When schools did reopen, masks were required for everyone, and vaccines (or valid exemptions) were required for adults. There was the decision to close schools and keep them closed for months, and the decision to make vaccines available to teachers before the elderly. Kate Brown has made decisions around the pandemic that have drawn both frustration and support. Schools closed March 2020 due to the pandemic, and schools in Oregon were some of the last to reopen to students in spring of 2021. In the last two years, education and public schooling have become political in a big way both in Oregon and nationally.
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series looking at what voters say are the biggest problems facing Oregon right now, and what Oregon’s next governor might do about them.
