SB 744 lowers education standards

Jessica Gomez
Medford CEO & Governor candidate

Are you aware of proposed SB 744?

Can you imagine being a parent and upon your child’s graduation from high school, seeing them be unable to take the next step into their future? Their reading and mathematics skills were insufficient to deliver the scores needed for college admissions exams, and their underdeveloped writing skills led to poorly written essays. Due to SB 744, the essential skills they should have developed before graduation were no longer deemed as imperative as they once were.

Kate Brown should veto SB 744 that is proposing to suspend the current reading, writing, and mathematics requirements for high school graduates. The bill is attempting to lower the standard of education of our students. Instead of equipping students for a successful future, we are lowering the bar of their preparation, thus placing them at a personal disadvantage, and ultimately, the state of Oregon at a national level. To lower the standard of education for our students out of reaction is a direct example of teaching them to settle.

As Governor, I will help our students reach their full potential, not lower their ceilings. Instead, I propose allowing students that were negatively impacted by distance learning to take remedial courses in community colleges at no cost to the student until they meet the current academic requirements.

Let’s move forward together on an upward trajectory. The sky’s the limit for our students, and it is up to us to ensure they are given not only equal opportunities to succeed, but greater opportunities to succeed.