Op-Ed: Student Success Act Offers a Model for Effective, Accountable Education Funding

In 2014, when Barbara Smith Warner was first sworn into the Oregon House of Representatives, she stepped into elected office as a passionate public school parent. “I think less than a dozen Oregon legislators have school-aged kids,” she said at the time, “and half of the budget is in education.”

Five years later, Rep. Smith Warner was chosen by her colleagues to be Oregon’s next House Majority Leader. This came just weeks after she helped design and pass the Student Success Act, Oregon’s largest new investment in early learning and K-12 education in a generation.

Though she left the Legislature in 2022, we're honored that Rep. Smith Warner now serves on our board of directors at Foundations for a Better Oregon. We're also grateful that she remains a deeply respected voice in the field, reminding us all that steady, focused, and courageous leadership is critical to improving how Oregon’s public education system works for children. 

In today's Sunday Oregonian, Rep. Smith Warner joined former Sen. Arnie Roblan—another architect of the Student Success Act—to explain why this landmark legislation should be a model for all of Oregon’s K-12 funding. 

“Instead of reinventing the wheel, we urge state leaders—and all of Oregon’s 197 school districts—to learn from what the Student Success Act has accomplished so far,” they write. “It shows how the state can target taxpayer dollars for public education in a way that prioritizes collaboration, school improvement, and accountability.”

With K-12 funding and accountability on next year’s legislative agenda, I hope you’ll take a few moments to read the op-ed. Rep. Smith Warner and Sen. Roblan’s perspectives and expertise can help guide our way forward.