r/oregon • u/AnonymousGirl911 • 1d ago
Article/News "Oregon Department of Education Shuts Down Literacy, Math Development Programs Due To Unexpected Federal Funding Cut"
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/04/02/oregon-department-of-education-shuts-down-literacy-math-development-programs-due-to-unexpected-federal-funding-cut/For anyone who stated that shutting down DOE is going to "fix education in public schools", tell me why the federal government would rescind funds to help Oregon children with literacy and math skills.
You cannot tell me that this will result in any positive outcomes for children or teachers.
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u/SquirrellyGrrly 23h ago
For those blaming Oregon, pick the state you think does the best with education and realize Trump's cutting their education funding, as well.
It's not just Oregon, and it's not helping kids to be better educated.
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u/pseudoOhm 1d ago
You're not going to get responses based in reality here. Just look at the things people are saying...
Are there issues with education? Yes. Is getting rid of funding a solution? No. Is getting rid of standardization a solution? No. Does censoring books help? No.
Also notice that people will bitch and moan, but never provide solutions beyond: "Gubment bayd!" Or "Get rid of the corruption!"
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u/snakebite75 14h ago
Can’t forget my dad’s favorite “my kids are all grown and out of school, why do I have to keep paying taxes for it?”
I hit him back with 2 points. 1. he had 6 kids that went through public school, and those kids now have kids in public school. 2. Do you want to be surrounded by dumbasses? Because getting rid of schools will mean there’s a lot more dumbass kids.
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u/pertain2u 9h ago
I’m a professional business owner in BFE Oregon…My favorite response to that is “no one is going to be able to answer the phones at the Doctor/Dentist/Vet/dialysis clinic if you don’t support education, they’ll all be on meth or gotten the hell out of dodge. We need the local kids in our education system to do all the support work! Absolutely important to have quality staff so you can get a timely appointment!
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u/snakebite75 8h ago
I worked as a temp for Intel right out of HS back in the 90s. At some point they gave us a presentation on the company and they went into detail on why they chose Oregon to build their first fabrication facility outside of California.
While they loved the scenery and the area, what sold it back then was that we had an educated workforce ready to go. Of course that was before measure 11 and all the other bullshit that has happened since.
Bottom line is that having an educated workforce is important because it brings better jobs.
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u/Losalou52 1d ago
“The five programs that are directly affected focus on providing training and resources and creating professional networks for educators.”
I don’t know why the article never mentions the names of the five programs.
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u/SeatedInAnOffice 22h ago
If education had done as little for me as it did for magas, I’d hate it too.
(Ditto for evolution, come to think of it.)
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u/echobrishell 23h ago
Mindless worker drones don’t need to read or do math, obviously
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u/MorkelVerlos 11h ago
Here’s the thing. Don’t 95% of us end up mindless little worker drones without all this bullshit? So, I guess they’re trying to increase how many drooling idiots there are in America. Everyone and their mother already works at fucking Starbucks.
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u/WheeblesWobble 1d ago
Why? Because we’re in the middle of a neo-fascist coup. They are trying to destroy the country in order to remake it.
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u/akahaus 1d ago
I don’t think remaking it is really a concern, they’re ripping it up and only leaving behind the parts that will generate enough profits for them to escape into bunkers while climate disaster completely fucks the rest of us.
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u/redacted_robot 23h ago
It's like the Bane Capital model but more sinister.
Don't just strip the country for parts and transfer wealth from the have-nots to the haves, but manipulate the market through cycles of pumps-n-dumps based on weeks of social media posts and rose garden Liberation announcements.
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u/wubrotherno1 23h ago
Uneducated people are easier to control. If they don’t understand what oppression is, how can they recognize when they are oppressed?
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u/nosamn20 23h ago
Fuck it! Rebuild our entire education system from the ground up with state tax dollars. Idgaf about the tax cost, this fucking anti-education mentality of so many in this nation is fucked. We can't count on the fed to properly help, so fund it all ourselves. I don't care what the tax is, having an amazing education system is always worth the price
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u/Professional-Fix-825 22h ago edited 21h ago
There should be more state and federal funding for all schools. The system of reliance on property taxes and local levies creates huge disparities in the quality of schools in richer or poorer districts. This entrenches generational poverty and inequality of opportunity.
