
Lars Larson says it’s your kids who pay the price for higher teacher wages and fading test scores
Lars Larson
The Northwest Nonsense
The numbers tell the tale. Oregon and Washington rank as some of the best states in America to be a teacher and the worst if you’re a student.

Fat paychecks and pensions, bottom rank for reading and math.
Both states have doubled spending on schools in the last decade while test scores dropped.
You know who’s getting it right?
Mississippi. I know, reputationally a backwards state and outspent by blue states like Oregon and Washington.
But in the last decade it has gone from the bottom of the American education pile to the top.
And the solution ain’t rocket science.
Students get tested in the third grade and if they’re not ready, they get held back. Students get tutoring.
Eighteen thousand bucks in Oregon per student per year for K-12.
Nineteen thousand in Washington. Tuition for Ducks and Huskies costs far less.
But you have to understand how failure benefits teachers and Democrats.
Failing teachers unions demand bigger paychecks. Union dues fund political contributions, exclusively to Democrats.
And your kids pay the price.
Also read:
- Letter: British Columbia’s new immersed tunnel can solve Interstate Bridge Replacement Program’s $17.7 billion problemBob Ortblad argues that an immersed tunnel similar to a project underway in British Columbia could significantly reduce costs and impacts associated with the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program.
- Opinion: Health care doesn’t get more ‘affordable’ by making insurance more expensiveElizabeth New (Hovde) argues that proposed legislation raising taxes and fees on insurance providers will increase health care costs rather than improve affordability.
- Opinion: Democrats refuse to condemn anti ICE riotsLars Larson argues that Democratic leaders in Oregon and Washington have enabled unrest by refusing to clearly condemn riots tied to anti-ICE protests.
- Letter: ‘We are ALL being shafted’Amboy resident Thomas Schenk criticizes Washington lawmakers over taxation, legislative rule changes, and what he describes as the consequences of one-party control.
- Letter: Rising property values hurt our communityA Hockinson resident argues that rising property values and taxes are forcing longtime neighbors out of the community and eroding its social fabric.







