Cascade CounterPoint

This month Wyoming became the 15th state to give students universal school choice. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, any K-12 child in Wyoming may apply for an Education Savings Account of $7,000 per student. The new law also includes preschool children from low-income families.

The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act allocates $30 million to Education Savings Accounts that will initially serve about 4,000 students. Education Savings Account programs allow parents to use a defined amount of funding on behalf of their children for education-related expenses like school tuition and fees, classes, tutoring, textbooks, and transportation.

Wyoming’s new ESA law will empower parents to choosethe educational environments that best help their children succeed. When parents have choices, students have more opportunities for their individual learning needs and goals to be met. Every child should have access to an effective, meaningful, and empowering education. Wyoming has taken a major step to make that happen.

Charter schools are public schools, but students attending Oregon charter schools receive a fraction of the public education funding allocated to regular district school students. According to the Oregon Coalition of Community Charter Schools, charter school funding works out to about 48% of regular district schools’ per-pupil funding. It’s time to address this disparity so that charter schools—which successfully meet the academic and social needs of so many children—have the wherewithal to serve their students well.

House Bill 3444, which received a hearing in the House Committee on Education March 12, would allow charter students to receive 95% of the ADMw (per-pupil funding) provided by the State School Fund. It also would permit charter schools to have access to other forms of funding currently restricted to district public schools, and help charters provide transportation services to their students. These changes would allow education funding to better “follow the child” to the schools of their choice and expand education options available to Oregon families.

Charter schools play an important role in Oregon’s education landscape. They offer local communities more diversity among their public school options and give educators opportunities to use their talents in innovative learning environments. Oregon education policies should value all options that empower students to achieve academic proficiency and reach their personal best, including Oregon charter schools.

On March 11 the Joint Transportation Committee of the Oregon Legislature took testimony on HB 3453, which would create a new transit authority with a mission to take over TriMet’s Westside Express Service (WES) commuter line and expand it to Eugene.

While I share the enthusiasm of the bill’s sponsors for passenger rail, the history of WES shows that a market for commuter rail does not exist.

WES was originally projected to cost $65 million and open in 2000. It actually cost $161.2 million and opened in 2009. TriMet predicted that opening-year ridership would average 2,500 average daily boardings. Actual ridership averaged 1,140.

Daily ridership peaked in 2014 at 1,964 daily boardings, then dropped in each successive year. During 2024 WES averaged just 477 boardings per day.

Since each rider typically takes two daily train trips, that means WES only has about 240 actual customers.

With such little ridership, public subsidies are costly. Last year the operating cost per boarding ride on WES averaged $103, far in excess of the standard TriMet fare of $2.80.

There is no business case for expanding commuter rail. In fact, taxpayers would be better off if we canceled WES, sold the train cars, and moved the few customers back to buses.

At its March 4th meeting, Portland Public School board will hear an update on the Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE). The $60 million CBSE was included in the bond measure approved by voters in 2020, without any prior due diligence. None of the money has been spent.

It hasn’t been spent because no one at PPS can explain what the Center is supposed to be or how it will improve academic performance. Nor has the Board clarified how a center focusing solely on Black students complies with Title VI of the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race.

None of those problems are solved in the Power Point being distributed for tonight’s meeting.  The handout is a 9-page word salad of phrases like “Pages of Possibility” and “Bridges to Brilliance.” It does propose reading campaigns, parent partnerships, and mentoring programs that could benefit students of all races, but those activities do not require a dedicated building.

The Board will be asking voters in May to approve another construction bond in the amount of $1.8 billion. Before demanding more money, PPS should apologize for its failure with the CBSE, and ask voters for permission to reallocate the $60 million to actual construction needs within the District.

Idaho families are the winners after the state’s legislature passed a refundable $5,000 education tax credit last week. Idaho’s Parental Choice Tax Credit (House Bill 93) will help parents pay for private school tuition, textbooks, transportation, and other qualifying education expenses. The program is universal, meaning any family can apply, but families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level will receive priority for the credit. Students with disabilities will qualify for a higher credit of $7,500. The program is capped at $50 million. The bill awaits Governor Brad Little’s signature.

A December 2024 poll conducted by the Mountain StatesPolicy Center shows 66% of Idaho registered voters favor this education tax credit. The nonprofit policy organization also notes that the tax credit program does not take funding from public schools.

