Senator champions school choice, unborn for 2022 Session

By NW Spotlight,

As the February 2022 short session swiftly approaches, legislators are identifying their key policy issues of concern. Each senator is allotted 2 bills for the month-long session.

On the docket for Senator Dennis Linthicum (R-Klamath Falls) are 2 distinctly important bills. The first is the born alive bill, which would require medical practitioners to save babies born alive after an unsuccessful abortion attempt.

The second is a school choice bill that would increase the cap size for virtual schools from 3% to 6%. Sen. Linthicum has sponsored this school choice bill in the past and it hasn’t gone anywhere due to the super majority party’s allegiance to teachers’ unions.

The 3% participation cap needlessly limits charter school enrollment, which harms all students, particularly those from disenfranchised and under-served communities.

Sen. Linthicum said, “Education is critical to the future of our state, and our children’s education must not be politicized.”

In Oregon schools, unions use their legislative power to create monopolistic regulations which force parents and students to rely on taxpayer-funded school districts. This means that school districts call the shots and only allow 3% of the student population into private virtual schools.

Sen. Linthicum continued, “This enrollment limit stems from a desire to monopolize and coerce the public into accepting the radical left’s pedagogic doctrine that math is racist, gender is fluid and proficiency in reading are not required to earn a diploma. A modern Oregon would provide parents with a full basket of options for educating their own children. If not the public-school option, then more options for charter, private or online schooling should be made available to more students.”