Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Signs Law Removing Basic Literacy and Math Skill Requirement for High School Graduates
Standards dropped to accommodate “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”
No, this is not the Bee. Oregon has decided that basic literacy and basic maths competency are not only unworthy goals of K-12 public education but that they shouldn’t even be a requirement to “earn” (really, at this point, just be granted) a high school diploma. Because ‘equity.’
‘Equity’ is, to my mind, among the most destructive, divisive, soul-crushing concepts in the ideological universe, the myriad and far-reaching consequences of this systemic cruelty will be felt for generations.
Apparently, Oregon governor Kate Brown has some inkling of the damage she is doing because she reportedly kept her stance on and even the eventual signing of this bill into law under the radar.
For the next five years, an Oregon high school diploma will be no guarantee that the student who earned it can read, write or do math at a high school level.
Gov. Kate Brown had demurred earlier this summer regarding whether she supported the plan passed by the Legislature to drop the requirement that students demonstrate they have achieved those essential skills. But on July 14, the governor signed Senate Bill 744 into law.
Through a spokesperson, the governor declined again Friday to comment on the law and why she supported suspending the proficiency requirements.
Brown’s decision was not public until recently, because her office did not hold a signing ceremony or issue a press release and the fact that the governor signed the bill was not entered into the legislative database until July 29, a departure from the normal practice of updating the public database the same day a bill is signed.
We all hear horror stories about students “graduating” high school without being able to read or write, but we think of these as isolated instances and typically occurring in Democrat-run inner cities. Now Oregon is enshrining illiteracy, including maths illiteracy, into actual state law. It’s mind-blowing.
Oregon Live continues:
[Charles] Boyle[, the governor’s deputy communications director,] said in an emailed statement that suspending the reading, writing and math proficiency requirements while the state develops new graduation standards will benefit “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”
Latino, Latina, AND Latinx? Someone needs to bone up on their woke speak.
Oregon Live continues:
“Leaders from those communities have advocated time and again for equitable graduation standards, along with expanded learning opportunities and supports,” Boyle wrote.
Lawmakers and the governor did not pass any major expansion of learning opportunities or supports for Black, Indigenous and students of color during this year’s legislative session.
The requirement that students demonstrate freshman- to sophomore-level skills in reading, writing and, particularly, math led many high schools to create workshop-style courses to help students strengthen their skills and create evidence of mastery. Most of those courses have been discontinued since the skills requirement was paused during the pandemic before lawmakers killed it entirely.
This is always the Democrat response to groups of students who do not achieve even basic reading/writing and maths skills: don’t lift them up by targeting and helping these students; instead, drag everyone down by simply eliminating basic proficiency requirements for all students. Problem solved! Yeah, yeah, this creates new and far worse problems, “unintended consequences,” but so what? That’s down the road.
Shameful.
Needless to say, people have thoughts.
This perfectly illustrates the kind of debilitating prejudice I wish to avoid when I say I am no longer participating in the all-American game of race. I don’t want anyone to ever think they can ever target me or my children with this kind of patronizing soft bigotry. https://t.co/mDIjn8K03F
— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) August 10, 2021
I wonder whether the governor realizes how deeply insulting and patronizing this must be for the supposed beneficiaries of such decisions in addition to making a mockery of the global quest for literacy.
— Kris Janowski (@JanowskiKris) August 10, 2021
In which Oregon's high school diploma becomes a participation trophy. @hborrud via @Oregonian https://t.co/YUf8GIk9ku #orleg #orpol @OregonHouseGOP @ORSenateGOP
— Dale Chu (@Dale_Chu) August 10, 2021
That’s awful. The schools have failed these students. Instead of admitting to this failure, they are just going to gloss over it? That’s not equity. It’s ignoring a problem that, if left unaddressed, will absolutely lead to inequity by any definition of the word!
— Bill Glick (@BillGlickYk) August 10, 2021
In my more pessimistic moments, I tend to gravitate to mildly deterministic and "cyclical" views of history. Stories like this make me think we are just simply (and unstoppably) on the downslope of the decaying civilization sine wave.
— Richard Wood (@WillMonox2112) August 10, 2021
I wonder whether the governor realizes how deeply insulting and patronizing this must be for the supposed beneficiaries of such decisions in addition to making a mockery of the global quest for literacy.
