Oregon’s Far-left Democratic Governor Kate Brown quietly signed a bill into law that will hinder the future for high school graduates before it even begins. Not only did Brown secretly sign Senate Bill 744 into law, she now refuses to talk about it. The bill allows “high schoolers to graduate without proving they can read, write, or do math – and told no one about it” reports The Blaze.
Specifically, the bill suspends the proficiency requirements for students for three years. The Washington Examiner writes the bill “has attracted controversy for at least temporarily suspending academic standards amid the COVID-19 pandemic.” Supporters, however, argue the existing proficiency levels for math and reading presented an unfair challenge for students who do not test well.
Charles Boyle, a spokesman for the governor said the bill aids Oregon’s “Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”
When pressed about her decision by the Oregonian, the governor refused to discuss her actions. Brown didn’t have a standard signing ceremony, nor did she issue a press release. It also was not made public until more than two weeks after she signed the bill into law.
The Oregonian reported that for a month after the assembly passed the bill, Brown refused to publicly state whether or not she supported it. Turns out, she supported it and secretly signed it into law on July 14. The legislative database was not updated until July 29, “a major deviation from the usual practice of updating the site on the day the governor signs a bill” the Oregonian noted. No email notifications were even sent out when the website was updated. Legislative sources claimed it was due to a “system malfunction.”
The Blaze reports details on the bill:
The Beaver State’s Democrat-dominated legislature passed a bill in mid-June, SB 744, dropping requirements that would-be graduates demonstrate they have achieved essential high school-level reading, writing, and math skills for the next five years, the paper said. The move was an extension of the suspension of skills requirements that had been enacted last year in response to the pandemic…
…Backers of the legislation said the bill would benefit minority students by changing the graduation standards and advocated expanding learning support and opportunities; however, the state assembly did not bother to pass any learning opportunity expansions for minority students.
In fact, according to the paper, workshop programs many high schools had created to help students meet the previous requirements have been scrapped now that the state government has killed the standards for graduation.
In an email to the Washington Examiner, Boyle wrote, “SB 744 gives us an opportunity to review our graduation requirements and make sure our assessments can truly assess all students’ learning. In the meantime, it gives Oregon students and the education community a chance to regroup after a year and a half of disruption caused by the pandemic.”
