2025 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
ORC3S Legislative Priorities
ADVOCACY DECISION-MAKING FRAMEWORK
The ORC3S Advocacy Committee develops the ORC3S advocacy and legislative agenda annually by seeking feedback on priorities from ORC3S member schools, assessing the current political and policy landscape, and reviewing the organization’s statement of principles.
The team works to ensure that proposed legislation will:
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Support and expand Charter schools that innovate in instructional and operational practices;
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Increase funding equity for charter schools at the federal, state and local level;
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Ensure that charter school students have access to the same programs and educational opportunities as traditional public school students
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Increase charter school facilities access and equity
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Strengthen and maintain charter school autonomy
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Continue to hold charter schools accountable for student performance, fiscal responsibility, effective governance, equitable access for students
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Improve charter school authorizing practices and measures of accountability
Funding Priorities
Fair Funding for Public Charter Schools
Oregon public charter school students are funded at 48 cents on the dollar compared to district students. This gap has grown significantly and will continue to grow if we don’t act. Public charter school students are public students, and should be valued as such. See our recent report outlining the disparity in funding between public charter schools and district schools in Oregon
HB 3444 would help charter schools, financially, by:
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Providing K-12 public charter schools 95% of the ADMw provided through the State School Fund.
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Allow public charter school students to access local, state and federal education dollars that are also currently available to non charter public schools.
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Allows public charter schools to provide transportation services to students living within their sponsoring district and access transportation reimbursement grant dollars for providing those services.
State School Fund
SB 5516 is the State School Fund budgeting bill and is necessary to ensure adequate funding for public K-12 schools in Oregon. We must ensure we do not undercut our schools’ efforts to provide educational and support services to our students. Over the course of the next few months advocates will be developing our “ask” for the dollar amount necessary to support K-12 schools.
Special Education Funding
The special education funding cap was created in 1991, when the average population of students receiving special education services for a school district was calculated at 11%. Since then, as we have grown to better understand student needs, the state average is now 14.8%. Some districts approach 18% or higher. But just moving the cap without an investment to pay for the additional weights does not account for the costs to serve our students with disabilities. That is why all the new weights created by raising the cap need to be funded as well.
Summer & Afterschool Learning Grant Program
While currently (as of Feb. 11, 2025) a placeholder bill, this legislation will be amended to provide Summer and Afterschool Learning grants to district and public charter schools in an effort to support students academic and enrichment during “out of school” time periods. The Governor’s recommended budget has suggested a funding amount of $79 million, and advocates will work to increase that amount to $100 million for the biennium.
Policy Priorities
State Mandates
The intent of the Oregon charter school law was to create an avenue for parents, educators, and community members to take responsible risks to create new, innovative and more flexible ways of educating children within the public school system. In 1999 legislators authorized charter schools to create an atmosphere in Oregon’s public school system where research and development of new learning opportunities are actively pursued. Unfortunately, well-meaning policy makers continuously attempt to impose a myriad of mandates on Oregon’s public charter schools.
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ORC3S will diligently analyze proposed policy legislation and urge legislators to oppose mandates that impede charter schools’ ability to provide innovative education without access to sufficient resources.