The goal of the initiative was to create a new Oregon state statute mandating that only "classroom performance" — not seniority, additional duties, qualifications, advanced degrees, or additional training — would determine teachers' pay raises. It would also mandate that the "most qualified" teachers be retained under employment, replacing seniority as a major consideration.[3] "Classroom performance" and "most qualified" are not defined by the measure.
This is the second time Sizemore has placed a similar measure on the ballot. Measure 95 in 2000 was defeated 65–35. Likewise, Oregon voters rejected Measure 60 by 61.39% to 38.61%, with rejection coming from all but five counties.
The official ballot title for Measure 60 was: Teacher "classroom performance", not seniority, determines pay raises; "most qualified" teachers retained, regardless of seniority.
Section 1. Teacher pay raises and job security shall be based on job performance. (a) After the effective date of this 2008 Act, pay raises for public school teachers shall be based upon each teacher's classroom performance and not related or connected to his or her seniority. If a school district reduces its teaching staff, the district shall retain the teachers who are most qualified to teach the specific subjects, which they will be assigned to teach. A determination as to which teacher is most qualified shall be based upon each teacher's past classroom experience successfully teaching the specific subject(s) or class, as well his or her as academic training in the relevant subject matter.
(b) This 2008 Act shall be called the "Kids First Act" and shall supersede any previously existing law, rule, or policy with which it conflicts. This Act shall not be implemented in a manner so as to violate or impair the obligation of any contract in existence as of the effective date of this Act, but shall govern later extensions to those contracts and new contracts entered into after the effective date of this Act.
Note: "Classroom performance" and "most qualified" are not defined in the measure.
Estimated fiscal impact
The state's Financial Estimate Committee prepares estimated fiscal impact statements for any ballot measures that will appear on the ballot. The estimate prepared by this committee for Measure 60 says:
Measure 60 would require between $30 and $72 million in additional state and local spending in the first year.
After the first year, it would require between $30 and $60 million a year in additional state and local spending.[4]
Supporters
Preserve Our Best Teachers was the name of the committee sponsoring the original initiative.[5] There is no committee filed to support the ballot measure.
The Oregonian reported in September 2007 that Nevada millionaire Loren Parks was the leading contributor to Measure 60.[6][7]
Randall J. Pozdena, Ph.D., of the Cascade Policy Institute, authored a commentary that argued, "Absent serious structural reforms such as school-level competition, paying for performance in the classroom may be the best way to stimulate higher academic achievement among our K-12 public school students."
Arguments in favor of Measure 60
Good teachers should be rewarded.
"While money may not be the only way to attract the teachers we need, it is a useful tool and one we can readily wield."[8]
What's more important to our kids' education: tenure or good teaching skills? (Oregon doesn't have tenure.)
The proposal will "reward good teachers, weed out bad ones and improve the quality of the state's schools."[9]
Opposition
Measure 60 is opposed by the Parents and Teachers Know Better Coalition, which describes itself as "a broad coalition of parents, teachers, and school advocates who care about Oregon's students & schools."[10] The Parents and Teachers Know Better campaign is part of the Defend Oregon Coalition, which opposes all five of the ballot initiatives on the 2008 ballot measures that are sponsored by Sizemore.[11]
Members of the coalition include Stand for Children, Oregon PTA, United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley, Oregon Education Association, American Federation of Teachers-Oregon, Oregon School Employees Association, and the Human Services Coalition of Oregon, among others.[12]
Arguments against Measure 60
Notable arguments made against Measure 60 include:
Because none of the terms are defined in the measure, there is no way to know how teachers will actually be judged, or who will be doing the judging.
It is "costly, ill-conceived, inflexible and potentially damaging to the children of Oregon...poorly written, vague and not based on best practices."[13]
It could lead to more standardized testing and cause low-income areas to lose teachers.
Donors opposing Measure 60
Defend Oregon, as a committee, is fighting seven different ballot measures, and supporting two others. Altogether, the group has raised over $6 million in 2008.[14]
Major donations to the Defend Oregon group as of October 8 include:[15]
Initiative Petition 20 was originally approved for circulation on August 30, 2006, and the signatures were turned in the month of July. 83,724 signatures were found to be valid of those submitted, versus a qualification threshold of 82,769.[19]
A union-funded watchdog group asked the Oregon Secretary of State to conduct an investigation into how some of the signatures on the measure were collected. Bill Bradbury, the Secretary of State has said, "...most all of the initiatives Oregon voters will decide this fall got there through practices that are now illegal. But those practices were legal at the time most of the signatures were submitted." The state Elections Division is currently investigating the charges.[20][21][22]
Ballot Measure 47 was an initiative in the U.S. state of Oregon that passed in 1996, affecting the assessment of property taxes and instituting a double majority provision for tax legislation. Measure 50 was a revised version of the law, which also passed, after being referred to the voters by the 1997 state legislature.
The Oregon tax revolt is a political movement in Oregon which advocates for lower taxes. This movement is part of a larger anti-tax movement in the western United States which began with the enactment of Proposition 13 in California. The tax revolt, carried out in large part by a series of citizens' initiatives and referendums, has reshaped the debate about taxes and public services in Oregon.
The U.S. state of Oregon established vote-by-mail as the standard mechanism for voting with Ballot Measure 60, a citizen's initiative, in 1998. The measure made Oregon the first state in the United States to conduct its elections exclusively by mail. The measure passed on November 3, 1998, by a margin of 69.4% to 30.6%. Political scientists say Oregon's vote by mail system contributes to its highest-in-the-nation rate of voter turnout, at 61.5% of eligible voters.