— Kris Janowski (@JanowskiKris) August 10, 2021
Oregon if failing everyone by not being able teach everyone at high standards. The OR governor should be trying to find out how to teach everyone regardless of color, not lowering standards because the OR schools are failing people
— Brian (@BSum94) August 10, 2021
Doing to Education what Democrats have done to every major city they run. Destroy it, and leave the poor behind to suffer, as the rich white Libs flee to ruin another city, or in this case they'll put their kids in private schools.
— James Rhine (@jamesrhine) August 10, 2021
How does NOT being proficient benefit them or society in any way?
— Greg Bennett (@GregoryLBennett) August 10, 2021
Every time they invoke "equity" it's always the same song and dance… pic.twitter.com/39DuyOcvdJ
— Aethix (@Aethix0) August 10, 2021
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Comments
American excellence is where it’s at. C’mon, man!
On the positive side, at least from an employer’s point of view, short-changing these HS “graduates” on their paychecks will be pretty easy.
This what sabotage looks like. On a Chi-Comm scale.
China doesn’t need carrier-busting missles. It has all the crooked, treasonous American politicans it could buy – including McConnell.
https://nationalfile.com/flashback-don-blankenship-warned-us-of-mcconnells-ties-to-communist-china-in-2018-campaign-ad/
Sounds like Oregon Dems are hoping to create a lumpenproletariat class….
Jethro Bodine’s eight grade education is looking pretty good now!
All of “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color” should be furious. Oregon’s governor just said that they are too stupid to learn to read and write and do simple math, so the state will stop requiring it.
I can’t understand why minorities don’t get mad at the Democrats’ constant patronizing and telling them they can’t succeed without Dems giving them government handouts and quotas.
The path of least resistance is greased with redistributive secular lucre.
“They just can’t learn the same way as whitey. ” But by bunching all together, she makes the point she believes they are equally the same…
The Governor just said, “Can’t read or do math? CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GRADUATED REGARDLESS! Now, you’re not our problem anymore. Go away, you bother me.”
Many of them do.
11 August 2051
Exutive Uder
Ofuce o d Guvuner o Origone
it b don’t got no reedn aint no gud n origan iz dcide dat we gon hav nomo skools cauz it b no fare cuz it 2 hard.
It now figered dat dis sav u tax parer bout 2539,010,1,09372,1134.0038 dolurz cauz King Joe d VI gonna giv us da $ 2 pay du teechurs so dont gotta.
A quote from from that prophetic movie Idiocray?
Idiocracy.
Your French is atrocious.
Orks from 40k have better writing skills.
Why don’t we just save everyone billions of dollars and just close down the public school systems. If providing education is asking too much of our public education institutions, what exactly does this turd believe they are for? I am very confident that parents will quickly find a solution for a lot less money.
They are there to purge wrongthink and eliminate independent thought.
The public schools are tax payer funded day care centers.
This is far too true.
No, government schools are a slush fund for Democrat politicians and a safe haven for stupid ideologues. Assured Democrat voters and money direct from the artery of public funds. Students are merely hostages/human shields for the scam.
JHogan said:
> The public schools are tax payer funded day care centers.
Well, they do a damn lousy job of it. Students are not safe in public schools, unless they are in the bully caste.
iconotastic seems to have a more accurate picture of this dystopic situation. Someone else mentioned the movie Idiocracy, labeling it prophetic. I’m sorry to agree with that.
So will this move cause Oregon’s citizens to vote her out, along with the legislators who passed this bill? Doubtful. Ignorance (of the populace) is strength!
Karyn Boresenko (spelled that right?) has worn a hat with the slogan “Make Orwell fiction again”.
I at first was going to comment about what outfits like Intel, Tektronix (if they still exist), and HP would be thinking of this. Silicon Forest and all that.
But, then I remembered: the hire Chinese and Indians; Americans – especially white ones – need not apply.
Democrats have always been in the forefront of denying their slaves the ability to either read, write, or do basic math. So I reckon the Silicon Valley overlords who run the party are just fine with this.
No, we hired whites. Racism is a net loss to real capitalism. Sadly enough, most whites won’t work hard enough nor take the rigorous coursework required to succeed in tech.
So (imho) screw them.
And that, in turn. Came from the mindset that led to participation trophies, and “Every Child is an Honor Student at Lyndon Johnson Elementary School”.
Minimizing Proficiency Theory holds that a base set of developed skills and acquired knowledge cannot be assessed, let alone expected, without systemic prejudice rearing its politically incongruent head to color the results.
