Higher ed committee: Oregon’s public universities remain relatively pricey and underfunded

High ed commission asks for increase in funding for needy students

By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau

Oregon’s seven public universities have some of the highest tuition rates and lowest levels of state funding in the nation, even after recent legislative efforts to shore up their standing.

“Despite state investments in the last decade, Oregon ranks low nationally in higher education and financial aid funding,” said a report this week from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. “Students and families are facing the effects.”

Oregon currently ranks 39th out of 50 states in support for public universities and 30th in funding for community colleges, according to the commission.

The information was part of a 168-slide presentation by the commission this week to the education subcommittee of the Joint Ways & Means Committee, the panel that will write and approve the 2023-25 state budget. Higher education funding is included in House Bill 5025.

Lawmakers were told Oregon’s public university annual tuition and fees are the highest of 17 western states, at $12,826. The average for the region is $10,309.

The report showed state financial aid per full-time public university student in 2021 was $574 in Oregon, a little over one-quarter of the $1,904 spent by Washington state and just over half the $1,084 spent in California. The national average is $921 per student.

Tuition and fees at Oregon four-year institutions have increased 25.3% in the past five years, and 54.9% in the past 10 years.

Higher Education Coordinating Commission Executive Director Ben Cannon told the subcommittee that while legislative support has rebounded over the past decade, Oregon’s universities remain more dependent on student tuition and fees compared to many states.

“You can’t really have a public post-secondary education system that deserves the label “public” when students are bearing the vast, vast brunt of the cost,” Cannon said.

Tuition and fee hikes have come against a background of a higher cost of living in general across Oregon.

“The largest cost of attending a public institution of higher education in Oregon, for most students, are living costs,” Cannon said. “Where am I going to live, how am I going to feed myself, how am I going to get to school, how am I paying for books?”

Cannon and commission staff pushed for fixes such as a $100 million increase in the Oregon Opportunity Grant program, which assists the neediest higher education students in Oregon.

Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, the subcommittee chair, lamented the limits on funding increases, new programs and other innovations that could speed the improvement of Oregon’s community colleges and universities. He said the committee’s job was to prioritize the likely level of funding that will be available over the next two years.

“We have a lot of really outstanding ideas, a lot of really outstanding programs,” Frederick said. “We don’t have a lot of money.”

Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, a subcommittee member who was a faculty member at Portland Community College and has served in the Legislature since 2009, said the state was still struggling with the budget whiplash of deep cuts mandated by Measure 5 in 1990. The voter-approved ballot measure capped property taxes, which had traditionally funded public K-12 schools. Lawmakers made up the shortfall with the state’s general fund, including money that once went to community colleges and universities.

“As responsibility shifted over to the state for funding K-12, higher ed really got hammered,” Dembrow said.

Lawmakers are crafting a 2023-25 state budget with a $32.1 billion plan proposed by Gov. Tina Kotek as a starting point. 

In her first budget as Oregon’s chief executive, Kotek has proposed large chunks of available funds go to affordable housing, homelessness and shoring up the state’s semiconductor industry against domestic and foreign competition.

Kotek did not call for major tax increases or revising Oregon’s one-of-a-kind “kicker” law that sends a large part of higher-than-anticipated individual tax revenue back to taxpayers.

The co-chairs of the full Ways & Means Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland, and Rep. Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland, have issued their own “framework” for budget decisions in specific areas. State agencies and programs are now appearing before legislative panels to make their case for slices of available money.

The education subcommittee will craft the portion of the budget dealing with nearly all university expenses, but any major new building on the campuses would go through the Ways & Means capital construction subcommittee.

Kotek’s budget calls for $200 million in funds for the maintenance of college campuses, but no bonds for new construction.

The 23 Senators and House members on Joint Ways & Means will take the recommendations from the seven subcommittees and create a final proposed budget. Unlike the federal budget, the Oregon state budget must be balanced between projected spending and revenue. No deficits are allowed.

With the committee made up of leading Democrats and Republicans from both chambers, issues are vented and portions revised before the budget goes to the full Senate and House for approval. It cannot be amended on the floor of either chamber.

The 2023-25 budget will be the first since 2017-19 in which Democrats do not have a three-fifths voting majority in both chambers required to approve the budget. Democrats have a 35-25 majority in the House. The Senate has a 17-12 Democratic majority, with an additional Independent, Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas, who was first elected as a Republican and reliably votes with the GOP on fiscal matters.

At least one non-Democrat vote will be needed in each chamber to pass the budget.

The budget must be sent to the governor prior to the June 25 constitutional deadline for the legislative session to adjourn. Kotek could approve the entire budget or use a line-item veto to remove specific spending allocations. The Oregon constitution allows the Legislature to override vetoes by a two-thirds vote. The new budget would go into effect July 1 and run through June 30, 2025.