The contentious national showdown over how much say parents should have in their children’s schooling is looming over Oregon’s upcoming school board elections and the work of the Legislature.
Some parents, candidates and political groups want more transparency about what books are available in school libraries and what makes its way into the curriculum, particularly when it comes to emotionally charged topics like sexuality, racism and gender. Others say that’s a thinly veiled attempt at silencing diverse viewpoints that could put LGBTQ+ and other historically marginalized students in harm’s way.
“It is critical that these kids can go to school and learn what happened in the history of America without it being redacted or watered down,” said Glenn Wachter, who is running for an open board seat in the North Clackamas School District. “I want them to know the country we are from, the good, the bad and the ugly, trending towards good.”
The May 13 school board election in North Clackamas features four competitive races that have drawn ideologically opposed candidates, after three incumbents decided not to run for reelection.
The district, which covers Milwaukie, Happy Valley and portions of unincorporated Clackamas County, is one of the only ones in the state still holding school board meetings solely online after attempts to return to in-person meeting led to combative public comment periods. Wachter, a pharmacy executive who lives in Happy Valley, is part of a slate of four progressive candidates who worry that the parents’ rights movement will open the door to censorship and divisions based on gender identity. The other candidate for the Position 3 seat, sales executive and Milwaukie resident Aimee Reiner, is aligned with the opposing slate of candidates who she says want to return “balance, transparency and parent voice” to shaping the curriculum.
“We have gotten slammed for being the extremists, radicals, homophobic, transphobic — we’ve been called everything under the sun,” said Reiner, who noted that she is a lesbian. “We are just here to continue to educate, to speak from love and kindness, in favor of helping all children, not just those from certain affinity groups.”
Oregon hasn’t seen the controversy come to a head like it has in other states, including Florida, where a principal recently lost her job after sixth grade students at her private school were shown a picture of Michelangelo’s David without prior notification to parents.
But some districts in Oregon have seen a steady uptick of parent-fueled outrage over school policies since school buildings reopened following prolonged COVID-19 shutdowns.
Parents upset over what they say are sexually explicit and age-inappropriate books have aired their frustrations at school board meetings in North Clackamas and West Linn-Wilsonville, while students in Canby recently led a walkout against proposed book bans there.
In Portland, some parents have criticized the use of a middle and high school health curriculum that features materials from the Drug Policy Alliance, which has lobbied for the legalization of cannabis and to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of hard drugs, according to reporting in The Lund Report. And in Eugene, parents were furious over a high school health class assignment that required students to describe their sexual fantasies.
“During the lockdowns, it pulled the Band-Aid off what was happening in schools for all parents, Republicans and Democrats,” said U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Republican whose congressional district stretches from Portland and Clackamas County to the Willamette Valley and across the Cascades to Bend. She supports the Republicans’ “Parents Bill of Rights,” legislation which passed the U.S. House last month but is expected to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
That legislation would require schools to publicly post links to library catalogues and curriculum materials and would mandate that school employees get the OK from a parent should their child ask to change their gender-identifying pronouns.
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat whose district covers portions of Portland, Washington County and the northern Oregon Coast, dismissed the Republican version as an attempt to “weaponize specific books and curriculum” and said it is not the role of educators to “out their students” who then might face abuse at home as a result.
She’s introduced a competing resolution that she said would protect local control over school policies while highlighting the need for “historically accurate education” and the protection of individual students’ civil rights.
The issue has also made its way to the Oregon Legislature. Republican-backed Senate Bill 409, which got a hearing in the Senate last week, would have required districts to publicly post the titles of and links to any textbooks or instructional materials used in K-12 classrooms, in addition to a syllabus or summary of the course and information about how the class fits into the state’s academic standards.
That bill passed out of committee, but only after being significantly amended. It would now only require that every school district’s website include a link to an Oregon Department of Education page that lists textbooks and other materials that the state Board of Education has recommended.
MacKensey Pulliam heads the Oregon Moms Union, which has been recruiting and training candidates for school board elections. She said she was frustrated by the amendment, which she sees as watering down the bill’s intent. Right now, she said, parents interested in finding out about curriculum and materials have to go into schools and request to see a “curriculum binder,” which can be a barrier for working parents.
“Some parents have concerns about that politically charged curriculum,” she said. “Some parents want to know what is being taught so they can help their kids. It’s about parents having the understanding of what and how their children are being taught and if changes need to be made.”
But Kyndall Mason, a consultant for the Oregon Education Association, criticized the original bill in written testimony.
“Creating public access to detailed curriculum does not bridge the gap between educators and parents,” Mason wrote. “It would only serve to make educators more vulnerable to unsafe, targeted attacks.”
In North Clackamas, both Reiner and Wachter said the next six weeks on the campaign trail will be about connecting to parents. Already, some campaign kickoff events held by his slate of candidates have been overshadowed by audience members who “shouted and railroaded” the invited speakers, Wachter said, underscoring the district’s divides.
But he said the voters he meets during canvassing are most concerned about bread-and-butter issues: third grade reading skills and safe schools.
“Parents are vital to the conversation,” he said. “And parents need to be heard – but not disruptive.”
Reiner said she too has been hearing from voters about a focus on reading in early elementary school and on whether the requirements to earn a high school diploma need shoring up.
“Look, we have a very diverse population that swings from both sides,” she said. “Everyone has a right to be heard, regardless of whether or not you agree.”
—Julia Silverman, @jrlsilverman, jsilverman@oregonian.com
