Cascade CounterPoint

Full-text: “We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark ... and we’re wearing sunglasses.” That line is from the Blues Brothers movie, but it’s an apt description of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s process to impose tolls on I-5 and I-205 all the way from Wilsonville to the Columbia River. ODOT is gassed up and ready to go with tolling, but they have no idea where the...

Full Text: ‘Tis the season for holiday wishes. And, toward that end, we at Cascade Policy Institute have some of our own wishes for the New Year. We hope that someday soon, Oregon high school students who are 15 or 16 years old will be allowed to take the GED exam and graduate early with a diploma. Currently, it’s near impossible for high school students to take the GED. But, Cascade has a bill pr...

Full Text: If the Oregon Department of Transportation has its way, Portland-area freeways won’t be free for much longer. Tolling is coming to Oregon, and it’s coming in about two years. ODOT’s current plan is to toll all lanes of I-5 and I-205 from just south of Wilsonville to all the way across the Columbia River. If you’re catching a flight at PDX, shopping at Bridgeport Village, or just trying...

Full Text: First they banned styrofoam, then last week they banned flavored e-cigarettes, and now they’re taking steps to ban wood-burning fireplaces and your gas-fueled kitchen stoves. Multnomah County is going “ban”-anas with its banning bonanza. When elected officials can’t do the jobs they were elected to do—like maintain roads and bridges or enforce public safety—they turn to feel-good virtue...

Cascade’s Kathryn Hickok talks with Kate Baker Demers about how she became one of New Hampshire’s staunchest advocates for educational choice. Kate, from Children’s Scholarship Fund New Hampshire , shares what she learned scaling up New Hampshire’s groundbreaking parental choice programs and what other states need to know to make school choice laws a success.

Full Text: This year, Arizona became the first state to expand eligibility for its Education Savings Account program to all K-12 children. Parents who choose to opt out of their zoned public schools now can receive 90 percent of the state-level, per-student base funding in an ESA for their child (about $7,000 per student in 2022). The ESA may be used for tuition, homeschooling, tutoring, online ed...

Full Text: This Thanksgiving let’s give thanks to the Pilgrims who discovered the life-saving power of private property. We know the Pilgrims fled England to find religious freedom. And they found it—in Holland. But they found it hard to make ends meet in Holland and fled for America in search of economic freedom. When they arrived, the Plymouth settlers arranged themselves the only way they knew...

Full text: It’s the day after Election Day and the votes are still being tallied. One thing we know for sure: Oregon will have a new governor. Our new governor can make substantial changes on Day One by shaking up the agencies that have overseen our state’s decades-long decline. We need a new PERS board who understands Oregon’s public employee retirement system is an anchor that is dragging down b...

Full text: “What’s the one thing you’d do to fix Oregon?” That’s a tough question, because there’s no single fix for all of Oregon’s problems. Every single issue the government touches in Oregon is in need of free-market reform. Despite spending more than the national average, our schools have some of the worst achievement and graduation rates in the country. Oregon has some of the worst housing a...

Full text: This week, Portland City Council is considering five resolutions dealing with homelessness and housing affordability. Mayor Ted Wheeler says these resolutions are a “moon shot” to solve the crisis. Like the original moon shot, the programs span a decade or more and will cost billions of dollars. More accurately, this is the city’s Apollo 13 moment. “Portland, we have a problem.” It’s an...

Full Text: This week, ballots for the November election will be mailed to Oregon voters. It’s become clear that no one is happy with the status quo in Oregon, and Portland in particular. Voters are clamoring for change. But, what kind of change? For people who want to see a change, you can put them into two categories: Yearners and Burners. Yearners hope for change that will restore Oregon’s statu...

Full Text: In just a few weeks, Oregon voters will be getting their ballots in the mail. In addition to voting for a new governor, legislators, and members of Congress, Oregonians will face several ballot measures. There are always a bunch of bad ones, and Measure 113 is one of the worst. Measure 113 amends the state constitution to punish legislators for 10 or more unexcused absences from floor s...

