Kotek silent on abysmal student test scores, focused on Trump

Oregon's governor, and schools superintendent, is, apparently, sticking with what hasn't worked for education while weighing in on federal issues over which she has no control

Image courtesy Edunomics Lab

In the two weeks since a widely respected national gauge of student success showed Oregon 4th and 8th graders were among the worst in the country at reading and math, Oregon’s Superintendent of Public Instruction has uttered not a public word about the failing school system over which she presides.

The Superintendent, Tina Kotek, who also happens to be Oregon’s Governor, has, however, found the bandwidth to express her “alarm” at the Trump administration’s attempt to stop the work of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and a host of other federal matters.

Image posted by Kotek on X February 10, 2025

The CFPB is a relatively minor federal agency well outside Kotek’s control. Oregon student test scores are smack in the middle of her sphere of influence. Improving schools is one of three focus areas Kotek insists she prioritizes above all else, to the point of calling her 2025-2027 budget proposal “Mission Focused.” She told Oregonians we need to stick with her approach to schools. The NAEP scores suggest otherwise.

According to NAEP, Oregon’s fourth graders had the fourth-worst test scores in the country, besting only Alaska, New Mexico and Puerto Rico in math, and the fourth-worst reading scores, ahead of West Virginia, Alaska and New Mexico. For those counting, Puerto Rico is not a state.

CFBP is but the most bizarre of Kotek’s federal fixations, given the cratering of the school system over which she exerts preeminent control. In the past week, Kotek has opined on the following topics:

• The “fight to protect access to gender-affirming care” from Trump administration opposition;

• Her “guarantee that climate action will continue in Oregon - regardless of the federal landscape.”

• In an emergency press conference with Attorney General Dan Rayfield, a federal funding freeze, which she attempted to portray as an actual threat to Oregon Health Plan funding which it wasn’t.

For his part, Rayfield, newly elected last November, has issued 22 press releases. Seventeen of them have been about his opposition to various policies of the Trump administration. Three of the other releases were about internal staff hires.

Kotek presumably wants to keep the focus on Washington, D.C. so Oregonians forget just how badly Salem is failing them in the Kotek era. Probably, the vast majority of Oregon Democrats and not a small number of independents are with her in opposing Trump. But Kotek chose to run for Governor, not Congress, and she has a state to run. She cannot affect the outcome of federal policies. She can affect the trajectory of her state.

And the cellar-dwelling test scores show Oregon’s trajectory is downward. Kotek’s insistence that staying the course - shoving as much taxpayer money as possible into a broken school system without significant reform - and her silence regarding the objective failure of that approach should alarm her supporters.

It’s not so much that Kotek is out of ideas. It’s that her only idea is to keep taxing and spending and collecting those union campaign contributions at the expense of families and local communities. There is no question whatsoever that approach is failing Oregon kids, and their Governor’s only reaction is to try to change the subject to Donald Trump.

They deserve better.