So, the only purpose of school will be to teach white man bad.
Don’t forget Orange man bad.
Will be?
And fielding football & basketball teams
RACE TO THE BOTTOM
Where does the Wokeness end? Why stop here. There are people with mental disabilities who should be able to graduate. Why hold them back?
In fact, make a change to benefit certain racial groups – but not continuing further to include other societal groups is inherently discriminatory and not inclusive and therefore unfairly withholds equity from marginalized groups..
Bottom Line is – how can you justify where you draw the line ? Anywhere you draw it will exclude someone.
It ends with communism – which is just the beginning of genocide.
Louisiana. At Least We’re Not Oregon.
Women in polilics go with feelings, not structure. You don’t want them designing big systems.
This is the epitome of systemic racism.
(Keep in mind that Kate and the Democrats are denizens of Oregon west of the Cascades and north of Douglas County. She is loathed by most of the residents of Central and Eastern Oregon, and she and her politics are unwelcome here. Population density being what it is, we can’t do much about it.)
Anti-racist crusaders writing laws that make it ok to not teach black children to read or do math.
Wow…makes me want to write a hippy song.
If I had an irony hammer— I’d swing it in the morning… I’d swing in Salem, I’d swing it all across their thick damn heads.
This bill was passed by the Oregon legislative branch in June, June 14 by House branch and June 16 by the Senate.
This brings this question to light, are there any media members in Oregon actually monitoring what takes place on a daily basis. Oregon Live is probably the largest news site in the state and they new nothing about it or maybe they knew but covered it up as long as they could and are reporting on it because word got out.
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB744
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Measures/Overview/SB744
Oregon Live recently learned that a former Governor was screwing his teenage babysitter. After they promised to do better, they immediately lied about a married editor having a heart attack while with the young woman he was “helping” through college. I don’t think that even they can tell when they are really lying anymore. On a plus note, the whole paper is barely an 8 page pamphlet that they want $5 for on Sundays.
My son just graduated at the top of his class from LaSalle Prep. He was taking linear algebra in high school at the same time that the public schools were dropping senior year calculus because it made the “students of lesser ability” feel bad about themselves. And they recently got a measure passed where the wealthy now have to pony up for free daycare /indoctrination for all 3 and 4 yo. Of course, there are no teachers or places to do it at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped them from collecting the taxes for “later” use somewhere. I really can’t leave here soon enough. So 2 days ago a homeless guy bothering a woman on the bus that runs down my street was shot by another rider. I guess when you let the crazies ride for free it is bound to happen at some point. perhaps we’ll get a Bernie Goetz reprieve and the cray crays will have it sink in that the guy who do it hasn’t been caught and he might be on the bus that they are on at the moment. God I hate Portland.
At this point I think it is fair to say that anyone who is from Oregon who presents an Oregon high school diploma as part of their credentials when applying for anything from now on needs to be rejected out of hand, UNLESS they can also simultaneously present later non-Oregon credentials that indicate literacy and math comprehension and ability.
Subotai Bahadur
I was about to suggest aptitude testing if the interview went well. But, I seem to recall those being banned as discriminatory some time back.
She’s just making official what has been going on across the country for several decades.
And it’s not only at the HS level. Some state colleges crank out graduates who cannot do HS level reading, writing, and math. I worked with one. That was over two decades ago. It can only have gotten worse.
Evidently if you show up for class you pass. Participation degrees.
Oregon “No child left educated.”
How much more racist can you get than to codify in law the proposition that minorities are mentally inferior?
TY Petrushka, I was just thinking the same thing… If I understand this.. she is saying POC are too dumb to read and write? is that it?
Mississippi laughs.
Louisiana laughs.
Arkansas laughs.
Tennessee laughs.
And certainly Alabama laughs.
.
Not all women are all the feelz, but I’m hanged if I can think of a counter example since Maggie Thatcher.
Hmm, interesting! I can think of five women, all of whom are my co-workers here at LI, who have big brains and are logic, not emotion, based in their thinking, but yeah, I am stumped for a female pol who is more driven by logic than feelz. I guess you could make an argument that RINO POS Liz Cheney falls in that camp, but she’s crazy and embarrassing to conservative women everywhere. There are high profile conservatives who are not driven by feelz: Candace Owens, Laura Ingraham, Dana Loesch, et al. But yeah, I’m hard-pressed to think of a female pol who doesn’t cave to the feelz brigade.
