Dive Brief:
- The Oregon legislature is likely nixing former former governor John Kitzhaber's Oregon Education Investment Board.
- Created in 2011, the board included everyone from teachers and union leaders to Nike executives, and was to be responsible for streamlining pre-K to college education decisions. Specifically, it aimed to help Oregon meet its "40-40-20" goal, which hoped to see 40% of the state's youth attain degrees from four-year colleges and 40% from two-year colleges or technical schools, with the remaining 20% earning high school diplomas, by 2025.
- The board lost political supporters after Kitzhaber's resignation in February, but it is implied that it was never a legislative darling given how readily lawmakers have been OK to see it go.
Dive Insight:
While the Oregon Education Investment Board oversees education decisions across grade levels, it has zero power in terms of funding and finances, which put it in an odd position. Last summer, the board went on a day-long retreat to discuss and evaluate what it had achieved in three years. The general consensus? Not so much. According to The Oregonian, board members discussed how the public either overestimated the amount of power they had or didn't even know the board existed — an odd and somewhat contradictory position to be in.
The board was disliked for many reasons, according to Oregon Live. For example, it required schools to complete a yearly Achievement Compact, or detailed list of the goals they hoped to accomplish. For many administrators, this was viewed as duplicative work to required paperwork the state mandated.
The board also had to vet every legislative education idea, but wasn't given information about how much these programs would cost.