Education · Portland, OR Metro · October 16, 2026
Oregon District Denies Homeschool Funds Over 'Christian Worldview' Curriculum
What Alinsky tactic is being used
2 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The whole case turns on holding the district to its own published book of rules. Hillsboro's Homeschool Partnership page states that families may be reimbursed for "approved, non-religious curriculum," yet the reporting says the district approved Bulzan's materials as academically valid before reversing, reimbursed Math-U-See whose author writes from a Christian worldview, and funded titles carrying LGBT and animist themes — so the neutrality claim is tested against its own practice. The gap between the stated rule and the pattern of approvals is exactly what the lawsuit is built on.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
The matching discipline falls on our side too: before complaining, make sure your own submission meets every written requirement — grade level, subject, receipt format, deadline — so no one can dismiss the dispute as paperwork. Read your district's curriculum-allowance guidelines line by line this month and keep a dated file of every approval and denial, yours and any you are shown. If your church runs a co-op or scholarship fund, check that its own stated criteria are applied evenly before anyone outside asks.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The contest has been moved onto ground a homeschooling parent does not normally occupy: internal review of receipts, an appeal process, and now federal litigation filed in Oregon on September 22, 2026. A verbal assurance that religious materials would be covered carried no weight once the decision became a written administrative one months later, after the family had already spent the money. Procedure, not conviction, is the terrain.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Prepare that ground before you are standing on it: ask for the program guidelines and the appeal deadline in writing before you buy anything, and get any verbal assurance confirmed by email the same day. When staff tell you something you cannot verify, say "I don't know — I'll check and come back," then check. Keep a one-page log of dates, names, and decisions; a parent with a paper trail is on equal footing with an administrator who has one.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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