Four years ago, Tina Kotek and Christine Drazan faced off for the first time for the chance to lead Oregon. The candidates talked about graduation requirements, accountability for education spending, and low student achievement.

It’s 2026. Gov. Tina Kotek and state Sen. Christine Drazan are on the ballot again. And despite some progress, those same issues are on the table, plus a few more, including a new federal tax credit program introduced by the Trump administration.

As Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state, Oregon’s governor holds a lot of power over the state’s approach to education. And the next four years will not be easy; Oregon school districts are planning budget cuts and school closures due to declining enrollment. At the same time, leaders are under pressure to hold schools accountable and improve public schools in a state that’s lingered toward the bottom of national education rankings for years.

A poll commissioned by OPB found that education ranks in the top 10 of issues voters think are most important in the state. But overwhelmingly, registered voters who participated in the survey rated the state’s public schools as “poor”. Views were more evenly split when voters rated their local schools.

Additionally, a majority of both likely and registered voters surveyed do not feel that public schools are adequately preparing students for college or career. Two-thirds of registered voters don’t feel schools are preparing students for the “real world”.

Katherine Griffin and her family moved to Oregon from Texas three years ago. Her two young adult children are neurodivergent. Her youngest graduated from Franklin High School last year. She said the school seemed underfunded and understaffed.

“My student who graduated last year, he had a case manager who was only there every other day,” Griffin, 50, recalled. Her son is in college now, but in high school, she said there weren’t really discussions about helping students with learning differences prepare for college. If there was help available, Griffin said, “our student was not able to figure out how to get those resources.”

Griffin said she’s glad she didn’t move to Oregon with younger children. From where she stands, Oregon’s education system seems broken.

“Something isn’t working, and I don’t recognize where it is,” Griffin said.

Opening arguments

In an interview with OPB, Gov. Kotek highlighted her wins on education: a statewide cell phone ban and an increase in Oregon’s current service level, the amount of money schools need to continue operating. She said her new accountability system is “setting new expectations” for Oregon’s 197 school districts.

“There’s nothing special about one district over the other other than leadership and expectations and persistence, and we need to have more of those results across more districts,” Kotek said.

Overall though, she said she’s proud of the work - and it’s not done yet.

“These problems didn’t come in overnight; they’re not going to be solved in one term, but we are making progress,” Kotek said. “There is momentum.”

OPB’s reporting on the state’s accountability efforts found skepticism among some school administrators and education advocates that the latest efforts will be any more successful than previous ones.

State Sen. Drazan, Republican nominee for governor, says things are not working. If elected, her plan is to replace Oregon Department of Education leadership as well as the members of the Oregon State Board of Education.

“Our sitting board and the folks that are currently leading that agency, they haven’t delivered results for students,” Drazan said.

She said Oregon needs more of a “shared expectation of responsibility”, where local school districts have a clear vision, expectations and support from the state.

“And the state needs accountability from the districts where we have a better understanding of where the limitations are and what the issues are that are preventing them from serving kids at a level that is excellent, not shameful,” Drazan said.

Accountability is just one of many topics Kotek and Drazan talk about regarding schools.

They each have personal priorities when it comes to education. Drazan’s policy plans include ending social promotion by third grade for students who cannot read proficiently. Kotek wants to get to universal preschool across the state by 2030.

Here’s where the candidates stand on five top challenges for public schools:

Instructional time

Oregon has one of the shortest school years in the country. Within the state, the time students spend in school varies widely. Both candidates want students to increase that time. Drazan wants Oregon to move to a day-based requirement for instructional time, instead of the current system, which sets a minimum number of hours.

More instructional time means more money. Kotek says she wants to help districts find “additional resources” to get more instructional time, but also make sure students receive high-quality instruction.

Graduation requirements

Under Kotek, Oregon added new courses in personal finance and college and career readiness that are required starting with the Class of 2027. But both candidates want to make more changes to graduation requirements. Kotek says she wants to “strengthen” requirements.

Drazan wants to “restore high academic expectations by reinstating meaningful graduation requirements.”

It’s unclear what strong or restored expectations might look like, but it’s likely Oregon’s Essential Skills requirement will be involved. Before 2020, Oregon students had to show “proficiency” in essential skills through scores on standardized tests or work samples. School leaders said the requirement rarely kept students from graduating, but that didn’t stop a deluge of outrage and media coverage when those requirements were shelved.

In the 2026 legislative session, Drazan sponsored a bill that would have reinstated the Essential Skills requirement.

The requirement is currently suspended until 2027-28, right in the middle of Oregon’s next gubernatorial term.

