Energy, Education, and other Issues in the Pacific Northwest
Book banning policies in Oregon schools and homeschool help in Eastern Washington
In this Issue
The Parents’ Rights Initiative Blocked by Democrats in Olympia.
Oregon Parents Fighting for the Right to Protect Children from Objectionable Books.
New Non-Profit Helps Homeschool Families in Eastern Washington.
Recent Power Outages in Europe Puts Nuclear Back on the Table.
Anarchy in Portland Causes More Businesses to Bail.
Trump Takes on Harvard and He is Not Backing Down.
Another Power Grab in Olympia Pushing Back on Parents
Do Washington parents have rights over their own children? It would appear not as legislators in Olympia gutted the recently passed parents’ rights initiative.
Last week Governor Bob Ferguson signed a HB 1296 sent to him by the Democrat controlled legislature in response to the popular 2023 parents’ rights initiative, Washington State Standard reports.
House Bill 1296 states that the bill is for the purpose of, “promoting a safe and supportive public education system.”
Advocates for the bill claim that it was necessary to protect the safety and privacy of students by keeping their gender identity a secret from their parents, KOMO reports.
Let’s Go Washington led the charge for Initiative 2081 which created a full list of rights for parents with children in the government-run schools in Washington state. The initiative passed with bipartisan support.
The rights for parents to see their child’s records, be informed of their child’s activities, and to have oversight over their own child were clearly outlined and strongly supported by voters. The initiative became law in June of 2024.
The “revised” law, HB 1298, includes an “emergency” provision allowing it to immediately override the previously accepted initiative. Parents will not be informed if their child changes pronouns or gender identity under the new law.
For more information and to keep updated on the issue of parents’ rights, please follow Let’s Go Washington.
Oregon Parents May Lose the Ability to Remove Objectional Books from School Libraries
The Oregon legislature is set to vote on a bill, SB 1098, that would make it very difficult to remove books from school libraries, Oregon Live reports.
SB 1098, “Prohibits discrimination when selecting or retaining school library materials, textbooks or instructional materials or when developing and implementing a curriculum.”
Books will not be removed from the school library if the reason for the removal is that they are written by a “diverse” author or if the book contains LGBTQ+ themes. Advocates for the law say that removing such books violates discrimination law.
Oregon schools have seen a large increase in requests coming from parents to remove books or to have them grouped in locations for age-appropriate access. Most of the objectionable books are all LGBTQ+ themed.
If SB 1098 becomes law, it will allows parents to submit a request in writing, but that request will go to a school district committee for review and only the school district committee can approve a book removal.
The House Education Committee passed it with all four Democrats voting in favor and all three Republicans voting against.
The bill is expected to go to the floor for a vote early in June and then on to the desk of Governor Tina Kotek (D) who is openly lesbian and married to a woman.
New Non-Profit Offers Help to Homeschool Families
Across the country, the homeschool movement has exploded in recent years.
In Washington state, between the 2019-2020 and the 2024-25 schools years, over 43,000 students left the government run school system, The Washington Policy Center reported.
With parents looking for alternatives, homeschooling has become a popular choice. In Tri-cities, one non-profit aims to help families make the transition to homeschooling by providing information and support.
Teach the Children launched in April of 2024 by Laura Battles, a home school mother of three young children. Battles is the founder and serves as the Executive Director.
Battles told The PNW Post that a challenge she faced when starting to homeschool was selecting curriculum. Homeschool parents have the freedom to choose their own curriculum, but finding materials can be daunting. Teach the Children wants to bridge that gap and provide parents confidence that they are selecting good quality educational materials.
Freedom to select materials means homeschool parents can include religious teaching. They can select books that reflect their values, rather than the woke culture that permeates the government-run schools.
Battles says the homeschool movement has become a “village” where parents support each other and work together to educate their children.
“I just love the homeschool community,” Battles says. “I knew that if I started struggling, there were families who would help.”
Battles says her organization solidifies this help as she can provide a network of resources through one contact. She encourages families who are considering homeschooling to reach out and discover how amazing it can be.
“We need to get back to putting families first,” Battles says. “Families who have dinner together and spend time together just do better in life.”
Although Teach the Children can be a resource for families outside of the Tri-cities area, she says there is a big demand in Tri-cities.
“I think people are tired of being told what they can and cannot do for their own children,” Battles says. “There are some great schools and great teachers, but a lot of parents are tired of their kids being taught things that violate their family beliefs.”
“It’s so difficult for kids. Teachers tell kids something that’s in opposition to what parents teach. It’s confusing. Kids don’t know who to trust. I don’t want my kids to be wishy washy on values.”
Battles says she would strongly encourage parents to consider homeschooling. Eventually you realize teaching your kids at home is just an extension of raising your kids.
“Children need us,” Battles says to parents. “Children need to learn from people who love them and who know them better than anybody else.”
