Oregon Senate Passes Largest School Budget in State History

State spending per student in public school is $2,000 more than average private school tuition

Eric Fruits, Ph.D.

Recently, the Oregon Senate overwhelmingly approved a $9.3 billion education budget. That amounts to $11,800 per student—and that doesn’t count the money from local sources.

What do we get from that kind of spending? We get the third worst graduation rate in the country and a middle-of-the-pack ranking in college preparedness.

What could we get with that kind of money?

One thing you don’t hear much in the mainstream media is that the average private school tuition is about $9,800 a year. Think about that: Our kids can get a private school education for $2,000 less than the average cost per student in the public school system.

Just think of what a family could do if state school fund money went to the student instead of the system. Their kids can get a first rate education and still have money left over to buy books, pay for tutors, and enroll in enrichment classes.

Our state is failing its students and the system is failing families. The time is now for families to demand that state funding support students instead of the system dominated by entrenched special interests.

Eric Fruits, Ph.D. is Vice President of Research at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.