Secretary of State Shemia Fagan (D-Portland) has rejected Initiative Petition 1 for the 2024 cycle on the grounds that it makes multiple changes to the Oregon Constitution. Initiative petitions may each only make a single change to the Oregon Constitution. Republican Gubernatorial candidate Marc Theilman was the Chief Petitoner. IP 1 proposed to make changes to the Oregon Constitution allowing school choice.

Shemia Fagan was first elected as Secretary of State in 2020. She was heavily supported by public employee unions, especially teachers' unions, including $19,500 from the American Federation of Teachers and $56,500 from the Oregon Education Association. Teachers' unions have regarded school choice as an existential threat.

"All Oregon families deserve the right to choose the school that their children attend. We are disappointed that the Secretary of State denied Oregonians the opportunity to vote for expanding educational opportunities for all students and will appeal" said Donna Kreitzberg, a representative of the Education Freedom for Oregon Executive Committee"

According to Secretary Fagan,

"The Secretary has determined it does not comply with the procedural requirements established in the Oregon Constitution for initiative petitions. In particular, the Secretary has determined that the Initiative Petition does not comply with the requirements of Article XVII, section 1, of the Oregon Constitution. The purpose of this requirement is to allow voters to express their opinions separately on each proposed change to Oregon’s fundamental law.

The Oregon Constitution gives voters the right to consider and vote on these changes separately and it is the Secretary’s duty to protect that right by rejecting initiative petitions that would violate that right.

The Secretary has determined it does not comply with the procedural requirements established in the Oregon Constitution for initiative petitions. In particular, the Secretary has determined that the Initiative Petition does not comply with the requirements of Article XVII, section 1, of the Oregon Constitution. The purpose of this requirement is to allow voters to express their opinions separately on each proposed change to Oregon’s fundamental law.

The Oregon Constitution gives voters the right to consider and vote on these changes separately and according to Secretary Fagan, it is the Secretary’s duty to protect that right by rejecting initiative petitions that would violate that right.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

In the Secretary’s view, IP 2024-001 makes at least three unrelated changes to the Oregon Constitution. These include:

• Giving parents of public-school children a new constitutional right to choose to have their child attend any public school in their school district that has room, even if it is outside their attendance area;
• Creating a new constitutional requirements for school funding, which tell the state to finance any private educational methods a parent chooses, specify how the state must calculate and provide the funds, and explain how parents may spend the funds;
• Requiring the state to fund religiously based education, thus implicitly amending Article I, section 5, of the Oregon Constitution, which prohibits the state from spending treasury funds for the benefit of any religious or theological institution.

In making the determination the Secretary of State reviewed the text of Initiative Petition 2024-001, considered all procedural constitutional requirement comments filed, and received counsel from the Attorney General.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2022-01-20 22:08:29

Last Update: 2022-01-20 23:47:13