Teach the Children is looking for a location to establish a resource center, but they currently offer the homeschool convention and other trainings and events at rented locations in the Tri-cities area. They would love to have someone in the community offer a facility with a discounted rate for the non-profit.
More information about Teach the Children can be found on the website and there is also a place to donate to help this organization in their mission to support homeschool families.
For more information, please visit the website.
Nuclear Energy May Be Making a Return
Some countries in Europe, and the Trump administration, are concerned about the instability of weather-dependent energy and are revising their positions on nuclear.
Denmark may be starting a trend in terms of energy in Europe, Fox News reports. Although Denmark has banned all nuclear power for forty years, they are now considering reversing that policy and exploring nuclear in light of the massive power outage in Spain last month.
The power was out for several hours in Spain and Portugal, FBN reported. Some people were stuck in trains or elevators. Most could not use their phones and there was no internet access.
On April 16 of this year, Spain announced that it had reached net-zero carbon emissions by reducing the use of fossil and nuclear fuels. They shifted most of the energy usage to wind and solar, typically considered intermittent energy by most experts.
Europe has been pushing for net-zero for many years. Elites claim that going carbon-free will slow down global warming.
There were several factors contributing to the power outage in Spain, but it was the reliance on renewable energy and near total absence of natural gas or nuclear power that primarily caused the crisis.
Denmark noticed that the problem was not having a reliable power base running the grid. Nuclear energy could be that reliable power base. Now Sweden and Norway are also encouraging the European Union to push for nuclear power.
In the United States, President Donald Trump (R) announced on May 23 in an Executive Order a plan to decrease regulatory barriers to support the domestic nuclear industry, a White House press release states.
“President Trump is directing the NRC to reform its culture and realign its organization to reflect Congress’ directive to rapidly promote nuclear power while ensuring reactor safety,” the statement reads.
This is a significant course correction from the direction the Biden administration was taking. The U.S. has been engaging in, “visions, delusions, and nightmares,” as it relates to energy policy, Benton PUD General Manager, Rick Dunn wrote.
“There is just so much that needs to be said about the absurdity of an ‘energy transition’ reliant on energy-dilute, unreliable, land-intensive, and costly wind and solar power,” Dunn wrote.
The U.S. has not been as aggressive about overbuilding wind and solar compared to Europe, Dunn says.
“But like Britain, Germany and other European countries committing acts of national economic suicide in the name of Net Zero, Spain's electricity prices are more than double U.S. rates.”
Prior to the Trump election, the U.S. had been on a course to more fully embraced wind and solar emulating European countries and their green dreams.
“And of course, we all aspire to a Spanish-style power grid, like the one that blacked out on April 28th,” Dunn writes. “After all, what’s a little catastrophic power loss every now and then, right?”
To read more from Rick Dunn, please subscribe to his Substack.
Portland Continues to Lose Businesses
Portland’s largest office tower is now half empty as more commercial tenants continue to leave the city, the Wall Street Journal reports. The building has been put up for sale.
Digital Trends moved out of the building, explaining that they became tired of homeless people sleeping in the hallways, using drugs, starting fires, and using the office stairwells as bathrooms.
U.S. Bank had been the largest tenant in the building, but last year made the decision to move most of its employees to other locations. Adobe plans to close its Portland office.
Wells Fargo and Unitus Community Credit Union have left or reduced their space in Portland. Rains PDX closed in 2023 after 15 break-ins.
Portland has struggled for the last several years with a growing homeless population and increased crime.
In 2020, Portland was the scene of violent mob activity and the creation of an autonomous zone. The anarchy continued for months during that summer.
After defunding the police, Portland experienced an explosion in crime. By March of 2021, Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) decided to change course, re-fund the police and attempt to take back the city from criminals.
After years of violence and soft-on-crime policies, Portland voters replaced the Leftist District Attorney in another attempt to turn the tide on the raging crime.
After years of anarchy and rioting, decriminalization of drug use, and defunding the police, businesses have had enough.
“Social unrest intensified after the pandemic hit and George Floyd’s murder set off protests that continued into 2021 in Portland after subsiding in other cities,” writes Peter Grant for the WSJ. “New taxes to provide services such as preschool-for-all and housing for the homeless also hit businesses.”
There is some improvement as crime has started to come down as more police officers are hired. The law decriminalizing drug use was reversed last year. There is hope for the once desirable city.
“But Portland’s commercial real-estate market shows few signs of recovering from the fallout of the pandemic, rise in homelessness and the state’s botched experiment with drug decriminalization,” Grant writes.
Trump Takes on Harvard
For the latest on the battle between the President and the University, read the Substack article by S.T. Karnick.
And a final thought on homeschooling…
“This is the backbone of our country: Americans helping themselves, and each other. Reaching out and finding solutions - solutions that governments and huge institutions can’t find.” President Ronald Reagan, January 23, 1992