© 2024 Boise State Public Radio
NPR in Idaho
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Apple's latest iOS (17.4) is preventing our livestreams from playing. We suggest you download the free Boise State Public Radio app & stream us there while we work to troubleshoot the issue.

Now That It's Qualified For Ballot, High School Graduation Initiative Kicks Off Campaign

Supporters of IP-65 prepare to submit boxes of signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State's office.
Chris Lehman
/
Northwest News Network
Supporters of IP-65 prepare to submit boxes of signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State's office.

Now that an initiative that aims to increase Oregon's high school graduation rate has qualified for the ballot, backers are rolling out details of their campaign.

The measure would require Oregon to fund dropout-prevention programs, as well as career and college readiness programs in Oregon high schools. Backers say the funding formula in the initiative would steer about $10 million per year to the state's largest school districts, including Portland, Salem-Keizer and Beaverton. The amount each district gets would be based roughly on the number of high school students there.

Those figures come from an analysis by economic consultant ECONorthwest. But the firm's Andrew Dyke isn't making any predictions on how the initiative would affect graduation rates.

"It is quite difficult to come up with very precise estimates for the state as a whole, in part because of a lack of comprehensive information about what districts are doing now,” he said.

The initiative is supported by the education advocacy group Stand For Children. But the state's largest teachers union, the Oregon Education Association, calls it a "one-size-fits-all" solution to a much larger problem.

But OEA President Hanna Vaandering said the union supports the programs that IP 65 would fund. In a statement, Vaandering said “Oregon students deserve these types of important programs to help them prepare for college and career, and to help improve graduation rates.”

According to the most recent figures available, only three states have a lower graduation rate than Oregon.

The measure is currently known as Initiative Petition 65, but will be called Measure 98 once the Oregon Secretary of State's office finalizes the list of initiatives that have qualified for the November ballot.

Copyright 2021 Northwest News Network. To see more, visit Northwest News Network.

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.
Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.

You make stories like this possible.

The biggest portion of Boise State Public Radio's funding comes from readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

Your donation today helps make our local reporting free for our entire community.