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Legislature passes landmark higher ed budget
2007-2009 budget gives biggest increase of funds to higher ed in nearly a decade
Nick Vardanega
Issue date: 7/4/07 Section: News
The final day of Oregon's 2007 legislative session marked a victory for higher education funding with the passage of a budget that gave the Oregon University System over $100 million more then the previous cycle.
On June 28, surrounded by lawmakers and proponents of higher education on the steps of the Capitol Building, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed the higher education budget for 2007-2009.
The budget was heralded by attendees of the signing ceremony as well as education proponents as an historic re-investment in higher education in the state of Oregon, which many say has been ignored by the legislature for nearly a decade.
Under the new budget the Oregon University System will receive $870.4 million from 2007-2009, a raise from the $706.5 million spent in the 2005-2007 cycle and $678.9 million from 2003-2005.
"It's a really exciting day for college students and for all Oregonians," said Courtney Sproule, communications director for the Oregon Student Association said at the June 28 signing. "[This budget] represents the biggest re-investment in colleges in this state in over a decade."
OSA held several rallies at the capitol and other demonstration during the 2007 session lobbying on behalf of higher education.
The budget also reverses the trend of students having to pay an increasing higher percentage of the share of higher education state costs with less help from the state.
Under the new budget, students share of the cost will be 53 percent with 37 percent being provided by the state and 10 percent being provided by other sources. State help is up from the last biennium, 2005-2007, when students paid 55 percent of the costs and the state paid 35 percent, with 10 percent coming from other sources.
Until the current budget the students' share had been steadily increasing from the 1999-2001 cycle, when the state paid for 51 percent of the costs while students paid 41 percent and eight percent came from other sources.
"It's a great first step," said Monique Teal, OSA president and a student at Southern Oregon University. However, she acknowledges the budget was "just a first step," and it would take a continued effort to achieve the kind of attention she thinks higher education should have.
On June 28, surrounded by lawmakers and proponents of higher education on the steps of the Capitol Building, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed the higher education budget for 2007-2009.
The budget was heralded by attendees of the signing ceremony as well as education proponents as an historic re-investment in higher education in the state of Oregon, which many say has been ignored by the legislature for nearly a decade.
Under the new budget the Oregon University System will receive $870.4 million from 2007-2009, a raise from the $706.5 million spent in the 2005-2007 cycle and $678.9 million from 2003-2005.
"It's a really exciting day for college students and for all Oregonians," said Courtney Sproule, communications director for the Oregon Student Association said at the June 28 signing. "[This budget] represents the biggest re-investment in colleges in this state in over a decade."
OSA held several rallies at the capitol and other demonstration during the 2007 session lobbying on behalf of higher education.
The budget also reverses the trend of students having to pay an increasing higher percentage of the share of higher education state costs with less help from the state.
Under the new budget, students share of the cost will be 53 percent with 37 percent being provided by the state and 10 percent being provided by other sources. State help is up from the last biennium, 2005-2007, when students paid 55 percent of the costs and the state paid 35 percent, with 10 percent coming from other sources.
Until the current budget the students' share had been steadily increasing from the 1999-2001 cycle, when the state paid for 51 percent of the costs while students paid 41 percent and eight percent came from other sources.
"It's a great first step," said Monique Teal, OSA president and a student at Southern Oregon University. However, she acknowledges the budget was "just a first step," and it would take a continued effort to achieve the kind of attention she thinks higher education should have.
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