The downtown Saturday farmer’s market in Portland is a cornerstone of the city’s cultural rhythm—a vibrant, blocks-long stretch of local produce, street performers, and towering elms. But recently, the usual crowd of shoppers encountered something entirely unexpected: a six-foot-tall, talking pencil. Complete with a pointy lead tip, a yellow barrel body, and a pink eraser resting near the knees, the mascot-like figure wasn’t there to sell office supplies. He was campaigning for governor.
“My name is Pencil,” the figure told a bewildered passerby while handing over a flyer. “I’m running for governor because we need to raise awareness about education.”
While the image of an anthropomorphized writing utensil seeking the state’s highest office seems like a piece of Portland performance art, the motivation behind the costume is stark. The person inside the suit, J. Schuberth, is a former college professor and longtime literacy advocate. Schuberth is using the absurdity of the “Pencil” persona to draw attention to a devastating statistic: according to a prominent analysis of national testing, Oregon’s fourth graders rank dead last in reading.
As a physician and medical writer, I have seen how literacy is not merely an academic milestone but a fundamental social determinant of health. The ability to read and comprehend information is the gateway to health literacy, economic stability, and cognitive development. When an entire cohort of children falls behind in the primary grades, the ripple effects extend far beyond the classroom, impacting everything from future employment opportunities to long-term mental health outcomes.
The Literacy Crisis in the Beaver State
The campaign is a direct response to a perceived failure in Oregon’s K-12 system. For Schuberth, the state’s ranking is an indictment of the political establishment. Since Democrats have held a supermajority or near-supermajority in the state legislature for years, Schuberth argues that the responsibility for the decline in reading proficiency lies squarely with current policymakers.
The urgency of the situation is reflected in the reactions of Portland parents. Anna Mackay, a local resident, shared that the state of the schools forced her into a difficult financial decision: placing her children in private school despite limited means. “Because of some of these outcomes,” Mackay said, she felt she had no other choice to ensure her children’s academic survival.
The “Pencil” campaign isn’t just about the costume; it is a protest against what Schuberth describes as misguided attempts to alter the state’s educational course. The focus is on “structured literacy”—a method based on the science of how the brain learns to read—which emphasizes explicit instruction in phonics and decoding, rather than the “balanced literacy” approaches that have dominated many U.S. Classrooms for decades.
A Political Wake-Up Call
Schuberth is not expecting to move into the governor’s mansion. The Oregon constitution provides no path for a giant pencil to serve as chief executive. Instead, the goal is to create a “wake-up call” through write-in votes. By encouraging voters to ignore the traditional party lines and write “Pencil” on their ballots, Schuberth hopes to signal a profound level of public dissatisfaction to Governor Tina Kotek and other state leaders.
However, the impact of this write-in effort may be muted by state election laws. In Oregon, election officials typically only tabulate write-in votes for individual candidates if the total number of write-ins exceeds the votes received by the leading candidate. This means that unless there is a massive, unprecedented surge of “Pencil” votes, the official tally may never reflect the full scale of the protest.
Despite these hurdles, the message is resonating. Even other political candidates, such as Joe Hagedorn, a candidate for county judge, expressed an openness to the write-in effort, noting that the focus on education aligns with his own interests.
The Governor’s Response and the ‘Mississippi Model’
Governor Tina Kotek is not blind to the crisis. In recent interviews, Kotek has acknowledged the state’s struggle with literacy, stating, “I agree with Pencil. We have a problem when it comes to literacy and reading and writing in our state.”
Kotek has integrated educational achievement into her first-term priorities, pushing for investments in upgraded reading programs and authoring legislation that allows state officials to intervene more aggressively in underperforming school districts. Yet, critics like Schuberth argue these measures are “toothless” and too little, too late.
Schuberth points to Mississippi as a blueprint for success. Over the last decade, Mississippi has seen dramatic improvements in reading scores—a phenomenon often called the “Mississippi Miracle.” This was achieved through the 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which mandated a shift toward evidence-based reading instruction and implemented “third-grade retention,” where students who do not meet reading benchmarks are held back to receive intensive intervention.
| Approach | Balanced Literacy (Traditional) | Structured Literacy (Mississippi Model) |
|---|---|---|
| Instruction | Implicit; students “discover” patterns. | Explicit; direct teaching of phonics. |
| Focus | Context clues and immersion. | Decoding and phonetic awareness. |
| Intervention | Variable by district. | Mandatory benchmarks and early intervention. |
The Cost of Awareness
Running a “symbolic” campaign is not without cost. Schuberth has already invested nearly $30,000 of their own money into the effort, funding everything from the custom costume to postcards and fridge magnets that pair the friendly face of “Pencil” with the sobering message: “Oregon’s education system is failing our kids, but together People can FIX it!”
The campaign serves as a poignant reminder of the gap between policy intent and classroom reality. While the governor’s office may be drafting new laws, the parents and educators on the ground are seeing the results in real-time through lagging test scores and struggling students.
Disclaimer: This article provides information regarding educational policy and public health trends for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional academic or legal advice.
As the primary elections conclude, the “Pencil” campaign will shift its focus toward the November general election. The next critical checkpoint will be the release of the upcoming state-wide literacy assessment data, which will determine if Governor Kotek’s recent interventions have begun to move the needle on student performance.
Do you believe a symbolic candidate can drive real policy change? Share your thoughts in the comments or share this story with other Oregon parents.
