2024 LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
Technical Fixes & Financial Investments
Universal School Meals:
New federal funds mean Oregon has an opportunity to greatly expand access to meals at K-12 public schools, allowing more Oregon school districts to participate and providing more students with access to nutritious meals so they can focus on learning.
Part-Time Faculty Health Care Technical Fixes:
Language in last session's bill cited "teaching work" to determine program eligibility rather than simply citing "work." This has inadvertently excluded faculty who do non-teaching work, like librarians, from accessing the program.
Summer Programming:
Ensuring continued state investments for summer school programs, and creating a task force focused on long-term sustainability for summer programming in Oregon.
Student Emergency Needs Funding:
Creating a grant program to provide funding for Basic Needs Navigators, who can assist students and families in accessing state and federal resources.
Oregon Opportunities Grant Programming:
Ensuring that any changes to distribution methods for the Oregon Opportunities Grant program must be approved by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
Fair Shot Coalition Priorities:
OEA is a member of the Fair Shot Coalition, a group of community partners dedicated to improving the lives of all Oregonians. This year, the coalition's priorities include Housing and Rental Assistance, Childcare, School-Based Health Centers, and Student Emergency Needs Funding.
Long-Term Priorities
School Finance Omnibus
The legislature, the Governor's Office, OEA, and other education partners are focused on improving the financing for public education in Oregon. This could include updates to Oregon's school funding models, improved transparency in public education budgeting, and other improvements to our current system of public education financing.
Special Education Funding
OEA supports lifting the cap on SPED weighting in Oregon's formula for determining school funding. This change would help address Oregon's current crisis in special education, helping give districts the resources they need to providing students receiving special education services with the support they need to thrive.
Part-Time Faculty Pay Equity
With many of Oregon's part-time faculty members receiving as little as $0.36 on the dollar when compared to their full-time counterparts, OEA believes that pay equity is critical for fair employment practices in higher education.
