Northwest Government Double Down on What You Don’t Want

Here’s a great mystery to kick off First Amendment Friday: Why do governments in the Northwest insist on building more of what citizens don’t want—and less of what they do?

Parents have been abandoning failing government schools in Oregon and Washington for the past decade. Attendance has been on a steady decline, and it’s not just because of the pandemic. Even when parents don’t pull their kids out, the kids do it for them. Oregon’s latest attendance numbers reveal more than one-third of students are chronically absent—which, believe it or not, is a slight improvement from the year before.

American public schools are the best-funded in the world. Oregon and Washington each spend $17,000 to $18,000 per student annually, so don’t blame a lack of cash. Yet, the results are abysmal. Education is so poor that Oregon had to pass a law allowing students to graduate without knowing how to read, write, or do math.

Similarly, transit agencies in both states keep pouring billions into light rail and high-tech experiments like Trimet’s hydrogen buses. Meanwhile, transit ridership has been declining steadily for the past 20 years.

Commuters have made it clear: They want more roads, freeways, and bridges, and they don’t want to pay tolls to drive on them. But guess what? New roads aren’t on the menu. Instead, get ready to shell out thousands in annual tolls just to use the roads you already paid for.