Drive for school choice, open enrollment initiative petitions underway

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, July 13, 2022

LA GRANDE — A drive is underway to get a pair of initiative petitions on Oregon’s November 2024 election ballot to make it easier for parents to send their children to any public or private school in the state.

Tualatin-based Education Freedom for Oregon is organizing the efforts.

One initiative petition calls for an open enrollment constitutional amendment and another would call for a school choice constitutional amendment.

Open enrollment

The open enrollment amendment would put a ballot measure before voters to give parents the right to send their children to any public school in Oregon. The proposed ballot measure would amend the Oregon Constitution so a child could attend any public school in Oregon that has room for additional students.

For example, if a public school has room for five additional second graders and there are five applicants from outside the school’s district, the school would have to accept all five of the students, said Donna Kreitzberg, one of three chief petitioners for the initiative petitions and a member of the executive committee of Education Freedom for Oregon.

Under the proposal, should there be more applicants than openings, the school district would be required to conduct a lottery to give each of the applicants an equal opportunity to be selected and enrolled.

School districts would not be required to accept students for openings if they had been expelled from their previous school. Kreitzberg said the leaders of the Open Enrollment amendment drive don’t want problem students to be handed to other schools.

The rules of the proposed initiative petition would give priority to students of families living in each school district. This means that if there are 25 spaces available for third graders in a school district and there are 25 third graders living within the school district whose families want them to enroll there, these children would fill all the slots and the outside students might have to be put on a waiting list.

Kreitzberg said the Open Enrollment amendment would empower parents.

“This would give parents a choice and put them back in the driver’s seat,” she said.

School choice

The school choice constitutional amendment would make it easier for parents to afford to enroll their children in any private school in the state if there is space available.

The amendment calls for a school choice account to be created for students attending or planning to attend private schools. A portion of the state money that public school districts receive whenever a student attends a public school would go into this account. The funds would go directly to private schools, Kreitzberg said.

Kreitzberg said the drive to get the amendments on the 2024 ballot are in its very early stages. Sponsorship signatures are being collected throughout the state. Once the required number is gathered, the drive’s petitioners will be closer to getting ballot titles from the state and the necessary permission to begin collecting the signatures needed to get the initiative petitions on the 2024 ballot.

A belief in the importance of fairness in education is part of what Kreitzberg said is motivating her to take on this project.

“We believe that all Oregon K-12 students deserve the opportunity to receive a great education,” she said. “Oregon’s education dollars are meant to educate all Oregon K-12 students, and our amendments will make sure that happens in a fair manner.”