The Freedom to Choose My School Grants

Below is the latest edition of the Wingard Report we feature regularly. If you want to get the entire report emialed please click here.

House Bill 3010: The School Choice Working Group (which I am a part of in my role with Cascade Policy Institute) has drafted a bill to create 1,000 state-funded scholarships for low-income children in Portland. HB 3010 got its First Reading Monday on the House floor and will now be referred to a committee””most likely the House Education Committee. Twenty-nine legislators co-sponsored the bill””nearly one third of the Oregon State Legislature.

HB 3010 creates a pilot project within the poorest neighborhoods in Portland to allow low-income parents the same access to school choice that higher-income Oregonians already enjoy. Here are the basic details of the pilot project:

Students Must be Low-income: To enroll, the student must qualify for the federal free-lunch program and live in a neighborhood where a majority of the students in the local public school also qualify for a free-lunch.

Qualifying Neighborhoods: Tentatively, the school neighborhoods that would qualify would be Boise-Eliot, Clarendon, Humboldt, King, Lent, Peninsula, Rigler, Rosa Parks, Sitton, Vernon, Whitman, Woodlawn, Woodmere, Binnsmead MS, George, Lane MS, Ockley Green MS, Portsmouth MS, Tubman MS, Jefferson HS and Roosevelt HS.

Grant Amount: The grant would be equal to the per-student funding (ADM) amount from the State School Fund””roughly $5,000.

No Negative Financial Effect on Portland Public Schools: The Portland School District will not lose any state funding during the pilot project. The point of this element is to remove the money excuse from the people who run PPS.

Random Selection: If more than 1,000 qualified students apply, grants will be given out by lottery.

Every single legislator who co-sponsored HB 3010 deserves our thanks. The bill’s two Chief
Sponsors are public school employees:
State Representative John Dallum was a school superintendent and
State Representative Jerry Krummel is a high school teacher.
Below are the emails of all 29 state legislators who stood up for minority parents in Portland. Courageous lawmakers need to be thanked. Please send them an email:

Oregon Catalyst