SAN FRANCISCO — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber released his $18.6 billion
Kitzhaber is proposing to spend $9.4 billion on schools, community colleges and universities. That includes targeted investments of $808.3 million towards ensuring that children stay on track from pre-school into Kindergarten, from high school into higher education and into a career.
It also includes $3 million to expand "free school lunch," $15 million to help provide work opportunities for young Oregonians, and $500 million for the Community College Support Fund.
"These investments will accelerate progress toward our 40-40-20 goal: that by 2025 all Oregonians will have a high school diploma or its equivalent, 40 percent will get at least two years of post-secondary education or training and hold an associates degree or technical certificate, and 40 percent will hold a bachelor's degree or higher," Kitzhaber said with the release of his budget.
The significant investment in education comes after voters failed to approve Ballot Measure 86 in a statewide vote on Nov. 4. The measure would have created an endowment for student financial aid and allow the state to issue general obligation bonds to fund it.
In addition to $9.4 billion to education, the governor's $18.6 billion budget proposal also includes spending $4.9 billion on human services and $3 billion on public safety and judicial expenses.
Around $30 million would go toward creating and retaining jobs in Oregon through a "Working Forests and Working Farms Finance Initiative."
The investments will aim to help streamline efforts to attract and grow businesses, coordinate with the local government and private sector, develop a dynamic workforce, and create better opportunities for people to transition off of public assistants and into living wage jobs.
Kitzhaber said that over the past two budget cycles, the state's reform efforts have tackled unemployment, healthcare costs, and a $3.5 billion budget gap.
"We came together as Oregonians and took those challenges head on, creating a new model for health care that will save the state $3 billion over the next eight years, reforming our education system and realigning our public safety system to prioritize the safety of our communities over simply building new prison beds," he said.
Specifically, the state has created more than 100,000 new jobs since 2011, secured a $1 billion investment in education over the last two years, and dramatically expanded access to affordable health care.
The state budget covers two fiscal years-from July 1, 2015 to June 30 2017. It will be presented to the state legislature for approval in January.