Idaho’s new tax credit will empower parents to choose educational environments that best help their children succeed. When parents have choices, students have more opportunities for their individual learning needs and goals to be met. It’s time for Oregon to expand education choices for parents here.

Oregon’s death tax has earned our state a reputation as “the worst place in the U.S. to die.” The 10-16% tax is levied on Oregon estates valued over $1 million at the time of death. The $1 million threshold hasn’t changed for 20 years, not even to adjust for inflation.

It’s time for this to change. House Bill 2301 would raise the tax exemption level to $7 million and decrease the tax rate to 7%.

A primary reason to support this bill is the number ofOregon citizens we would stand to keep. People who have enough assets to be affected by the tax also have other valuable attributes for Oregon communities. They are volunteers for charitable organizations, reading tutors in schools, and mentors to young people.

We have thousands of people like this in the state, butOregon legislators have preferred to chase them away with a punitive tax. We can’t tax ourselves to a better future.

Given that Oregon’s population has remained stagnant overthe past four years, we should be thoughtful about how to attract and retain older people who are in their prime professional and philanthropic years.

A simple way to start would be to pass HB 2301,exchanging a small amount of tax revenue for a growing cohort of individuals investing their time, talent, and treasure for the benefit of Oregon communities.

Tennessee’s Education Freedom Act of 2025 has become the nation’s 13th universal school choice law. Tennessee lawmakers last week passed the statewide educational choice program, which will initially fund 20,000 scholarships—worth about $7,296 each—to children who want to attend private schools.

Half of the scholarships in the first year are reserved for families whose incomes are at or below 300% of the eligibility level for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. The rest of the scholarships are open to children of any income. Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson explained, “This legislation has been marketed as a parental empowerment tool….We’re not going to penalize people who work hard and might do a little better than someone else. We want these to be universal.”

School choice empowers parents to choose the educational environments that will best help their children succeed. At least 40% of all students nationwide are eligible to participate in a school choice program. When parents have choices, students have more opportunities for their individual learning needs and goals to be met. Tennessee deserves congratulations for opening the doors to success for children in the Volunteer State.

This week parents, educators, and students nationwide are celebrating National School Choice Week, an annual event highlighting education options available to K-12 children today. School choice means empowering parents to choose the educational environments that will best help their children succeed. To really improve academic outcomes in Oregon, families must be able to send their children to schools that meet their learning needs.

Here are three ways Oregon leaders can expand educational opportunity during the 2025 Legislative Session, now underway in Salem:

When parents have choices, students have better opportunities to learn, grow, and reach their potential. Oregon education policies should expand students’ options, so all children can have an effective, meaningful, and empowering school experience.

This week marks the inauguration of President Trump and the opening of the Oregon legislative session. With new opportunities ahead, policy makers should think hard about why government exists.

The most basic thing we expect from the government is protection of lives and property. Unfortunately, many elected officials find this boring. They are obsessed with electric vehicles, fossil fuels, plastic packaging, iconic fish species, preferred pronouns, equal outcomes, and dozens of other boutique issues. They prefer working on passion projects rather than protecting public safety.

It’s not working.

Looking at the Executive Orders issued by President Trump on his first day in office, it’s refreshing to see how many of them are designed to simply get government out of the way. That’s why he was elected.

Of course we won’t see any such directives issued by Gov. Kotek. She’s a believer in central planning. But even she knows that most Oregon cities are over-taxed and over-regulated.

Elected officials in Oregon are trying to do too much, for the wrong reasons.  A great New Year’s Resolution would be to do less and do it better.

January 26-February 1 will be the 15th annual National School Choice Week, the world’s largest celebration of parental choice and effective education options for all children.

National School Choice Week (NSCW) “informs, inspires, and

School choice means empowering parents to choose the educational environments that will best help their children succeed. Thirty-three states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have expanded students’ academic opportunities through 75 school choice programs. More than 22 million students are eligible to participate in a school choice program—about 40% of all students nationwide. When parents have choices, students have more opportunities for their individual learning needs and goals to be met.

Oregon should put parents “in the driver’s seat” of their children’s education through school choice, so all students can have access to an effective, meaningful, and empowering education.