Around third grade, South Salem teenager Chloe Bumanlag went to school with a friend one day at Pringle Elementary, just to see what it was like.

TANGENT — Evan Staton carefully placed his plastic car at the top of a thin foam ramp, molded clay driver at the wheel.

At a signal from his partner, 13-year-old Ahmed Moussaoui of Corvallis, the Albany 6-year-old let the car go. It rolled down the ramp and smacked into a toy wagon, sending the clay driver flying.

Egged on by a state senator, Oregon's top expert on school funding told lawmakers Wednesday that the state should seriously consider directing a bigger share of school funding to help low-income students.

At this point, there's nothing surprising about a report that shows a chasm in opportunity between residents in the Portland area and those in rural Oregon. But the annual data book produced by Children First for Oregon provides a bleak reminder of just how stark those differences are.

Another school year has begun for Oregon students exactly as it has for decades. And nothing really has changed, much less improved, even though significant resources have been expended on school improvement and reform.