On January 25th, the Senate Education Committee held an informational hearing on reopening schools. All the major players were there; Colt Gill, Oregon Department of Education, Dr. Sidelinger, Oregon Health Authority, John Larson, Oregon Education Association (OEA), and so on. ODE and OHA talked about the importance of safely getting kids back into school for many reasons including social emotional learning and student mental health.

During the hearing, Chair Dembrow asked the Dr. Sidelinger a question about vaccination and the continued risk of transmitting COVID after receiving the vaccine. He cited studies done, before the vaccine, stating that school age children have not been shown to transmit COVID. Also, the vaccine is 95% effective of preventing COVID. Although extensive studies have not been done on vaccinated people becoming asymptomatic transmitters, it is assumed in the healthcare community that COVID will act similar to other respiratory diseases like the flu. Vaccinated individuals will not be transmitters. Thus, offering protection for staff in the educational setting as well as the likelihood that students will take the disease home to at risk family members.

However, the tone of the conversation changed when the representative from OEA spoke. He immediately shifted the conversation away from vaccination and to the need for funding from State and Federal sources to address classroom overcrowding, aging infrastructure and ventilation upgrades.

Class size is not a new discussion point on the part of OEA. ODE has reported on class size information since 1997, and the method and measurement has evolved and improved over time. In 2013 HB 2644 established a new class size reporting requirements for ODE as well as requiring that the data be published to the legislature annually.

In 2015 the Legislature passed HB 2928 which directed a study to be performed on class sizes in Oregon and a report to be delivered to the Interim Committee on Education in 2016. The report was delivered and there were several meetings of a legislative Joint Interim task force over the summer.

The 2017 Legislative session saw the first bill introduced regarding class size, when HB 2651 was introduced by Representative Margaret Doherty(D-Tigard). The bill “Includes school class size as mandatory collective bargaining subject,” meaning that teachers unions could bargain salary, hours, etc. based on class size. The bill had one public hearing and died in committee.

During the 2018 Legislative session, the class size discussion resurfaced in HB 4113, introduced by Representatives Doherty and Brian Clem (D-Salem). This time it again “Includes class size as mandatory subject of school district collective bargaining”. This time it got a little further. It moved out of the House committee, and off the floor of the House on party line votes. It received a hearing in the Senate but that was as far as it went.

In the 2019 Legislative Session, the bill concept was back again but this time it started in the Senate as SB 764, introduced by Senators Lew Frederick (D-Portland), Shemia Fagan (D-Portland) and Michael Dembrow (D-Portland) as well as Representative Clem. The bill received a hearing and was voted out of committee on a party line vote. However, this was during the Republican walkout, so it subsequently died on the Senate floor. Part of the reason the bill may have not progressed was due to the annual class size report from ODE submitted Feb 1, 2019 to the legislature. They concluded:

• State median class sizes have remained stable over the last four school years.
• Classes tend to be slightly smaller at kindergarten and first grade than in later elementary grades.
• State median middle and high school class sizes are very similar across subjects, although middle school median class sizes are slightly larger for some core subjects.
• English language arts, mathematics, and world language classes tend to be slightly smaller than classes in the other core subjects.
• However, there is considerable variation in class size, both within a district, and across districts.
• Medians tend to be proportional to district size until practical upper limits of class sizes are met in larger districts.
• Median class sizes for medium to large districts varied widely from a low of 14 students to a high of 29 students.

In other words, class sizes are stable and not necessarily a driving force to be considered in collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

In addition, HB 3427, Oregon’s new Corporate Activity Tax did make it out of session, and many believed this was a partial answer to the “class size issue”. It would bring in a little over an additional $1 billion in annual revenue into education funding and in Section 9, 3(c) it spelled out that the Student Investment Account funds (CAT funds) could be used for “Reducing class sizes, which may include increasing the use of instructional assistants, by using evidence-based criteria to ensure appropriate student/teacher ratios or staff caseloads”. One would think this would have solved the class size tied to collective bargain discussion going for the last 4 years. Nope.

In the 2020 Legislative session, the class size tied to collective bargaining conversation was back on the table. HB 4094 Representatives Doherty and Clem, and Senator Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego). The bill “Amends definition of “employment relations” to include class size and caseload limits as mandatory collective bargaining subjects for school districts”. The issue has not been solved by the Student Investment Act -- at least in the eyes of the OEA. The bill was referred to committee but never received a hearing. Some would blame the Republican walkout, but others might assert that you can only bring a bad piece of legislation forward so many times. Not the case.

2021 legislative session has begun, and the request is back as SB 580, introduced by Senators Dembrow and Frederick and Representative Clem. Again, it looks to “Amends definition of “employment relations” to include class size and caseload limits as mandatory collective bargaining subjects for school districts”. The latest ODE Class Size Report for the 19-20 school year which is the 5th annual report since reporting started looks very similar to the 2018-19 school year report. The data showed:

• State median class sizes have remained stable over the last five school years. Small decreases have been sustained for some self-contained classes and for classes at combined schools.
• Classes tend to be slightly smaller at kindergarten and first grade than in later elementary grades.
• English language arts, mathematics, and world language classes tend to be slightly smaller than classes in the other core subjects.
• There is considerable variation in class size, both within a district, within a school, and across districts.
• Medians tend to be proportional to district size until practical upper limits of class sizes are met in larger districts.
• Median class sizes (as shown in Appendix A) for medium to large districts varied widely from a low of 11 students to a high of 29 students.

If the data continues to show that class sizes have remained stable for five years and if there is a concern regarding class size, it is isolated to elementary grades and also relates to the size of the district (i.e. larger districts tend to have larger class sizes). If the ODE reports are true why is the legislature, again, looking at a “one size fits all approach” for the 197 school districts in Oregon? Why do they want to force districts into negotiating class size in teachers collective bargaining agreements if their specific school has no class size issues?

The COVID “pandemic” has given the OEA power never before seen. Teachers have been out of the classroom for almost a year teaching a modified and often reduced caseload. Now they have an opportunity to use COVID to bargain a return to the classroom if class sizes are small enough to make them comfortable and/or if they are paid more money if the class size goes over the negotiated threshold.

Legislative Session 2021 may finally be their year.


--Terese Humboldt

Post Date: 2021-01-27 10:48:35

Last Update: 2021-01-27 11:30:21