06:10 PM PST on Monday, February 21, 2005

By kgw.com and AP staff

SALEM -- Parents, students and teachers from around Oregon traveled by the busloads to the state Capitol on Monday to press their case for increased state funding for local schools.

KGW

Demonstrators rally in Salem, demanding more money for schools.

Thousands of people carrying signs and chanting "no more cuts" gathered on the Capitol's front steps to decry Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski's $5 billion funding proposal as inadequate to prevent larger class sizes and a shorter school year in some places.

While Organizers said the rally drew more than 2,000 people, Rusty Wolfe, a state police trooper assigned to the Capitol, said he thought the number was closer to 1,000.

Various speakers urged education supporters to lobby their legislators to find ways to boost the amount of state aid to schools. All the advocates agreed it will take a sustained lobbying effort to persuade lawmakers to boost funding levels.

Oregon currently spends $600 less per student than in 1992, when adjusted for inflation, said a spokesman for Stand for Children, the group that organized the rally.

Amy Downs, a 16-year-old junior at Canby High School, said budget cuts have eliminated many elective classes, such as orchestra, and left many classes with 35 or more students.

"Our entire school is so crowded it is nearly impossible to get to class on time because the halls are so full," Downs said.

Other speakers called on the Oregon Lottery Commission to increase money available for school support by slashing the rates bars and taverns are paid to offer video games.

Last week, Lottery Director Dale Penn recommended that bar and tavern commissions on new slot-machine style video games be about one-half the average rate now paid on video poker.

The difference between the current rate for video poker and Penn's proposed rate for video slot games is about $70 million, officials say.

"This could generate tens of millions of dollars for schools," said Christine Ertl, a member of the advocacy group Stand for Children who has two children attending Salem-Keizer schools.

At this point, devoting more lottery revenue to schools seems more likely than trying to find new tax revenue for schools.

Kulongoski has acknowledged that his proposed schools budget for 2005-07 will not prevent larger class sizes, shorter school years and stagnating achievement.

But in issuing his $5 billion proposal for schools, Kulongoski said the state must live within existing tax revenue.

"There isn't any new money on the table for schools that he's aware of at this point," said the governor's spokeswoman, Anna Richter Taylor.

House Speaker Karen Minnis said Monday that Oregon voters' rejection of two tax increase proposals in the past two years has made it clear that people want government to live within its means.

"If we give more money to schools, it means you have to take it from somewhere else in the budget. Where's it going to come from?" the Wood Village Republicans said.

Monday's noon-hour rally featured speakers Wayne Shammel, attorney for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe and a leader of the Oregon Business Association; the Rev. Mark Knutson, president of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon; students from Canby and Madison high schools; educators and parents; and musical performances by student groups.