Senate Committee Testimony

Things have blown up larger than we anticipated. There have been numerous articles about the kindergarten issue on various websites:

Tuition will be refunded
Corvallis cuts kindergarten tuition for low-income families
Corvallis eliminates kindergarten tuition for low-income families
Corvallis eliminates kindergarten fees
Kindergarten fees in Ore. may be illegal
Oregon AG Says Schools Can't Charge For Kindergarten

A local news station came to campus and did an interview with me for this one: (click on the video link)
Refund time for some Corvallis School District families

These articles center around the State Superintendent of Schools, Susan Castillo.
Castillo's Multi-Million Dollar Mistake (Updated with Castillo Response)
Castillo Releases DOJ Letter on Full-Day Kindergarten

In this one, I end up as Rich Bjarnason
Full-day kindergarten runs afoul of state law

In this one, we actually filed a lawsuit (never happened)
Oregon AG: No tuition for full-day kindergarten

Today, we testified at the State Capitol before the Senate Education Committee. A Portland news station picked up a little of the testimony. Here's the link:
Legislators to weigh charging for all-day kindergarten through 2010
(click on the video link for about three seconds of our testimony).

We were very pleased with the variety of testimony that we heard. It was very enlightening. The meeting centered around some proposed legislation that would allow tuition to be charged for full-day kindergarten through the end of the 2008-2009 school year. The legislation would also absolve the offending districts from any fiscal responsibility (protecting them from lawsuits).

Our written testimony lasted about 4 minutes long, and then the committee asked us questions for another 5 minutes or so. It was a great experience.

Here's a text version of our testimony:

In 2005 our daughter was preparing to enter kindergarten. Although we felt she was ready for a full day program, we could not afford the \$290 monthly tuition. After meeting with the teacher of the free half-day program we were satisfied that this would be a good fit for our daughter and this 5-day half-day program is the one she attended. We were very disappointed the following year to hear that the half-day program had been cut in favor of two full-day programs that each required a monthly fee. Under the new system, those families who could not afford to pay the monthly tuition were advised to enter a lottery style drawing for a limited number of scholarships. If they did not win the lottery, and could still not afford the fees, they could enroll their student in the 3-day full-day program and remove them from class during lunch of the third day, thus limiting their student to the mandated 2 and a half days of instruction.

As we discussed our options for our younger children, we were discouraged that the half day program was no longer available, and felt it was unfair to administer education based on the amount of money a family could pay. On January 10, 2007, we began a series of discussions that led us from our local principal to various personnel at the offices of Corvallis School District 509J, including Superintendent Dawn Tarzian and eventually to a scheduled School Board Hearing for June 11. Our concerns centered with the practice of charging tuition for a public school program, especially in the case of low-income families, a practice that is expressly prohibited in Section 139.147 of the Oregon Revised Statutes. At each step, we were assured that the district was correctly applying the law. At each step, we remained confident in our interpretation of the laws regarding tuition for public schools, especially regarding low-income families.

On June 7, four days prior to our scheduled hearing, we received an email from Superintendent Tarzian requesting an indefinite postponement of the hearing. In this request, the district indicated that they had never fully addressed the issue surrounding low-income families, and had requested advice from the Oregon Department of Education, who in turn had sought counsel from the Attorney General's Office. We agreed to the postponement and were advised by Superintendent Tarzian that the Attorney General would likely take 3 to 4 months to issue an opinion. After more than 5 months we contacted our State Representative, Sara Gelser, who requested a resolution from both the Oregon Department of Education and the Department of Justice. Within a week, we had received a letter from Superintendent Tarzian indicating changes in district policy that resolved our major concerns. It was at this time that we became aware of the final opinion delivered by Assistant Attorney General Serena Hewitt to the Department of Education. In that letter the DOJ concluded that full day kindergarten is a regular school program and that school districts may not charge students to participate. It is our understanding that this opinion has prompted today's meeting and the proposed legislation.

As parents and citizens of Oregon, we are concerned with the proposed legislation that will allow school districts to continue the practice of charging tuition for regular school programs. We maintain, as we have from the beginning, that a tuition-based public school system discriminates against the very students that most desperately need the additional instruction.

Additionally, we fundamentally question the practice of enacting legislation that acknowledges a behavior was illegal yesterday, enables it today and declares it illegal once again in three years time.

We appreciate the opportunity we have been given to testify, and will be happy to answer any questions.