Reflections on the 2020 Oregon Legislative Session
Looking ahead to 2021, FBO/Chalkboard Project is committed to rekindling this momentum with a policy agenda that centers children, families, and communities.
With only three out of 305 bills reaching the governor’s desk, no one can be pleased with the way the 2020 legislative session ended.
While political impasse grabbed headlines, Chalkboard Project’s team was meeting with state legislators in Salem, exploring opportunities to collaborate around educator workforce and data issues, and drawing policy connections between Oregon’s early learning, K-12, and post-secondary systems.
We also affirmed that advocacy is done best when working in partnership with community. Throughout the legislative session, we coordinated with over two dozen community-based organizations to ensure that equity remains a driver for policymaking in education. And before the Capitol ground to a halt, legislators heard promising updates about progress implementing the Student Success Act and the Educator Advancement Council.
But after passing last year’s Student Success Act, a historic reinvestment in Oregon’s children and schools, the Legislature missed bipartisan opportunities to build on our momentum toward a more equitable public education system. Looking ahead to 2021, Chalkboard Project is committed to rekindling this momentum with a policy agenda that centers children, families, and communities.
The first episode explores big questions: What was the intention behind Senate Bill 13? What can it look like to teach Indigenous Studies as a white teacher?
Amanda brings creative leadership and deep commitment to social justice to her work as Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs at FBO/Chalkboard Project.
Community leaders exchange ideas and strategies to fulfill the vision of the Student Success Act.
A joint letter calls on state leaders to "act with children our north star."
Equity investments are a blueprint for building a more resilient, accountable, and just public education system.
"Our investments and policies have to show that we will not accept going back to normal, but we will create a better and more equitable future as the new normal."
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