Please add 'critical thinking' to your list of thing taxpayers want.   Children are capable of doing more than regurgatating facts.   Readin', writin' and rythmetic', are foundations, but by high school the kids needs to be solid in those things so they can't start using them for learning critical thinking that leads to making good decisions.

Completely agree that Oregon schools are a mess, but that's going on nationwide, and not just in liberal states.     You might consider some other causes.    (not you personally AT).    Safe to say Oregon's liberal culture hasn't made it better.   *Massachusettes is Dem/liberal and has good scores.   Iowa is about 50/50 and they have good scores.     It's not all political orientation.