Federal scholarship tax credit

2027 marks the first year for the country’s new school choice program. Taxpayers who donate to the approved nonprofits will receive a tax credit. The approved nonprofits will award scholarships to students. The Trump administration’s goal is for families to use these funds to pay for “attending a school of choice or accessing other education-related services and products”.

Critics argue that it’s a thinly-veiled private school voucher program that will undermine public schools.

Drazan would opt Oregon into the program, saying it’s an opportunity, not a “threat”. She said it’s important for families to know that they can spend the money on their public school classrooms, or extra academic support like tutoring.

“It’s not intended to be an incentive for anyone to leave or go anywhere else,” Drazan said. “It’s intended to provide additional support for students for whatever their academic goals or needs are.”

Kotek said she’s “open to maybe considering it” after holding off on the first year. But she’s skeptical.

“We all want to help our students, but we have to do it right,” Kotek said. “And frankly, I don’t trust the Trump Administration.”

Governors have until Jan. 1 to opt into the program.

Funding

With a second term, Kotek said she wants to look at Oregon’s 30-year-old school funding formula.

“We’re probably at another key moment in public education in the state where we have to look at how we’re distributing the money we have,” Kotek said. “We can always talk about getting additional resources, but are we distributing it in the appropriate way?”

When it comes to spending the “right way”, some advocates say districts need more oversight. That’s against Oregon’s ethos of local control, where the state sends billions to school districts based on student enrollment demographics, and school boards hold most of the decision-making power.

“That’s a question we’ll all have to wrestle with here in Oregon, because we want our school board and local districts to have all this control, but is that what we want if we want to make sure every school is successful and every student’s successful?” Kotek said.

Drazan wants to reform Oregon’s Corporate Activities Tax, a tax on businesses that has funneled billions of dollars to education through three accounts: one for statewide initiatives, one for early learning, and one for school districts to address students’ mental health needs and achievement gaps. Drazan said she wants to protect the portion that goes directly to things like maintaining class sizes and retaining classroom staff. She wants to get more granular with where the money goes in education, not just increase taxes.

“We need to look at all the cost drivers for the system and have very real conversations about how we can control costs from every angle,” Drazan said.

The future of higher education in Oregon

Oregon’s higher education system is in crisis. State funding has not increased for higher education, yet costs are rising due to increasing personnel expenses and changes in federal funding. Universities have been forced to cut programs and raise tuition, which lands heavily on students and their families.

At the same time, those hoping to improve Oregon’s economic future want to see more funding and stronger support for the state’s colleges and universities as they prepare the workforce of tomorrow.

Gov. Kotek agrees and wants to see public-private partnerships that can help build a pipeline for talent into Oregon-based companies.

“I see specific investments,” Kotek said. “I want to make sure our universities have their base funding as predictable as possible, but it’s going to be hard to grow that until we have a conversation about the size of our universities.”

Oregon’s universities are in financial peril. This year, Southern Oregon University received $15 million in emergency funds from the state to keep the Ashland institution afloat. Drazan said she’d focus on partnerships between universities in order to meet students where they are geographically and in ways that meet their interests.

“I am interested in innovation over consolidation,” Drazan told OPB.

“We need to find new ways to look at how our institutions work together and collaborate together.”

Voters are watching

Danielle Cantrell-Sikstrom is a 37-year-old mom in Beaverton. She graduated from Oregon public schools. When she interacts with younger graduates of the Oregon system, she sees a generation that’s more “emotionally intelligent” than hers was.

But she’s not sure they’re getting pushed enough academically.

“If you don’t pressure kids or pressure people in general to be better, then they are probably not going to try to be better cause why would they?” she said.

She wants to see Oregon’s governor set priorities and make sure students are meeting educational goals and targets.

She said she “begrudgingly” voted for Tina Kotek, calling the alternative, Drazan, a step in the wrong direction.

“I think Drazan is great in terms of charisma, and she’s really eloquent,” Cantrell-Sikstrom said. “I can understand why people want to vote for her, but I think that she’s wrong on pretty much everything. You can say something really nicely, but it’s still the wrong thing.”

Griffin, the Southeast Portland parent, also voted for Kotek.

“We all sat around the kitchen table, we filled it out together, we talked about it,” she said of her family filling out their ballots. “It’s very very different than standing in a two-hour early voting line in Texas.”

But Griffin and Cantrell-Sikstrom will be watching. Cantrell-Sikstrom’s toddler isn’t in school yet. She wants him to go to public school, but she’s considering private school.

“We’re considering having a second child,” Cantrell-Sikstrom said.

“But the thought of paying for a private school for two… if I see that the public schools are doing really well, then I won’t necessarily be tempted to put him in private school, and it would be a lot easier to have another child.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/30/oregon-governor-kotek-drazan-education-improvements/