Butler forms education committee
Thursday, April 28, 2005 1:53 PM PDT
Larry Meyer Argus Observer
SALEM
Oregon State Rep. Tom Butler, R-Ontario, put together a committee of lawmakers and educators Tuesday to work toward a funding formula for K-12 education.
Butler said the panel, which was to begin meeting Tuesday, would continue its discussion over the next week.
In a telephone interview Tuesday morning, Butler, who chairs the Oregon House Revenue Committee, said the panel's focus would be on House Bill 3460, of which he is a co-sponsor. He said the bill, if approved, would provide 50 percent of the personal income taxes to the state school fund beginning with the 2007-2009 biennium.
"It changes the whole debate (on school funding)," Butler said. "Personal income tax has the best elasticity - the best propensity for growth."
His working group will include House and Senate lawmakers and representatives of school boards and administrator organizations, plus a representative from Oregon Education Association, the major teacher labor organization. Helping facilitate the discussion is a member of League of Oregon Cities.
The bill provides for annual 4 percent growth in the school appropriation, or 8 percent for the biennium and directs the Legislature to distribute any amount more than the 8 percent growth to the Successful Schools Fund and the Kindergarten through Grade 12 Stabilization Account. The Successful Schools Funds would provide money through grants to school districts to improve student achievement in low-performing schools and for innovated projects, according to a summary explanation of the bill.
Turning to labor issues, Butler said, he was supportive of a bill passed by the House giving farm workers the right to organize.
"I feel pretty strongly about this," Butler said. "Farmworkers have the right to organize," he said, but it is not always known.
"They have not gotten out in mass to organize," he said.
The bill is also designed to protect Oregon against secondary and third level boycotts, he said, which have been against Oregon products. The bill is sponsored by the Oregon Farm Bureau. "I'm surprised organize labor is saying they are opposed," Butler said.
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "