K-12 public school students in Oregon, like those across the United States, continue to deal with the disadvantages that COVID-19 and government response to the pandemic dealt them—particularly in the critical area of in-person instruction.

Loss of time inside the classroom has contributed to students falling behind in competency and in meeting standards. 

Oregon students fell behind, including the 61 percent of third graders and 54 percent of seventh graders in the state who do not read at grade level.

Meanwhile, a $10.2 billion K-12 education funding bill, which has passed the Oregon House of Representatives to go on to the state Senate, has stalled because Democrats and Republicans in the chamber are at loggerheads.

Republicans, in the minority party in the Senate, continue a boycott of legislative business that they started six weeks ago.  

Republican senators say they are boycotting because of overly partisan bills that Democrats have forwarded for consideration that add regulations to gun ownership and radically expand access to abortion and gender-affirming care, with language that does not comply with the required eighth-grade readability standard.

And yet, Republican senators say they will return to work on June 25—the final day of the legislative session. Democrats say that the tasks that need to be done can’t be accomplished in one day. 

The GOP senators are meeting regularly among themselves.

Also, in flux because of the boycott are votes on other pieces of legislation that appropriate money to fund education programs and initiatives.   

Democrats enjoy a trifecta in Oregon state politics, holding the governorship and majorities in the state House of Representatives and Senate.  

However, in the November 2022 elections, Republicans were able to reduce the Democrats numbers advantages and erase their supermajority status in both legislative chambers. As a consequence, unlike when Democrats held the supermajority and could steamroll over Republican objections, now they have to work with the GOP to pass bills.  

“If Democrat leaders truly prioritized bipartisan budgets and policy proposals Oregonians desperately need, they would work to resolve this impasse in a bipartisan fashion,” said Oregon Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp.  

“Instead, Democrat leadership is clinging to an unlawful, extreme agenda driven by hyper-partisan special interests that fails to address the needs of our state. Oregonians aren’t props to be used for political gain only to be discarded the second absolute power is restored. Democrats must end the theatrics so we can deliver bipartisan results for Oregonians.”  

Knopp said that Democrats are trying to advance legislation that is unconstitutional.

GOP legislators are playing a gambit and testing the bite of ballot measure Oregon voters passed last year that imposes steep penalties for the minority party walking out on legislative business.  Under Measure 113, a legislator who has 10 or more unexcused absences in a single legislative session cannot run for reelection, nor can the legislator win election in the other legislative chamber. 

“The people of Oregon were clear when they amended our Constitution last fall: walkouts are not an acceptable part of our legislative process,” said Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner in a statement released on May 31.

“It is well past time for Senate Republicans to return to work and earn their taxpayer-funded pay. We have hundreds of bills that have gone through our rigorous committee process. These bills must have an up or down vote on the Senate floor.”

GOP senators had been threatening to boycott Senate business and deprive the chamber of the 20 seats necessary to vote on bills, unless changes were made to the legislation. On May 3, the GOP senators made good on their threat when they walked away from the Capitol.  

While Oregon Senate Republicans harbor a dislike of the Democrats’ legislative priorities, Minority Leader Knopp appears to bear a specific grudge against Senate President Wagner. 

Earlier this spring, a day prior to the start of the Oregon Senate boycott, Knopp rose during a session and, after being recognized by Wagner, and said, “Thank you, Mr. President.  I move that the Senate remove the presiding officer from his duties as Senate president.”

The motion went nowhere. Knopp has called Wagner “untrustworthy.”

Gov. Tina Kotek in her first term as governor of Oregon, which followed eight terms in the Oregon House of Representatives and a stretch as Speaker of the House, has played a negotiating role between the Democratic and Republican factions of the Senate.

At the end of May, the governor issued a statement on where matters stood in the discussion. In the statement, Kotek referenced House Bill 2002, the legislation that makes changes to abortion and gender affirming treatments. 

“After a week of productive conversations and continued attempts to work with the Senate Republican caucus to revive a number of their priorities, I am disappointed that Senator Knopp has made clear to me that there is not path forward unless House Bill 2002 is substantially amended or dead,” said Gov. Kotek in a release her office issued.  

“It is clear from my conversations that negotiating on House Bill 2002 is not an option. The bill has already passed the House and is scheduled for a floor vote in the Senate, where it has broad support. 

“Today, the Senate Republican walkout is entering its fifth week and is already the longest in Oregon history. There is still a window for Senate Republicans to return to the table and achieve some of their policy goals for the session and deliver for Oregonians, but it is getting more narrow by the hour.”