, maturity, retention levels and attention spans are akin to a middle schooler.鈥�

Numerous teachers asserted that the stress of instructing students at different levels was driving many to .

鈥淭he city is having a hard time holding onto experienced teachers,鈥� Gilly Nadel confirmed, 鈥渁nd large classes are part of the problem.鈥�

Even parents against the class size law, like Natalya Murakhver of , agreed that 鈥渨hat we need are more quality schools that retain talented, senior teachers.鈥� 

I, too, have long been a proponent of teachers as absolutely the most important aspect of education. Under this law, NYC will need to hire . 

Where will they come from? 

, when then-Mayor Bill deBlasio announced universal pre-K, promising a teacher with a master’s degree in early childhood education in every classroom to serve the 70,000 students who鈥檇 be enrolling, I turned to my husband (a teacher), and asked: Are there thousands of unemployed wandering NYC with a master’s in early childhood education?

. NYC made do by hiring college graduates with any bachelor鈥檚 degree, giving them six weeks of training and tossing them into the classroom.

Imagine that problem magnified throughout elementary, middle and high school, where subject mastery becomes more and more important.

鈥�My Bronx school has a hard time hiring science, math, special ed and language instructors,鈥� admitted art teacher Jake Jacobs. 鈥淎s a result, we typically have many first-year teachers (including [Teach for America] or Teaching Fellows, whose training is fast-tracked).鈥�

Chu worried that, 鈥淲e already have a teacher shortage. I really don’t know how they will even find the teachers to hire for this mandate. I have grave concerns about lowering the standards for teacher certification.鈥�

Mom Laraine Deangelis, who supports the law, nevertheless wondered, 鈥淚 saw research that suggested lowering class size is only effective when the teacher is experienced. The research did not define experienced.鈥�

While others parse details of , I am most concerned about teachers: Who will they be? What kind of training will they receive? Will the least experienced be sent to schools facing the greatest challenges, as experienced teachers are hired away by wealthier, higher-performing schools? 

I worry that a mass influx of unprepared instructors into the neediest classrooms will ultimately nullify any potential small class-size gains.