There are no more mysteries about state school funding in the coming year. The Legislature allotted $5.8 billion for Oregon's public schools, pounded the gavel and finally went home this week.

The Coos Bay School District and its teachers need to do the same - settle their contract without more delay. The district has been battered by months of layoffs. Teachers' aides, nurses and others have gone home with pink slips. Additional employees are waiting to know whether they'll have jobs with Coos Bay next year.

Now is not the time for pay raises.

The union representing "classified" workers such as cooks and custodians has recognized the district's dismal reality and has agreed to a two-year wage freeze. Yet many Coos Bay teachers are slated for automatic 2 percent pay increases come August. And bargaining for a new teachers union contract remains stalled while the union presses for continued raises.

When union leaders resisted a wage freeze this spring, they said they wanted to wait for final state budget figures, to see for sure how much money the district would have. Well, legislators have gone home, and the budget picture is not pretty.

If the union is unwilling to accept the same two-year freeze as the classified employees, how about a one-year deal?

No one is saying teachers don't deserve to be paid fairly. But Oregon's imperfect tax structure makes schools vulnerable to economic downturns. With private businesses cutting employees or closing their doors, income taxes are shrinking. The school district has no choice but to live with the consequences.

If the teachers union insists on wage increases, more employees will lose their jobs. Students will crowd into fewer classrooms. More programs will evaporate.

In a shrinking economy, children should take priority over raises for teachers.