Tea Partiers -- backed by Americans for Prosperity, outside money, and local business interests -- are fighting hard and dirty to defeat a grassroots effort to fund public education in Eugene, Oregon. By spreading disinformation and distortions, the Tea Partiers have created unfounded "big government" and anti-public education fears in many voters' minds about a modest, temporary, and progressive local income tax measure whose revenue could only legally be used to buy back furlough days and keep class sizes down. The Tea Partiers have already spent well over $100,000 in their fight against public education -- and, by extension, local school children -- while the mom and pop supporters of the tax, Strong Schools Eugene, have only been able to match them at a rate of about 50 cents on the dollar. The Tea Partiers make no secret that if they can win in Eugene, with its reputation as a bastion of liberalism, their next target will be the state government in Salem. They hope their anti-public employee, anti-public school, and anti-government crusade can lead to rolling back protections on workers' rights (both public and private) and dismantling Oregon's public employee retirement system. Voting has already begun, with final results coming late on election evening, May 17.
A bit of background: In the 1990s, Oregon joined California in radically limiting property taxes. This shifted most public school funding away from local control, putting it in the hands of state government in Salem. As predicted, this has led to disastrous results for our school children. Eugene has suffered over $50 million in cuts in the last three years, and is expecting another $25 million cut next year, which will mean over 100 more teachers laid off, six to nine fewer school days, and class sizes increasing to preposterous numbers (50+ in an eighth-grade geometry class!). Serious efforts are underway to reform this mess on a statewide basis, but that will take time.
Local solution: Working with a mostly progressive City Council, parents banded together and proposed a modest, temporary (four-year maximum), progressive local income tax that would help bridge the gap between next year's draconian cuts and the enactment of real reform. Measure 20-182, if enacted, won't replace all the lost funding. Far from it. But it will provide enough revenue -- about $20 million -- to prevent more furlough days (did I mention that Oregon already has the second shortest school year in the nation?) and to keep class sizes from growing any larger (did I mention that Oregon already has the fourth largest average class sizes in the nation?).
Tea Partiers Unite: This was too much for the local Tea Partiers. Initially led by Americans for Prosperity's local chapter, they created a PAC to oppose funding for kids' education. They don't like taxes, don't like teachers, and certainly don't like taxes that pay to keep teachers in the classroom. Using spurious arguments, they have sought to create doubts in the minds of Eugene voters about how the money will actually be used (despite the legally-binding agreement that will have to be enacted) and fears the tax will be extended into perpetuity (despite its four-year limit and a City Council resolution making clear that they have no intention of extending the tax unilaterally). And they're paying for their $100k-plus campaign using money from outside Eugene and/or from business interests that care not a whit about the education of Eugene's school children (did I mention that of the four leaders of the anti-education campaign, two live outside Eugene and one sends her kids to private schools?).
Strong Schools Eugene: The mothers and fathers who banded together to push for supplemental funding recognize that no tax measure is perfect. But they also know that the opposition is offering nothing -- zilch, zero, nada -- as an alternative to massive cuts in teachers and school days. Strong Schools Eugene is operating on about half the budget of the opposition (and that's not even counting the unreported, anonymously-funded push-polling being conducted against Measure 20-182).
What Next? If the measure passes, Eugene's school children can look forward to at least an extra week of school next year, as well as no significant increases in class sizes. If the measure fails, not only will the kids suffer a decline in the quality of their education, but the Tea Partiers will be emboldened in their crusade against government. They've made no secret of their desire to go statewide, just as in Wisconsin, in their efforts against teachers, schools, public employees, and unions. Stay tuned for the final results on May 17 -- they could be great news for Eugene kids or they could portend real trouble for the rest of Oregon.
Full disclosure: The author is an officer of Strong Schools Eugene who desperately hopes his child won't have to suffer the budget cuts that are coming if Measure 20-182 doesn't pass.