State Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo has made a huge mistake and now she wants the Legislature to fix it.
Oregon lawmakers have learned that Castillo circulated a memo in June 2004 advising school districts throughout Oregon how they might expand early-childhood education.
A key piece of Castillo’s advice: to consider charging tuition for full-day kindergarten programs. Historically, public schools have provided free kindergarten for a half-day but more parents over time have asked districts for full-day services and Castillo was eager to meet that demand.
Castillo green-lighted the change without seeking a legal opinion affirming that pubilc school districts had the right to charge tuition. That was a mistake.
Earlier this year, a family in Corvallis raised questions about paying tuition for public school kindergarten.
According to people familiar with the matter, ODE sought an opinion from Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers about the program’s legality. The Oregon Department of Education has been unwilling to share that legal opinion with lawmakers who oversee the department. But not long after receiving that opinion, Castillo approached legislative leadership seeking help.
Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) asked the legislative counsel’s office to review the situation. The response from that office, which provides legal advice to lawmakers,
was unambiguous.
“A district school board cannot charge tuition for either an extended kindergarten program or a program that supplements a kindergarten program,” acting legislative counsel Joan Robinson wrote Courtney in a Nov. 30 letter.
Robinson based her opinion on laws that require local public school districts to “admit free of charge to the schools of the district all persons between the ages of 5 and 19 who reside within the school district.” Districts have the ability to provide kindergartens longer than half a day, Robinson found, but may not ask parents to bear the additional costs.
That’s a big problem for the public school districts that relied on Castillo’s June 2004 memo. Since the memo was written, ODE figures show that the families of about 6,000 students state-wide have paid tuition for full-day kindergarten.
In Portland Public Schools, parents pay about $300 a month for the extra half-day. If students attend school for eight months, that’s $2,400 per student and for 6,000 students the cost statewide would be $14.4 million. (In 2006-07, more than half those kids were in Multnomah County.)
If the legislative counsel’s opinion is right, local districts may need to refund that $14.4 million to parents and they may in turn be asking ODE to make them whole. (The final damages may be significantly larger because the ODE tally does not include figures for the 2007-2008 school year and the number of students attending full-day kindergarten has increased substantially each year).
Last month, ODE officials alerted State. Sen. Vicki Walker, chair of the Senate Education Committee, of the problem. “I was stunned,” says Walker (D-Eugene)
ODE proposed a solution in the form of a draft bill the agency wants introduced in the Febuary legislative session. The key section of the draft bill would retroactively allow districts to charge tuition for full-day kindergarten.
“All actions by a school district prior to the effective date of this 2008 Act that would have been authorized under section 1 of this 2008 Act are validated,” reads the draft.
Walker says neither she nor other senators with whom she’s spoken are favorably inclined to Castillo’s attempt to “unring the bell.”
“I can tell you she [Castillo] does not have a lot of support because what’s she’s asking us to do is charge kids for going to public school,” Walker says.
Update:
Castillo said today that her 2004 memo was part of a larger effort to expand valuable early childhood education. Castillo says because some Oregon public school districts were already charging tuition, she included that option in her memo to districts statewide as among the options for expanding service. She says she was unaware such guidance might cause a problem:
“Had I known it was inappropriate, I would not have given this advice,” Castillo says.
However, after a question from the Corvallis district, ODE asked for an opinion from the Oregon Department of Justice. Castillo shared the gist of that opinion, which has not yet been made public, with WW verbally:
“A school district may not charge students tuition for kindergarten,” the opinion says, according to Castillo.
She emphasizes, however, that the opinion is “advisory” and not yet final.
“I do not want school districts and parents panicking and cancelling or pulling out of full-day kindergarten programs that provide essential services,” Castillo says. “We are working hard with a number of groups and the Legislature to find a solution.” 
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This article does not mention that this funding scheme creates an inequitable system that most often strengthens the advantages of the children of the well off. Every child should have the opportunity for full-day kindergarten, no matter the parent’s income level. We need a level public education playing field.
This also upsets me since we were new to Oregon (coming from California) and never heard of paying for public school! So instead of paying $300/month for a class with 30 kindergartners, we opted to pay $350 for private school. I never would have considered private school if I didn’t have to pay anyway. Paying for full day kindergarten in Portland made it feel like private school where only the more affluent can take part in, so why not go to private school?
