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Brett Bigham met President Barack Obama in 2014, following his selection as 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year.

(Courtesy Bret Bigham)

By Brett Bigham

As 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year, I had the amazing opportunity to learn from teachers around the country. And I can say that a recent Oregonian/OregonLive article sells Oregon's teachers, students and voters short. The article completely misses the tremendous need for Measure 97 in Oregon.

The article failed to report that during the 2014-2015 school year, Oregon had the third-highest ratio of students per teacher in the nation. Or that Oregon has the fourth-lowest graduation rate. Or that only 6 percent of Oregon's elementary school classes had fewer than 16 students, while 44 percent had more than 25 students. (In one district a first-year kindergarten teacher had over 40 students in her class.)

The gross underfunding of our kids' education is simply unacceptable. But, as teachers, we try to do the best for our students in this broken system.

In my work, I've learned that Oregon teachers spend between $500 to $1,000 of their own money to buy the supplies and curriculum they need. Teachers have a sworn duty to provide their students with the best education they possibly can. This often means choosing to buy books over buying lunch, since the majority of classrooms often lack books, curriculum and modern technology.

Oregon is unable to keep up with education funding in large part due to corporate income taxes that are the lowest in the nation. While personal income tax collections have grown over time, corporate income taxes have not.

When our firefighters, nurses and teachers are paying more in taxes than Comcast, Walmart and Monsanto, there is something wrong. I understand that wealthy companies want to make more profits for their investors, but those same companies use Oregon roads and send their children to Oregon schools.

Oregonians pay their fair share to students. Big corporations should, too.

Measure 97 simply asks some of the largest companies to do just that, moving Oregon from dead-last in corporate taxes in the nation. Only 1,051 corporations will be affected, yet the measure is estimated to generate $3 billion dollars a year, meaning we could start putting our students, and not corporations, first.

Six-thousand volunteers, 250 Oregon businesses, 576 community organizations, along with several economists, parents and teachers have all come out in support of Measure 97. I'm joining them, because as teachers, we put your children first.

It is time for big corporations to do the same.

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Brett Bigham of Portland was named the 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year and in 2015 the Oregon Education Association's Educator of Excellence. He previously taught students in the Multnomah Education Service District.