Oregon has scored a huge victory for its children — and set an example that other states should study – by enacting the Student Success Act, which will invest $2 billion in education, with 20 percent ($400 million) allocated for early education.

“…now we can finally invest in an education system to empower every single student on the path to realizing their dreams for the future,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown said in a Tweet.

To finance this investment, Oregon will create a tax “on businesses that bring in at least $1 million in sales each year. They’d pay $250 and a point-five-seven-percent 0.57% tax. According to the Legislative Revenue Office in the capital, less than 10% of Oregon’s 460,000 businesses would pay the tax,” KOBI-TV reports.

This historic work is “the culmination of a legislative process that began more than a year ago when the Joint Committee On Student Success toured the state to learn more about what kids in Oregon need to succeed,” according to the Children’s Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by philanthropists and business community members.

“At every stop along the way, the message was clear: K–12 can’t do it alone. If we want to improve outcomes for Oregon’s students, we must start by supporting the health and development of young children before they reach kindergarten.”

Early Education Initiatives

The Student Success Act “increases access to high-quality early learning programs like Head Start and Preschool Promise. It funds Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education that supports the development of young children with diagnosed disabilities and delays, an investment that will reduce the need for special education services in K–12,” the Children’s Institute explains.

The act also “strengthens culturally specific education for underserved children of color and dual language learners,” and it “begins to address our child care crisis, increases access to parenting education and supports, and supports Oregon’s early childhood workforce.”

This package of early childhood investments “was developed and supported by the Early Childhood Coalition, a group of more than 30 organizations working on behalf of kids and families across the state.”

Advocacy also played a key role.

“… these proven programs and services had YOUR support: the parents, educators, child care providers, and advocates who added your voice to this movement,” the Children’s Institute adds. “You sent emails and postcards to your lawmakers, joined us in Salem for the Early Childhood Lobby Day, attended screenings of No Small Matter, and let other people in your networks know: Early Childhood Matters!”

K-12 Impact

In K-12 schools, the initiatives in the bill “are intended to improve high school graduation rates — especially those of students of color, students living in poverty or students with disabilities, who historically graduate at lower rates,” the Statesman Journal reports, adding:

“It’s also meant to increase the number of students reading on grade level by third grade and address chronic absenteeism and disruptive behaviors seen regularly in Oregon classrooms.”

The Student Success Act will also “pay for critical mental and behavioral health supports, fully fund career and technical education” and “support smaller class sizes, cover school meals, and restore engaging programs like art, music and physical education,” Oregon State Representative Barbara Smith Warner writes on the website OregonLive.com.

“We have a historic opportunity to build a model pre-K through 12th-grade public education system in Oregon,” she adds.

Implications for Massachusetts

Here in Massachusetts, a similar reform effort is underway in K-12 education, as the state is trying to figure out how to update its K-12 funding formula.

Unlike Oregon however, preschool funding is not on the table. So it will probably take a different effort – a new plan or bill — to significantly improve funding for early education and care.

As Amy O’Leary, Director of Strategies for Children’s Early Education for All Campaign, says in a previous blog, Massachusetts “needs dedicated, annual funding to expand preschool, and it needs to be phased in and grown over time to meet the high demand that we see in communities.

“The state could start by expanding grant funding, and consider including pre-K funding in the updated school funding formula. Districts that receive new funds from the updated formula would have the flexibility to invest in high-quality preschool.”

As Massachusetts does this work, it should keep its eye on Oregon and look for strategies and approaches that could be used here. Oregon’s actions could come to fuel progress in Massachusetts and other states, eventually sparking a better pre-K-12 education for children across the country.