Education Secretary Linda McMahon is downsizing an ineffective government bureaucracy, so, naturally, progressive lawmakers are howling. The latest theatrics come from Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., who introduced articles of impeachment against McMahon last week.

Bonamici’s attempt is baseless—McMahon has continued to fulfill the law while downsizing the U.S. Department of Education—which raises the question of whether Bonamici is diverting attention from the problems in her home state.

Oregon is hardly an example of academic excellence. According to state Department of Education data, just 43% of students are proficient in English language arts, and fewer than one-third of students are proficient in math and science. Federal data shows Oregon has the nation’s second-highest rate of chronic absenteeism (students missing more than 10% of the school year) at 44%. Meanwhile, taxpayers pay $22,000 per Oregon student annually, $1,000 more than the national average.

That’s not all. In July 2025, a federal appeals court reversed a ruling against the Oregon Department of Education, advancing a case charging that public schools are not giving children with disabilities full instructional days. Filed in 2019, the case says that “Oregon public schools systematically shorten the school day for hundreds of students—some as young as 5 and 6 years old—separating them from their peers and limiting their educational opportunities. As a result, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) has failed to fulfill its federal obligations to provide a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, and to provide equal educational opportunities in the most integrated setting.”

The U.S. Department of Education launched a civil rights investigation against Oregon in 2025 based on reports that state officials allowed boys to participate in girls’ athletics. Female athletes lost awards to males, and the Education Department reports that the Oregon Department of Education “coerced silence” from female competitors.

Earlier this year, Oregon policymakers faced yet another civil rights complaint. Do No Harm and Defending Education cited the state’s public charter school funding formula, which provides additional money to charter schools that have high levels of minority enrollment. The spending represents rewards to school officials for keeping racial quotas, according to the groups.

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Do No Harm and Defending Education also named an Oregon higher education commission in the complaint and said the commission provides “bonuses” to colleges and universities in the state according to the number of minority graduates.

“Because Oregon’s racial classifications cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny, the state’s discrimination violates the ‘color-blind’ mandate of Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause,” wrote Do No Harm in its press release.

Meanwhile, three Oregon state representatives requested last year that the Education Department investigate state scholarship programs that award money to prospective teachers based on race.

The Oregon Teacher Scholars Program “is predicated on a definition of ‘diversity’ based on race, ethnicity, and national origin (ORS 342.433) that has been deemed by the Oregon Legislature’s legal counsel to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” wrote State Reps. Dwayne Yunker (District 3), Darin Harbick (District 12), and Ed Diehl (District 17).

The representatives write, “With Oregon expecting to receive over $1.5 billion in federal education funding, this is a direct violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the principles reaffirmed in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard [a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting racial preferences in college admissions], and a direct conflict with the U.S. Department of Education’s April 3[, 2025,] requirement to certify compliance with Title VI and Students v. Harvard as a condition of receiving federal financial assistance.”

Lawmakers and voters should pay more attention to Oregon’s racist policies—along with the alleged negligence to children with special needs—instead of lawmaker antics.

Oregon children and families deserve civil rights protections and substantive efforts to help students succeed, not distractions coming from their representatives in Congress.