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By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,
In rural Southern Oregon, Josephine County commissioners voted 2-1 to cut funding to Oregon State University’s Extension Program after more than a century of providing financial support, threatening the future of 4-H, gardening, and other programs.
Commissioners pulled the funding because of what they see as a “woke” agenda that stifles young people’s freedom of religious expression. The move comes after complaints from community members who say 4-H participants wearing T-shirts with Christian symbolism were told to turn them inside out, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting [6].
Josephine County first provided OSU extension service with financial support in 1916, and in 1996, imposed a tax levy to support the program. OSU Extension Services is a government-funded program with local contributions matched by federal and state funding. Since 1996, Josephine County has collected a levy of $0.04 per $1,000 of assessed property value to support the program, but commissioners decided to halt further contributions.
County Chair Herman Baertschiger Jr., a former Republican state senator, described OSU’s Extension Service as a “failed program” serving a dwindling number of young people while a near group, Youth and Ag of Josephine County, which includes students involved in a local ministry, has grown to nearly 300 members.