The last three Oregon legislative sessions have been a concentrated effort to change laws from “equality” to “equity,” contrary to the Oregon and U.S. Constitutions. Governor Brown has made it a priority for the legislative majority party. To help, minorities have been appointed to replace legislators who leave. There is now 30% of the majority party representing 15% of the minority population.

The march towards equity for racial, ethnic, underrepresented or underserved, sexual identity, English language learners, disabled minorities and poverty communities is being prioritized in every aspect of our lives and is seen in almost every legislative proposal. Our schools aren’t exempt.

HB 4099 was initially introduced in 2021 as HB 3363 with a proposed $1 million price tag, but left blank. Representative Andrea Valderrama (D-Portland) re-introduced the bill as primary sponsor of HB 4099. What is so desirable to resurrect this bill is the establishment of the Racial Equity and Justice Youth Collaborative. The formation of the collaborative isn’t simple, but has the potential of impacting the whole education system.

This bill creates a state-level student collaborative drawing members from 15% of the population to meet an equity criterion. The selection of members is done by a work group of racial, ethnic, underrepresented or underserved, sexual identity, English language learners, disabled minorities and poverty communities that will determine the criteria for selecting members for the collaborative, recommend names to Governor, and mentor youth members in the collaborative.

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

The same membership criteria applies to the collaborative as used for the work group. The purpose of the collaborative is to serve at the will of the Governor to make recommendations on educational policy, and consider racial equity and justice and align with other statewide efforts for racial equity and justice when developing goals and criteria for making recommendations. They will identify best practices for reporting racist incidents or hate or bias crime. This amounts to giving 15% of students a say over the remaining 85% of the students.

What does this mean to school districts? School districts are to provide the collaborative members with counseling support, mental health support, tutoring, an adult mentor, and an opportunity to provide peer support or be a youth mentor. Individual schools, school districts, alternative education programs, or ESDs have no local control. All control is exercised by the Department of Education, whom are requesting $372,412 per biennium to administer and determine the training that may be required.

Who will do this administration and training? Since July 2018, Carmen Xiomara Urbina has been the Oregon Department of Education Deputy Director and works with agencies, executive leadership team, directors and principals regarding equity, diversity and inclusion helping to guide their approach.

Urbina also owns Oregon Center for Educational Equity (OCEE), trainers in equity and inclusion since December 2017. The license lapse, but was reinstated August 16, 2018, a month after she was hired by ODE, to do business with multiple public agencies and organizations in Oregon. It remains active through 2021.

Urbina’s dual activities were challenged when they overlapped in August 2020, promoting her own company to school superintendents to meet state requirements in equity and inclusion. More evidence is being pursued.

Besides the fox in the hen house, the Racial Equity and Justice Youth Collaborative is pacific to a group exclusive of others that teaches segregation, by its structure, as their norm. And, teaching them how to discriminate and be discriminated against. No equity agenda can force unity when the criteria segregates.

HB 4099 captures vulnerable youth in the quicksand of government, programming them to believe that government provides the only solution to racial, cultural, and ethnic conflicts.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-02-10 17:37:20

Last Update: 2022-02-10 22:35:15