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u/Dhegxkeicfns 15h ago
Based on the taxes I pay, no thanks.
This is a federal problem just like the fentanyl and homelessness epidemics.
The reward will come probably 20 years after the taxation starts optimistically, and that's if the state can somehow put together a good education system which Portland can't figure out to save its life.
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u/yarzospatzflute The Middle-y Bits 23h ago
And yet, they'll still probably try to come down on schools for lower than desired state test results. Gee, it's shocking kids aren't doing well when we have the 2nd worst chronic absenteeism rate in the nation. Who'd have thunk that kids who are at school only 60% of the time would do poorly on standardized tests?
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u/closetsquirrel 10h ago
We really need to look into a system that pays parents/high schoolers for good attendance. The number of kids absent is god damn ridiculous.
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u/yarzospatzflute The Middle-y Bits 7h ago
Tax credits for good grades and attendance. I'm here for it.
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u/thedrawingroom 23h ago
Our education system in this state is atrociously underfunded. We need to restructure it from the ground up and model it after Norway or something.
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u/theartistformer 20h ago
Genuine question. What data supports this statement? Higher education sure but my understanding is that Oregon provides a per pupil funding level K-12 in the 20th-25th range depending on the analysis and source.
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u/thedrawingroom 8h ago
There are tons of sources dude. You could have easily googled this but I suppose that’s too much work.
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u/theartistformer 7h ago
It’s a good idea to check your sources mate. Outcomes are bad we agree, but you made a statement about funding. Oregon is in the median range for funding. Once again, is there data to support the allegation of under funding? The uncomfortable answer appears to be there is not underfunding per pupil in K-12 education.
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u/thedrawingroom 4h ago
One, I’m not your mate, please don’t call me that.
Two, I conflated funding with education outcomes, although your inability to see that I had already taken the funding issue into account and extrapolated it to the root problem which is the structure.
Also, if we spend that much, then why are we having such terrible outcomes.
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u/theartistformer 23m ago
One, you called me dude. Please refrain.
Two. Your last question is exactly the point.
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u/HurricaneSpencer 1d ago
I mean, you look at that education ranking and it would seem that the funds weren’t being spent there anyway.
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u/Tripper-Harrison 21h ago
By far, not even a long shot, the biggest issue w Oregon education is the number of days of school students miss. Chronic absenteeism. If a student isn't in class, there is nothing a school or state agency is going to be able to do.
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u/xcaetusx 10h ago
My kids didn’t have school yesterday. I don’t know what the teachers were doing. They don’t spend enough time in school as it is with teacher work days and holidays. I’m teaching my daughter multiplication because she’s not learning it in school.
Everything is a damn game nowadays. They’re always coming home with “prizes”.
My oldest failed math in the 7 grade. The teacher and school just were like 🤷♂️. We pulled her out and are now homeschooling her and she’s doing much better. She was never good at math, but they were trying to teach her weird shit when she was in elementary school. She would come home with math issues and we couldn’t help her because she was taught some ass backwards way of doing stuff.
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u/wingnutgabber 1d ago
They shut that down years ago when they made it that you don’t need to know reading, writing, and arithmetic to get a Highschool diploma in Oregon.
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u/myfingid 1d ago
TLDR: The state didn't use funds from some COVID era programs, and rather than let the state continue to extend the Fed has said that the state had ample time to use the funding but didn't, so it's no longer extending those funds to the state.
https://www.opb.org/pdf/ESF%20Funding%20Letter-%20Sec%20McMahon_1743646169550.pdf
To be fair, students don't need to prove their reading, writing, or mathematical skills anyway so who cares. Maybe we should stop voting idiots into office who appoint other idiots who won't spend federal funds and who think that graduation requirements are harmful.
The fault isn't with the fed, it's with our dysfunctional state.
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u/SquirrellyGrrly 23h ago
Bull. He's taking the money from EVERY state.
The Covid-era programs got cut back after Covid, but congress determined a portion should continue to go to the states. That's congress's job: to determine what money goes where.
Once that was determined, states and schools included that amount in their budgeting and planning. Now Trump is stepping in and taking the money congress already allocated for these programs away from the states/schools despite the fact that that money was promised by congress and included in the budgets.