Oregon politics have been in the same party for more than 20 years. The political inbreeding, and the sharing of the political spoils within the same house has produced more than one banjo twanger on the bridge. Jane Cease hosed us for $125 million OR MORE at DMV. She was political nepotism at its classic Oregon best. She had the right last name. That a former tv talking head blows it as State Supt of Ed should not surprise anyone. She had the Hispanic name, the tv background, and filled the Democrat diversity slot for education perfectly. That she is inept is not a playable card in Oreygawn’s politics of urban tyranny. I guess you get what you voted for, PDX. Live with it. Pony up and pay the people. Take it out of light rail’s endless pot of pork.
My son was in an all day Kindergarten in PPS for the 2001-2002 school year that we paid $300 a month for. Will I be able to get my money back? I am sure that I can provide documentation.
Hey,
If you think this is something look at what the Lake Oswego School District is trying to get away with. An alternative to private school- pay tuition and send your kid to LO, unless of course your kid has any special needs or doesn’t meet "our criteria". ODE has been aware of this for a while and is "concerned" yet has done absolutely zero to check out the situation. Funny thing is many parents of speical needs kids have sent their kids out of the district because they are not getting adequate services in the district. LO "reorganized" special ed 2 years ago to save money yet added 6 new "Tag" classes to the Jr High this year. "Rocket Science" anyone?
Our education systems in Portland (Portland Public Schools) and at the state level are run by a bunch of idiots.
This is kindergarten for Pete’s sake, some years ago when we were debating going from 1/2 day kindergarten five days a week to two full days and every other Friday a full day for the class to cut the transportation costs in our rural district we had a good deal of research that showed that age group of children maxed out at 1/2 day for any type of meaningful learning. So why not call that extra 1/2 day what it really is, supervised daycare for working parents. I would imagine schools like PPS when they did not offer the extended day were losing kids to the "kindergarten" provided at local daycares. I am not aware of the nuances of the funding formulas anymore as our kids are way past the public school system, but my spouse and I did our time years ago on the site council and PTA. Why not have the parents dollars go toward the school system rather than private care. Not putting the kids into the kindergarten and starting them out in the first grade, would also be hard on the group dynamics for the kids that had to be integrated into the classroom. Don’t punish the innocent here.
With two children currently in public schools, my wife and I spend a lot of time volunteering in schools. Our experience is full-day kindergarten helps most children. Like preschool and Headstart programs, in most cases, children that have had full-day kindergarten do better.
Yes, full-day kindergarten helps public schools compete against alternatives.
The Saturday Oregonian story is quite a bit different that this one — WW seeking to cause panic rather than informing? WW engaging in GOTCHA over accuracy?
Castillo didn’t ORDER anyone to charge tuition. Nigel even admits she said "consider charging tuition." How is this HER multi-million dollar mistake???
It was Castillo’s idea! That is why it is HER mistake. She is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, she should be held accountable for her recommendations made to public schools. Nigel broke this story and that is important. Would the "O" (mouthpiece of the well-off and well-connected) even have covered the story, had Nigel not broke it?
This is the same person that wants to rename school mascots. To much power for such a small minded female. Anybody else in any other commercial business would have never made such an error as the Corporate leadership (governor) would have ran it through legal first.
Another example of how left wing socialist liberal fools f**k up the system with their personal insanity. Let’s remember this when it comes time to vote. NO MORE DEMOFLAPS, NO MORE MONEY OR POWER FOR SCHOOLS> Less government is the best government. Privatize the schools and dump the OEA.
Reading this post is enough to make me believe that the Oregon school system should be dismantled and rebuilt from scratch… with a renewed interest in literacy.
Maybe a Freedom of Information Act request can shake the opinions out of them ?
Class action law suit anyone ??
"never heard of paying for public school! "
Are you really that stupid? You think it’s all just free huh. Keep milking those entitlement programs and see where it gets ya.
While I could see the opinion being released, I am pretty sure that this is not a document that can be forced under a FOIA request. That whole attorney/client privilege thing would likely preclude it’s release. Besides, you get a lot more bees with honey, or something like that.
John Doe: You write that "we had a good deal of research that showed that age group of children maxed out at 1/2 day for any type of meaningful learning." I agree, without having access to the research that you refer to. I would like to read the research. Can you provide references? My concurring opinion comes from my career kindergarten teacher spouse.
