SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

January 23, 2003 Hearing Room C

3:00 P.M. Tapes 3-4

MEMBERS PRESENT: Sen. Charles Starr, Chair

Sen. Ryan Deckert, Vice-Chair

Sen. Ted Ferrioli

Sen. Bill Morrisette

STAFF PRESENT: Jan McComb, Committee Administrator

Heather Gravelle, Committee Assistant

MEASURE/ISSUES HEARD: Informational Meeting

Department of Education

American Federation of Teachers

Oregon Education Association

Oregon School Employees Association

Oregon School Boards Association

Confederation of Oregon School Administrators

These minutes are in compliance with Senate and House Rules. Only text enclosed in quotation marks reports a speaker’s exact words. For complete contents, please refer to the tapes.

TAPE/#	Speaker	Comments
TAPE 3, A
005	Chair Starr	Calls meeting to order at 3:10 p.m. Opens informational meeting.
INFORMATIONAL MEETING
010	Bob Seaward	Oregon Department of Education. States his responsibilities include implementing Reading First project. Provides written testimony (EXHIBIT A).
020	Maradale Dunsworth	Oregon’s Reading First. Summarizes the Reading First project. Explains how funds are being utilized.
165	Sen. Morrisettee	Expresses concern regarding the 15 percent of students who may be left behind.
180	Seaward	Responds that some of the 15 percent will approve their skills. They will be addressed by this program. It will be by improving teachers strategy in a class room, by the kinds of materials they will be using with the kids.
200	Chair Starr	States the Reading First program tests students three times a year to identify students who are struggling.
245	Rob Wagner	American Federation of Teachers. Provides written testimony (EXHIBIT B). Comments their legislative priorities are broad. Explains the main goal is establishing a stable and sufficient funding source for education.
310	Lori Whalen	Oregon Education Association. Provides written testimony (EXHIBIT C). Introduces her president Chris Kane stating that he will be speaking about issues they will be presenting this session.
320	Chris Kane	Oregon Education Association. Comments that Oregon’s school funding crisis is severe. States the top priority of the organization is to create a stable and adequate funding system.
420	Sen. Deckert	Requests a definition of stable and adequate school funding.
425	Whalen	Comments being comfortable with the definition that the quality education commission has been putting forward. States that they rest their calculations on those elements of the standards that the state has adopted as a state law.
TAPE 4, A
095	Ed Edwards	Oregon School Employees Association. Provides written testimony (EXHIBIT D).
100	Edwards	Comments the Oregon Employees Association would like to find an answer to Oregon’s school funding problem before the 2003 session is over.
205	Chair Starr	Inquires if there has been proposed legislation regarding this issue.
210	Edwards	Responds the Department of Education sent out a memorandum stating they would not conduct a state assessment. At that point, Oregon School Employees Association chose to introduce legislation on the issue.
230	John Marshall	Oregon School Boards Association. Comments one of the key agendas for the 2003 legislative session is to preserve the performance based education system.
355	Chuck Bennett	Confederation of Oregon School Administrators. Provides written testimony (EXHIBIT E).
400	Bennett	Comments the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators is committed to locally governed public schools.
445	Bennett	Comments the instructional and operational program is a vital part of the school system, which indicates what will be taught, how teaching will occur and how learning will be assessed.
TAPE 3, B
125	Marshall	Discusses different ways to teach kids to read.
150	Sen. Ferrioli	Comments each school district should provide details on their budget.
220	Chair Starr	Advises funding is another committee. The Education Committee deals with the performance issues.
235	Chair Starr	Closes informational meeting. Adjourns the committee at 4:30 p.m.

EXHIBIT SUMMARY

A – Informational, written testimony, Bob Seaward, 3 pp

B – Informational, written testimony, Rob Wagner, 1 p

C – Informational, Legislative objectives, written testimony, Lori Whalen, 6 pp

D – Informational, written testimony, Ed Edwards, 2 pp

E – Informational, written testimony, Chuck Bennett, 6 pp