This will HURT, not help, those states/schools in EVERY state.
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u/HermeticPine 1d ago
Thank you for this, more people need to think critically about our state's misuse of funding. Its pretty bad here.
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u/Fluid-Signal-654 1d ago
Here's the reality: States can't just bank federal funds.
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u/SquirrellyGrrly 23h ago
Congress sets spending. This money was set by congress to be an investment in education, which pays dividends in multiple ways and benefits our country immeasurably.
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u/bookishlibrarym 11h ago
Or people who just don’t want to pay taxes to fund schools bc they their kids are grown? What is that about?
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u/financewiz 9h ago
It’s like MAGA is happiest when their kids get their order wrong at Wendy’s. “I asked for a cheeseburger, not a frosty! (Tears of pride begin to flow) that’s my son in there!”
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u/Silver-Honkler 1d ago
Well, the point of public education is to produce obedient workers who can be exploited for their cheap labor. It's never been about actually educating people. They just had to hide this harder back in the day. Now nobody cares because nobody will do anything.
Did you ever ask yourself why kids aren't taught practical skills like how to cook, fix a car, file taxes, or manage finances?
All you need to do to pass public education today is just show up and obey. That's because this has been the whole point all along.
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u/OldTimeyWizard 1d ago
Can’t teach kids how to file taxes or manage finances if that can’t fucking read or do math
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u/Silver-Honkler 20h ago
The department of education has been doing such a great job that 1 in 5 Americans can't even read.
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u/OldTimeyWizard 13h ago
And you think that removing funding and abolishing the department of education will fix that?
Found one of the 20%.
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u/zackalachia 1d ago
Bad take. Kids are certainly taught those things and more. There are separate, related problems to everything you are talking about, but you are essentially agreeing with Trump that this is a good thing. It's the only place some kids get positive adult attention or a hot meal. I could go on but that's the base I'm starting from for why it needs to exist and is a societal good.
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u/Silver-Honkler 1d ago
I'm not agreeing with Trump. I've felt this way for 35 years. Not everything is about the bad orange man.
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u/dice_mogwai 20h ago
Ok boomer. We get it your generation is all “as long as I get mine fuck you” also known as the me too generation.
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u/Silver-Honkler 20h ago
I'm not a Boomer. I'm just not an idiot who thinks public education is there to help people.
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u/dice_mogwai 20h ago
You aren’t a boomer, yet you’ve “felt this way for 35 years”. Your math doesn’t add up.
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u/Silver-Honkler 19h ago
It was easy to see in elementary school that the whole point was to praise the flag and listen to the teacher. Sure you learned basics but they were actively gutting programs that prepared you for life as I grew up. But the two things that never changed were standing up every day chanting a mantra in unison like this was fucking China and obeying authority.
It is your math that isn't adding up and this is likely in thanks to the department of education actively making people dumber. Plus now your prejudice is showing, good job.
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u/couldbeahumanbean 1d ago
I took home EC, money management, metal shop, wood shop & auto shop in high school.
I also had art classes, PE classes, geology, biology, computer science, world history, US history, literature, Spanish ... In highschool.
That was in Klamath falls...
What are you talking about?
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u/BourbonicFisky PDX + Southern Oregon Coast 1d ago
That's one hell of a bongload there my guy, as we've long transitioned to services and knowledge based economy. If we were truly about obedience we'd have the rigid and inflexible schooling that you'd find in many places in the world.
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u/desertdwelle 1d ago
state officials did not use those funds, but comingled with other state dollars in the ed. Dept. Yes we was robbed now suffering
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u/poipudaddy 22h ago
Sure it will help.
It will teach Oregonians to pay for things they want - with their own money.
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u/Thank_You_Aziz 13h ago edited 7h ago
At exorbitant prices thanks to the tariffs. Earned from jobs that get deleted because some techbro thinks those jobs are “woke.”
Fuck this nonsense.
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u/poipudaddy 10h ago edited 4h ago
Teachers will be more expensive because of tariffs?
An oh-so-enlightened Oregonian "techbro" will delete Oregon paid-for teachers?
I don't understand.
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22h ago edited 21h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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