That said, show me a male Democrat who is not driven by feelz. Simpering soy boy beta males whinging on about feelz and “fair shares” and blah blah waaaah inequity. Shudder.
None more racist.
Bringing American kids down to illegals kids in education,
That’s leveling the playing field the Marxists are looking for.
These Leftists don’t even pretend that they are trying.. The disdain shown to the citizens is disgraceful. And yet, no one seems to care.
My question would be what does the Oregon Constitution have to say? Most State Constitutions have some variation of ‘the legislature shall establish and maintain a public school system for the benefit of children age x to y.
Many times some or all of the districts in a State have been or are currently under CT order or consent decree regarding the efficacy of the education provided based upon the language of the State Constitution. Sometimes based upon 14th amendment concerns.
Assuming Oregon has any of these factors the next question is does removing performance measurements of reading, writing and math because some, many or most students are unable to achieve basic proficiency actually benefit the students?
If the answer is no then the State education system is not meeting it’s Constitutional responsibility. IMO.
So here’s a philosophical question – If you cannot read a constitution, does it matter what it says?
Of course it does. Human civilization used story telling/oral history prior to widespread literacy. The Catholic Church in the west maintained Latin as the language of Christianity during religious Services.
The first complete Bible in German was the Luther Bible in 1534. The first complete Bible in English was the Coverdale Bible in 1535. The first complete Bible in Spanish was in 1539.
Would you argue that lack of literacy negates the importance of the content of the Bible on Western Civilization?
I would argue if only a small caste could read it, they could tell everyone else anything the liked about what it purportedly said, so to the illiterate, what it actually says is irrelevant. What may matter, then, is what someone else who has claim to special knowledge says it says. This is why the Luther Bible was revolutionary – and reviled by the mainstream clergy as it obliterated special powers of a special caste that got to exclusively control the meaning of a text.
And if NO ONE can read a text, like Egyptian hieroglyphs before the Rosetta Stone, then anyone can speculate about its meaning but will, in fact, have none.
A free man must be able to read and decide for himself what is right and what wrong, and what is true and what is false. Slaves are kept in ignorance because they are easier to thereby control and manipulate and is why they must be denied literacy and the ability to reason. This edict from the government of Oregon is a step in the march to making the people slaves.
But do not worry, because Big Tech and the government will tell you what is true and what is false, and they will reason for you. Your life will be so much simpler. Just do what you are told, and no body gets hurt. .
You raised a philosophical question that is the equivalent of ‘if a tree falls in forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound’.
I answered your question with a concrete example regarding the importance of the text, it’s meaning and it’s widespread impact despite widespread illiteracy.
You seem to be arguing that the priestly class can permanently preserve their ability to maintain power. History doesn’t reflect that at all. There is no permanent stasis.
Would our modern clerisy, the highly educated well connected elites, prefer to maintain power? Absolutely that’s human nature.
The real question is can they? IMO, not only no but hell no. History is replete with examples of the clerisy in it’s many forms being ousted.
I don’t disagree that the modern clerisy would prefer to impose a neo-fsudal system. That’s been evident for some time. Off shoring quality manufacturing jobs to low wage nations.
Then telling formerly well paid middle-class workers to either ‘learn to code’, get a minimum wage job in retail or succumb to addiction and despair.
I highly doubt that the American people will continue to tolerate these outcomes. See DJT in 2016. That shocked the clerisy. They adapted and manipulated Covid to secure their desired outcome in 2020.
That’s a one off. Those conditions are not reproducible unless we sit idle and allow it. Many States are adjusting their election procedures to mitigate a repeat performance.
The true question is are all of us willing to push hard enough to support the officials working to ensure fair and open elections? If the current officials won’t get on board are we doing enough to find and recruit quality candidates to replace them?
It is clear you grasped the nature of my question and response perfectly. I wish I could be as sanguine as you about the future. But I find myself full of despair.
You state, “You seem to be arguing that the priestly class can permanently preserve their ability to maintain power. History doesn’t reflect that at all. There is no permanent stasis”
I agree, there is no stasis, but history shows, concretely in my mind, that freedom is not the natural state of man, but rather the natural state of man is to live in bondage and under tyranny.
A few notable shinning, but fleeting, examples of men living in ordered liberty exist. The American experiment was (used in past tense purposefully) one. But mostly history is about tyrants and people living under oppression.
