School districts in Oregon are asking for more money from the state, even though enrollment numbers are dropping.

The governor proposed $9.9 billion for the State School Fund in next year's budget.

“I think I’ve said it three times tonight. The state school fund is not keeping up,” said Michael Schofield, associate superintendent of business at Beaverton School District, in Monday night’s budget meeting. “We need the Legislature to fund us.”

The district’s budget proposal relies on $10.1 billion coming from the state. Beaverton administrators hope to convince lawmakers to come up with more funding.

“It’s impossible to continue at 9.9,” said Superintendent Gustavo Balderas. “We need more money. We need to continue to lobby Salem for what we need."

Current statewide education service levels operate at $10.3 billion. Beaverton's budget proposal shows that 90 cuts will have to be made just to operate at $10.1 billion.

Portland Public Schools has also proposed cutting 90 positions.

In Tigard-Tualatin, 64 positions have already been eliminated for next school year, Including 43 teachers.

“To the state Legislature, fund us the current service levels of $10.3 billion or you’re going to create a crisis, on top of the crisis that already exists in education,” said Scott Herron, president of the Tigard-Tualatin Education Association.

One thousand one hundred students have left the Tigard-Tualatin School District since 2019. Herron says fewer students creates a domino effect, starting with a shrinking pool of school funding.

“If you underfund education, if you make larger class sizes, if you make it harder on teachers and you have fewer teachers, you’re not going to get those students back in school,” he said.