Balance wrote:
"Castillo didn’t ORDER anyone to charge tuition. Nigel even admits she said "consider charging tuition." How is this HER multi-million dollar mistake???"
Supt. Castillo readily acknowledges the move toward charging tuition for full-day kindergarten was her idea. From June 2004, when she issued a memo to all Oregon public school districts on the subject of how to expand kindergarten offerings, through the 2006-2007 school year, the number of families paying tuition rose from 1192 to to 2681, an increase of 125 percent. The total in the 2007-2008 school year is probably higher, given the strong up-trend.
At $300 per month per child, those families have indisputably paid millions of dollars based on guidance from Supt. Castillo that now appears to violate state law, at least according to a preliminary ruling from the Attorney General and a less equivocal reading from legislative counsel. With all due respect, I think the characterization in the story is accurate.
Yeah, let’s have a class action lawsuit so we can drain more money from schools and stop full-time kindergarten. Sounds like a great idea.
As the parent of a full-day kindergarten student, currently, I have to say the alternative of paying tuition to get a full day is Highly preferred in our household (and those of my daughter’s friends) when compared to having only a half-day option.
Beyond the legal reviews and public comment, what the articles to date don’t mention: at least in the PPS district, schools in low-income neighborhoods don’t charge tuition. Those in middle and upper-class neighborhoods waive the tuition for free-lunch students and discount the tuition for reduced-fee lunch students. This is a great alternative for the families that can’t quite afford the tuition, and All the options are less than private school at a full day or daycare 5 days a week for the extra hours.
We need a solution that continues to provide for the educational and support needs of our newest and most impressionable students. A good start is one of the biggest factors to obtaining an excellent education.
Skye’s comment could leave the impression that all free or reduced lunch students receive full-day kindergarten; unfortunately, this is not the case. If a school doesn’t have enough free or reduced lunch students or if there are not enough parents willing to pay for full-day kindergarten, then there is no option of full-day K.
Hayhurst Elementary in SW Portland is an interesting, complicated example. Hayhurst had enough free or reduced lunch students to receive full-day kindergarten until a “focus option” school was co-located in the same facility. Since the focus option school had fewer free or reduced lunch students, it brought the overall school percentage below the threshold to receive full-day K. As a result, the “neighborhood” side of the school (with more poor children) lost full-day kindergarten, while the focus option side had enough parents paying to continue a full-day kindergarten. Though the two sides of the school do not share students, PPS considers them one school because they are in the same building.
Super Susan is a certified idiot.
1) She created the testing fiasco last spring, where the online vendor pulled the plug because of a lack of payment.
2) She created theBus fiasco, when she stated that school athletic teams couldn’t travel by motor coach (Greyhound type bus).
3) She also advised many school district how to claim credit for State School Funds with their home schooled kids who attend part time classes in the public schools. That bad advise cost Bethel, Baker and Sisters school districts millions.
Susan is in way over her head, and the ODE under her watch has become the new DMV Postoffice.
1. The late year testing switch was a blackmail attempt that Castillo stood up to, not a failure to pay a bill.
2. A school district asked if the busses were legal Justice said no they are not.
3. Are you high? There was no advice to the Sisters School District that said they could send their state school dollars to the Sonrise Christian Church School, please check your facts!
What is that sound? That is the sound of your tax dollars paying for child care.
Full day Kindergarten is (once again) chipping away at the parents responsibility to take care of their own off-spring.
I love the sound of tax dollars helping struggling families, I just can’t hear it over the sound of tax dollars paying for the endless IRAQ WAR!
Not much of an effort really, Steve.
This comment section has been going on for four days and you just get around to getting in a good, solid, BDS-based comment?
I really expect more from the intellectual capitol of the Western World.
We have a child in kindergarten and when we were looking at Portland Public Schools it was very clear to us that full day kindergarten was an *optional* service offered for an extra $300 a month.
For those not interested in full day or not willing to pay, each school we looked had the option of not paying and picking up your child at the 1/2 day mark, although mostly the 1/2 day option was strongly discouraged by the school’s staff.
Also our understanding was that when the full day became mandatory that there would be no charge for full day kindergarten, the charge was there only because it was an additional optional program.