The public’s reaction to this virus has shaken my faith in the American people and their dedication to preserve liberty to its very core. The people, in the main, are meekly accepting the imposition of tyranny for a mere hope of avoiding a tiny chance of death or somewhat greater chance of temporary physical discomfort.
There is no guarantee of freedom, in America or anywhere else. Perhaps we can delay things a bit over the course of an election or two. But to me, that is the best case scenario. We have gone too far down the road to merely turn around and walk back. It will take a lot more than that now, and I do not see the fire and determination, nor the courage or wisdom, amongst the people to do what will be required.
It’s been said that in the long-term, we are all dead. For me, there is no long-term. I am the oldest person I know or have ever known. Perhaps my mind is clouded by the prospects of my future, but I do not think so.
And yet, I have no given up, and doubt you will, either. So there is hope, but I think that is all it may be.
BSR,
If you allow despair to overcome your willingness to realistically but optimistically asses and engage our opponents you have lost.
They want us to mentally give up and just go through the motions. Resist that impulse. Don’t adopt a defeated, woe is me, all is lost, we can’t win mindset. If you do then your efforts will be half hearted and ineffective.
Maintaining a mindset that victory is possible ensures that it remains possible.
/This
“And your diploma is from where? Thank you, on your way out, could you please send the next person in.”
How will the mail get delivered in Oregon now?
I think it’s commendable. Oregon’s goal is for every student to have the same mental proficiency as the President of the United States.
Bwahaha!
I wish the NBA would change their rules so that merely touching the ball is worth three points. Then instead of being the worst player in basketball history, I would be just as good as Steph Curry. That would be equity.
Variation: in the name of equity, does anyone know where a 270 lb jockey can get a ride?
“…maths illiteracy…”
Did you mean innumeracy?
Equity = Marxism
Anywhere you see or hear it.
Every single time.
The “public school system” must end. The “government” has failed.
1. Eliminate the Federal Education system.
2. Ban unions in the public sector.
3. Move the existing Federal funding from the Feds to the States with only the State Counties responsible, period. In this way the “people” will be able to control their local schools and spending.
4. Require complete school choice for all parents and students nationally. Allow home schooling, private schools, charter schools and other locally County identified “schools”.
5. The curriculums shall be determined by the Counties, period.
6. The “Staffs” of the “public” schools shall be determined and supervised by the County Officials, period.
7. This is only the start to success.
Future Dem Voter exemplars: woefully ignorant but fully indoctrinated.
Totally lacking in the “3 Rs” but overflowing with self-esteem.
Diplomas will now proclaim:
Dumb as a rock and proud of it!
As we used to say about orthopods, “smarter than a rock, but not as smart as a tree.”
Homeschool
Just like slavery, the masters must keep their charges ignorant and illiterate. Keeps ’em in line, don’t ya know.
When I was in school, we had the vast majority who were actually promoted to the next grade level and the minority who were “placed”. Those who were placed were the ones who got mostly Cs, Ds, and Fs because they couldn’t do the work but the education system didn’t want to make their problems worse by alienating them from their peer group. Nobody was deluded enough to think there was any other reason, and almost all of them dropped out of school by the eleventh grade.
So now we can have the whole group qualify for “placement” because nobody will have much incentive to be genuinely promoted, other than those who think doing the work for its own sake and enjoying learning new things will be worth the effort. How many will now bother to learn for the sake of learning? Not many, and they will be ridiculed by the unlearned masses.
Homeschooling, anyone?
.
The main part of the problem is the slackers and “behaviorals ” being considered the peers of the kids who earned promotion.
It really comes down to the parents and the role model that they set. When mommy and daddy can’t put down the crack pipe, well, there is no hope for those kids. Some may possess the abilities to get ahead, but then they have the cultural norms which “keep them in place.” Season 4 of “The Wire”hammered this home 15years ago, so I am not sure why so many seem surprised.
No requirements for mastering literacy skills, reading skills, or having math skills. No worries, you have the skills to replace the current idiot Governor of Oregon!
So this White woman just came out and said that people of color are unable to learn what white children can learn! That is so offensively condescending and racist that there need to be demonstrations in the state capital and on her own front lawn until she apologizes and resigns.
It’s been the unspoken policy in many schools for a very long time to pass and graduate students who’ve learned nothing of what’s supposedly required. Now, they’ve made it official so that they no longer have to pretend to be teaching them anything.
