Ed Budget Reform Measure Clears Session, Heads for Design Work  
Efforts to make Oregon's education budget process transparent, integrated, and student-centered emerged from the 2007 Legislature in HB 3141. This law directs the Governor to integrate the PreK-20 budget for the next biennium, and it provides for a design team of legislators to accomplish that work.

The Roundtable first drew attention to the budget issue in 2005 through its discussion forums and its white paper on the subject. In the summer and fall of 2006, Roundtable staff and consultants led state legislators and other officials through a series of workshops on education budget reform.  

Nancy Heiligman, a respected education budget official, then led an executive branch effort to develop a framework for education budget reform. With grant support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that project, a joint effort of the Governor's Office and the state's three education agencies, issued the white paper Rethinking the Budget Framework. Click here for a summary version of the paper.

State Board Adopts Higher Diploma Standards
In January the Oregon State Board of Education adopted the most significant upgrade in high school graduation standards and credits in a decade and a half, bringing them into alignment with competencies students need to be successful in postsecondary education and employment.

The new diploma requirements, to be fully phased in by 2014, boost credits to graduate from 22 to 24, including algebra as the minimal level of math capability. The new standards also call for students to master essential skills that are required in all studies and employment ─ such as reading, writing, math, teamwork, and task management.

Accomplishing these standards will make new demands on education system policies, service design/delivery, and governance – all issues that the Roundtable is addressing.

Roundtable Wins Renewed Lumina Support
The Lumina Foundation for Education awarded the Roundtable an 18-month extension grant for $85,000, beginning September 15, 2006. The grant supports continuation of the Roundtable's role as a source of research and analysis, and as a discussion forum for business and philanthropy leaders with an interest in Oregon education. Lumina supported the Roundtable's original funding period in 2004 and 2005 with a $100,000 grant. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Lumina is focused on improvement in postsecondary education, particularly student access and completion.