In Portland, Oregon’s largest newspaper commended the Oregon legislature for using their supermajorities to “defend Oregon schools and teachers from deep budget cuts.”

In Salem, the legislators ended the session with toasts, tributes and backslapping as they reflected upon their signature accomplishments.

In Redmond, that school district became the largest in Oregon to move to a four-day week. They hoped the larger Medford School District would follow the same path taking off a little of the pressure.

In Hermiston, administrators may have been relieved that the cuts weren’t deeper, but that doesn’t mean much to the dozens of classified and certificated personnel whose positions have vanished. Nor does it mean much to the remaining staff who will be faced with larger classes.

In Ione, members of the community came up with tens of thousands of dollars in order to plug the gap between shortfalls from Salem and the needs of the district. Not every district has the privilege of operating in a community that is willing to make that kind of commitment.

Yes, the legislature stepped out on a limb in order to fund schools at the $5.8 billion dollar level, but the legislature is doing public education a grave disservice by suggesting K-12 education has been protected, defended, or rescued. That creates unrealistic expectations among parents and community members and sends a message the schools have been held harmless.

The Quality Education Model, which was initiated by the state, suggests Oregon’s schools need something in excess of $7 billion. The state, in return, has never come close to funding schools at the level it knows it should.

Educational leaders understand the recession that is gripping America. They also understand the financial challenges being experienced by a state which is almost totally dependent upon income taxes to fund a wide array of public needs. In a recession, those who depend upon such a tax structure for their existence suffer the most.

The people who run our schools are not greedy nor do they have unrealistic expectations. They struggle in times like these with the difficult decisions they know will have negative impacts upon their ability to deliver a quality education.

They are also willing to patch the holes and fill the gaps until, hopefully, more adequate funding becomes a reality.

Local teachers throughout Umatilla and Morrow counties have made dramatic concessions in their contracts in order to help ease the financial pain of the districts in which they work. They have sacrificed wage increases and some have taken off days without pay.

Very few of them expect that to translate into less work.

Certainly the $5.8 billion dollar funding level is a major step up from numbers like $5.4 or $5.6. But not very long ago, the number was expected to be well over six billion dollars.

While in the words of the legislature, “it could have been much worse,” there is no value beyond political rhetoric in seeking to convince the public that $5.8 is a number that preserves what parents have come to expect of their schools.

It’s only a number that falls somewhere on the spectrum between what is really needed and what is available.

Let’s not make it any more glamorous that what it is.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board, comprised of Associate Publisher Kathryn Brown, General Manager Wendy DalPez, Managing Editor Skip Nichols, News Editor Daniel Wattenburger and Senior Reporter Dean Brickey. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian.