Opinion: We need a bigger pie...

photo by K. Haugen

I've been thinking about this 'sustainable' budget issue a lot. I've been talking about it with so many smart, engaged people, a lot! I've poured over the numbers, a lot. I've heard from a lot of people who are rightly upset and concerned about their school or their child.  For me, it's coming very clearly down to one thing: 

We need a bigger pie.

The pie we've got isn't big enough to sustain our schools or our community. We're all going to come up short.
...and we're not going to get a bigger pie by waiting for the district or board to come up with 'hidden' money. We're not going to get a bigger pie by arguing over which schools stay open and which close, by reconfiguring or anything else.

We need a bigger pie.

I think we need to all get together and start making one – a pie that hopefully includes emergency bridging funds for next year, as well as some long-term plans for stable funding. I hope someone will toss in some great fundraisers. Maybe someone else can add a city-wide eScrip campaign, or how about building stronger partnerships between 4J schools and others, such as our neighboring districts, the City of Eugene, the University of Oregon, and local businesses and employers. I'd love to hear what others would add.

Who wants to make some pie?