With all the time spent on social and political indoctrination, and many teachers who are uneducated themselves, they’ve given up the pretense of teaching anything useful. The few who want to learn will teach themselves, and the rest will come out believing in Marxism, and dumber than they went in.
If you have children, get them the hell out of public schools. And this rot has spread to most private schools as well.
Public schools aren’t just failing kids. They are actively sabotaging them. There’s a reason why more college students are reporting mental health issues.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/
“In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health.”
Yes, college students are demanding it. But then they were indoctrinated by their K-12 teachers to believe that they are delicate snowflakes, that some words are violence, and only those in authority (their teachers and administrators at that moment) can protect them from their minds getting raped by all those invisible monsters lurking everywhere. When they get to college, some (not all) stick with their programming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa49iocFTSE
“Eric Holder: ‘We need to brainwash people'”
If you leave your kids in public school, by the time they graduate from HS they will likely have an anxiety disorder. The Atlantic imagines this is an unintended side effect of a well meaning educational establishment.
It isn’t. Remember, it is never about what the left tells you it’s about. Black lives really don’t matter to them. That’s why less than 50% of black pregnancies in NYC result in a live birth.
https://www.hli.org/resources/sangers-birth-control-review-part-i/
Full disclosure; abortions plus miscarriages mean fewer than 50% of black pregnancies are brought to term.
The way cults operate is to make their members mentally and emotionally ill. Anxious, fearful people are easier to coerce. Remember Michelle Obama’s awful school lunch program? Leaving kids too tired and hungry to go to sports practice after school?
One of the social-environmental techniques is to feed people a bare subsistence diet. They can live on it but they’ll be malnourished (the Iranians do this to women who apostatize; they imprison them, basically put them on a bread and water diet, and beat them the five times a day they should be praying).
Malnourished, anxious, fearful people are easier to coerce. You tell me if I’m just imagining things. But somehow the pieces of the puzzle just fit.
And the students come out nicely brainwashed. And what a wonderfully self-fulfilling prophecy we have here. The NEA decides it’s racist to teach students math, writing, and proper grammar. Why, it’s almost like the NEA is deciding blacks are too stupid to learn this s***. Then they go out into the real world and I the evil capitalist don’t hire them because they can’t do math, write, or speak f***ing English. Like I don’t need servers in my restaurant who can explain the menu. Or calculate the tab. Or cooks who can adhere to the executive chef’s recipes.
No, I’m not hiring them because they aren’t white, they’re teachers who didn’t teach them job skills told them until they turned 18.
And they’ll believe it.
As shown by the comments, this article is deeply troubling. Many parents have trusted in and invested in public school education for their children (perhaps decades ago.) That credential is now being seriously devalued.
The Governor’s statement is offensive to each minority group she named, particularly Asian Americans who excel in both public schools and in other school systems.
One hundred years ago, the public schools served as the nation’s melting pot — everyone got a good education regardless of whether your parents could speak English or English was their second language. In the 1950s and 1960s, following Brown vs. Board of Education, public schools held the promised of a more integrated society. Governor Brown seems to be rejecting all of that.
Regular testing of academic achievement is a necessary part of a good education, and teacher salaries should, in large part, be based upon test scores.
More and more parents that I talk to are getting very frustrated by this. The problem with oregon is that there is no organized alternative, and if there were, I am sure that voter fraud via the mail-in stuff is already in place to ensure that it gets no traction. The media machine makes everyone who doesn’t toe the line appear to be a full-blown racist, so very few challenge the status quo. I haven’t given a crap in a long time, and my son went to private school from Kindergarten onwards, so I have no dog in the fight and can openly express what I believe. I guess that I can plant some seeds of dissent, but at some point those who re stakeholders need to step up further on their own.
I recently spent a few days in Fort Worth and the take home message to my son is that there was a place with “3” homeless people, 1 tent, absolutely zero “woke” signage, and oddly, only 5 Subarus. Portland and Seattle, I believe, are test beds where some individuals spent A LOT of money to instill a message. I suspect that absolutely none of those orignal “woke” signs were purchased by those displaying them. But now they are entrenched in the culture, sort of the 21st century version of the Swastica. And that kids, is why I am moving. I have no reason to stay and fight someone else’s battle. Portland is my Afghanistan. I should have left long ago after the initial mission was accomplished.