Bill Sizemore is an American political activist and writer in Redmond, Oregon, United States. Sizemore has never held elected office, but has nonetheless been a major political figure in Oregon since the 1990s. He is considered one of the main proponents of the Oregon tax revolt, a movement that seeks to reduce taxes in the state. Oregon Taxpayers United, a political action committee he founded in 1993, has advanced numerous ballot initiatives limiting taxation, and has opposed spending initiatives. Sizemore made an unsuccessful run for Governor of Oregon in 1998. He also announced his intention to run for governor in 2010, but was indicted by the state on charges of tax evasion. The charges were later amended to failure to file tax returns.
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, a law in the U.S. state of Oregon, was established by Oregon Ballot Measure 67 in 1998, passing with 54.6% support. It modified state law to allow the cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana by doctor recommendation for patients with certain medical conditions. The Act does not affect federal law, which still prohibits the cultivation and possession of marijuana.
Oregon Ballot Measure 37 was a controversial land-use ballot initiative that passed in the U.S. state of Oregon in 2004 and is now codified as Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 195.305. Measure 37 has figured prominently in debates about the rights of property owners versus the public's right to enforce environmental and other land use regulations. Voters passed Measure 49 in 2007, substantially reducing the impact of Measure 37.
Term limits legislation – term limits for state and federal office-holders – has been a recurring political issue in the U.S. state of Oregon since 1992. In that year's general election, Oregon voters approved Ballot Measure 3, an initiative that enacted term limits for representatives in both houses of the United States Congress and the Oregon Legislative Assembly, and statewide officeholders. It has been described as the strictest term limits law in the country.
Elections in Oregon are all held using a Vote by Mail (VBM) system. This means that all registered voters receive their ballots via postal delivery and can vote from their homes. A state Voters’ Pamphlet is mailed to every household in Oregon about three weeks before each statewide election. It includes information about each measure and candidate in the upcoming election.
On November 4, 2008, the U.S. state of Oregon held statewide general elections for three statewide offices, both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, and twelve state ballot measures. The primary elections were held on May 20, 2008. Both elections also included national races for President of the US, US Senator, and US House Representatives. Numerous local jurisdictions — cities, counties, and regional government entities — held elections for various local offices and ballot measures on these days as well.
The 75th Oregon Legislative Assembly convened beginning on January 12, 2009, for its biennial regular session. All of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 30 seats in the State Senate were up for election in 2008; the general election for those seats took place on November 4.
Oregon Ballot Measure 64 was an initiated state statute ballot measure on the November 4, 2008 general election ballot in Oregon.
Oregon Ballot Measure 58 was an initiated state statute ballot measure sponsored by Bill Sizemore that appeared on the November 4, 2008 general election ballot in Oregon. It was rejected by voters.
Oregon Ballot Measure 59 was an initiated state statute ballot measure sponsored by Bill Sizemore that appeared on the November 4, 2008 general election ballot in Oregon, United States. If it had passed, Oregon would have join Alabama, Iowa, and Louisiana as the only states to allow federal income taxes to be fully deducted on state income tax returns.
Loren Ernest Parks was an American businessman from the state of Nevada. He previously lived in Oregon, from 1957 to 2002, and was the biggest political contributor in the history of that state. He financed numerous ballot measure initiative petitions and campaigns from the mid-1990s. He also contributed heavily to races for prominent offices by his attorney, Kevin Mannix, a frequent chief petitioner of ballot campaigns.
Oregon Ballot Measure 61 was an initiated state statute ballot measure that enacted law to create mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain theft, identity theft, forgery, drug, and burglary crimes.
Oregon Ballot Measure 62 (2008) appeared on the November 4, 2008 general election ballot in Oregon. It was an initiated constitutional amendment dealing with the issue of where a percentage of profit from the Oregon State Lottery should go. The initiative, if it had passed, would have required that 15% of net lottery proceeds be deposited in a public safety fund. 50% of that fund would have been distributed to counties to fund grants for childhood programs, district attorney operations, and sheriff's investigations. The other 50% of the fund would have gone to Oregon State Police criminal investigations and forensic operations. It is expected that most of that money would have been diverted from schools. It was rejected with around 60% of the votes statewide; every county except for Josephine saw majority rejection.
Oregon Ballot Measure 63 was an initiated state statute that appeared on the November 4, 2008 general election ballot in Oregon. It would have allowed homeowners to make improvements costing less than $35,000 to their home/real estate without first obtaining a building permit.
Measures 66 and 67 are two ballot referendums that were on the January 26, 2010 special election ballot in the US state of Oregon, which proposed tax increases on corporations and on households making US$250,000 and individuals making $125,000 to help balance the state's budget. The measures referred two bills passed by the Oregon state legislature on June 11, 2009, and signed by Governor Ted Kulongoski on July 20, 2009, to the voters for approval. They were approved and became effective February 25, 2010.
Oregon Ballot Measure 97 was a ballot measure in the 2016 election in the U.S. state of Oregon. The initiative asked voters to determine whether or not to impose a 2.5 percent gross receipts tax on C corporations with Oregon sales exceeding $25 million. S corporations and benefit companies would be exempt from the tax. It was estimated the measure would raise $3 billion annually for the state, if passed.
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