Oregon is threatening to kill a voter-approved local UPK measure
You can help stop it.
UPDATE, 6/26: Thanks at least in part to strong public backlash, the plan to kill Multnomah’s UPK measure has been stopped, although Governor Kotek is still saying she wants to see major reforms to the program moving forward.
I wouldn’t normally send out two Substacks in one day, but this one is time-sensitive: under the cover of darkness, Oregon’s Democratic-controlled legislature and Democratic governor is poised to kill Multnomah County (Portland)’s universal pre-K system that Multnomah voters approved in 2020. This is a very live and evolving situation, and it’s one where shining a bright national spotlight can help.
Let me quote Willamette Week to explain what’s going on:
An amendment posted late Monday night to an Oregon Senate bill seeks to end Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program.
Under the terms of the amendment, the county would not collect the controversial income tax for 2025 and would phase out the program by June 2027, using existing reserves to pay for its final two years.
The amendment to a previously anodyne bill would bar Multnomah County from imposing an income tax whose proceeds “are to be used for the purpose of providing preschool or early childhood learning services that are not in alignment, as determined by the Department of Early Learning and Care, with the standards and criteria required of state preschool or early learning programs.”
The amendment only applies to counties with more than 700,000 people—of which Oregon has but one—Multnomah—so the bill is narrowly written to preempt only one program: Preschool for All.
It’s important to reiterate: controversial as the tax may be, and whether or not the rollout of the program has had hiccups, it was approved by Multnomah County voters. And not by a small amount!
In some sense, the subject matter doesn’t matter. The bar for a state government pre-empting an approved local ballot measure should be incredibly high: ‘we think this might be making some super rich people move out of Multnomah County’ sure isn’t it.1 If helpful, imagine for a moment that it was a Republican controlled legislature and Republican governor trying these shenanigans. This would, indeed, set an absolutely terrible precedent for other states!
But of course, the subject matter does matter. And here, we’re talking about the state — again, with almost no notice or public debate — pulling the rug out from Multnomah County voters and families. I talk about this initiative in Raising a Nation, quoting an Oregonian article when I write that,
While there have naturally been kinks to work out, priority for the free child care slots has gone to low-income families, and many are benefitting. The Oregonian reported on one such mother, Irisbeth Martinez-Luna, whose daughter was able to access one of the first free spaces available. Martinez-Luna did not attend an early care and education program and never finished high school, but she sees the potential for her children now that cost is not a barrier: “‘I want them to have it better than I did,’ [Martinez-Luna] said, tearing up.’”
So, what’s to be done? There’s a work session on the bill happening in the Oregon legislature this very afternoon, and in talking to folks over there, it’s important that Oregon Governor Tina Kotek hear from people — around the nation, although if you know anyone in Oregon please share this, as their voices will naturally carry the most weight — that this cloak-and-dagger attempt to subvert the will of the voters is unacceptable, undemocratic (and un-Democratic), and will do meaningful harm to children and families. You can find Governor Kotek’s contact information HERE, and here, here, and here are the contact pages for the three state senators purportedly helping spearhead this measure.
I’ll keep y’all updated as events unfold.
It’s also a highly dubious claim