In this powerful episode of Oregon D.O.G.E., Senator Daniel Bonham, House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, Rep. Boomer Wright (longtime teacher and principal), and analyst Alex Lopez break down the crisis in Oregon’s K-12 education system.
Despite record spending—over $21,000 per student—Oregon’s education outcomes continue to decline:
- 45th in overall education quality
- 44th in school safety
- Chronic absenteeism skyrocketing
- Low graduation rates, especially for minority and homeless students
- Classroom disruptions rising — with “room clears” becoming a common tactic
- Teachers stretched thin while middle-management bureaucracy balloons
Key themes include:
- The overwhelming bureaucracy driving education costs (960 ODE rules spanning 755 pages).
- Bloated administrative budgets pulling funds away from the classroom.
- The true cost of PERS obligations — now over $2.2 billion eating into school budgets.
- How strikes harm students more than teachers or districts.
- The politicization of education: DEI priorities with no accountability for outcomes.
- The damaging push for climate change mandates in all core subjects, distracting from core academics.
- Why Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana have succeeded with basic literacy and math—while Oregon has failed.
A particularly sobering discussion focuses on how middle school performance is collapsing—while the state doubles down on indoctrination instead of fixing reading and math. Oregon is a “high cost, low outcome” system across nearly every metric.
The takeaway? Parents must get engaged. Without accountability, transparency, and parent involvement, Oregon’s public education system risks becoming little more than a political tool — leaving kids behind.