Full Text: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is accepting public comments on proposed regulations that would ban the sale of new gasoline or diesel-powered cars and light trucks after 2034. The only new cars available would be electric vehicles (EVs). These regulations were first adopted by the state of California on August 25. Now Kate Brown wants Oregonians to live under them as wel...

Full Text: The Heritage Foundation recently released its first Education Freedom Report Card. The report analyzes and ranks each state’s “education freedom” according to factors related to school choice, transparency, regulatory freedom, and spending. The report seeks to assess what states do well, identify where they can improve, and help policymakers achieve real reforms. Florida takes first pla...

Full Text: This summer, Arizona expanded the nation’s first Education Savings Account (ESA) program. Every child in Arizona is now eligible to choose an Empowerment Scholarship Account. Parents who want to opt out of their zoned public schools can choose to receive 90 percent of the state’s per-student base funding (about $7,000 in 2022). They may use their Empowerment Scholarship Accounts for tui...

Full Text: The ballot for November’s election is filling up, and a lot of local governments are trying to reach into your pocket for more of your tax dollars. Some of them are real doozies, like Portland Community College’s construction bond measure. In 2017, PCC voters approved $185 million in new property taxes for construction projects. In that Voters’ Pamphlet, PCC boasted it had 78,000 studen...

Full Text: Oregon soon will have new statewide leadership. Oregon’s education policies need to catch up with students’ learning needs, and fresh leadership provides opportunities to respond to parents’ demand for more choices in K-12 education. Here are three ways Oregon leaders can improve education in 2023: 1. Support Oregon’s thriving public charter schools by raising the legislative cap on cha...

Full Text: By now you’ve heard of President Biden’s student loan orders. You’ve probably also heard some say they provide life-changing relief, and you’ve heard others say they’re a fiscally reckless assault on personal responsibility. But, there’s another issue that’s not getting much attention: The orders are bringing massive chaos to the millions of families who have kids in college right now....

Full text: If you feel like Oregon politicians are spending more, but you’re getting less, you are not alone and you are not crazy. State spending has spun out of control, and we have little to show for it. According to the state budget office, spending from the state’s general and lottery funds has doubled since the Great Recession. That’s a huge increase, especially since Oregon’s population has...

Full Text: In less than two weeks, Oregon students will be heading back to school. Most parents have hopes for an engaging, educational school year. But unfortunately, some kids get in trouble. Under the Biden Administration, schools could have their discipline policies controlled by the federal government. Catherine Lhamon is the head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,...

Full Text: It seems everywhere you look, “clean energy” is in the news. Portland just handed out nearly $120 million to local nonprofits who promise to provide clean energy technologies. Congress is expected to pass the slimmed down version of President Biden’s Build Back Better program, with more than $300 billion going to clean energy. Much of this spending will be wasted if Oregon’s experience...

Full Text: Connecticut’s bus service just pulled its entire fleet of electric buses after one bus burst into uncontrollable flames . While the small risk of an electric bus fire is scary, Portland’s TriMet could face huge financial fires if it continues growing its electric fleet. The upfront costs to go electric are high, and TriMet has no plans to cover these costs. Until this year, TriMet recei...

Full Text: Things are not going well in the Portland region. The region’s residents, voters, taxpayers, and businesses complain about rising crime, spreading homelessness, increasing traffic congestion, and a general decline in livability. Local officials try to tell us things aren’t that bad and that they’re on top of things. But they are that bad. Just look at all the emergencies they have decla...

Full Text:  Have you heard of the Portland Clean Energy Fund? Portlanders voted to pass the program four years ago. It gives funding to nonprofits for all things green—including green energy projects, energy-efficient infrastructure, and jobs in the green energy industry. Program expenses this year amount to about $118 million in tax revenue, or about $425 for every Portland household. During...

Full Text: Two of my kids are young adults working retail. They are eyewitnesses to the decline of what was once The Most Livable City in the Nation. Over the weekend, my daughter was working her shift, when a man walked into the store and started haranguing her. He accused her of following him through the store. “I was just hanging up clothes,” she told me. When she left on break, he was hanging...