About Us
NEON Kidz Oregon is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
We are committed to helping families find real solutions for raising capable, grounded, and resilient young people.
We want children to succeed—not just in school, but in life.
Board of Directors / Leadership
Chair / President
Linda Farrington
Salem, Oregon
Linda ran for Salem Keizer School Board in 2021 and narrowly lost. She earned her BSN from OSHU working in the Recovery and Emergency Room at Salem Health. She and her husband raised 6 children in the public school system and have spent many hours volunteering in the community,
Vice Chair / Vice-President
Amanda Schenkenberger
Wilsonville, Oregon
Homeschool mom of 4 boys, Amanda is a homeschool coach and is founder of Homschool Family Legacy. She is a regular speaker and author about taking the stress out of homeschool and how to organize your time.
Treasurer / Secretary
Deborah Butler
Silverton, Oregon
Deborah is the Oregon State Ambassador for HSLDA Compassion, responsible for homeschool grants. She and her husband Wes home schooled all seven of their children. They have been active on the state of Oregon home school network, OCEANetwork, and are members of the Freedom Watch Committee. Her husband Wes served as the Director of SACHSN, Salem Area Christian Home School Network.
Leadership Team
NEON Kidz’s efforts are guided by a board of directors and a senior management team who are deeply committed to helping families in our community find excellent educational options that fit their family’s needs and lifestyle.
The Neon Kidz Board is is committed to the pursuit of education that aligns with values that produce good character and engaged citizens.
Our Values
Equality
Although we are all unique, every person is of equal worth and should be judged only on their character regardless of race, creed, gender, socioeconomic status, or background.
Individuality
Each person has a unique set of gifts and abilities to share with the world.
Respect
Integrity
Trust and honesty make up the foundation of every healthy relationship.
Responsibility
Perseverance
Few worthwhile endeavors are easy. Teaching determination and resilience will encourage youth to keep trying until they are successful.
Opportunity
We are enthusiastic about offering a wide variety of opportunities for every child to succeed, including the opportunity to tailor the educational experience individually to each student. Everyone is good at something.
Our Principles
We recognize the significance of quality education for our community’s future.
We recognize that a child’s education is a family’s responsibility.
Respecting the rights of parents as the primary educator, we act only to connect them with educational opportunities.
We believe a healthy society starts with engaged families and is supported by other families and the local community.
We believe high expectations lead to high achievement.
Every Child Deserves A Quality Education
NEON Kidz is about
Success for every child
Neon Kidz was founded on the belief that every child can be successful and deserves a chance to learn in a way that suits their strengths and needs.
Education rooted in family values
We support education grounded in family values, because that has proven to be the best environment for children to grow in the character and confidence they need to take advantage of every opportunity for success.
Empowering parents to lead
Multiple studies confirm that parental involvement in education is the best predictor of student success. We also know that parents—not the state—understand their children better than anyone, and are the rightful leader in their child’s education.
Investing in our future
Everyone benefits when we raise the bar for education. We care deeply about the next generation—because the future of our families, our communities, and our country depends on them.
Why Parents Are Looking for Better Options
Click here to learn more about Americas Culture Wars
Parents are waking up to the fact that something is not right at school. Not long ago we all agreed about our basic values of right and wrong….But over the past few decades, small changes in school programs have taken place every year, until what may orignially have been a good program has turned into something unrecognizable and not good for kids learning.
Sex Ed became Comprehesive Sex Ed,
Social Emotional Learning became Transformative,
Trauma Informed Care became Teaching Tolerance which meant NO tolerance
toward anyone who did not suscribe to the new value system centered on”Equity“
which the school ditrict described as equal outcomes.
FAILURE TO EDUCATE
Although Salem Keizer school were once touted for excellence, academic performance has dramatically declined
Only 14% of students are proficient in math and just 39% in English (2025) despite an 80% increase in school funding since 2013.
Oregon now spends $17,100 per student, one of the highest in the nation, and ranks nationally at 47-50th in proficiency, per NAEP, the National Report Card.
Nationally (2024) Oregon ranks:
- 46th proficiency
- 48th dropout rate
- 48th pupil /teacher ratio
There is a high cost to society when students don’t learn how to read or think critically.
FAILURE TO PROTECT
Many parents are looking for good options now!
Less than 25% of people think education is headed in the right direction.
Behaviors are out of control after new disciplinary policies were put in place that fail to hold students accountable.
40% of parents are concerned about their child’s mental health and safety, according to recent Pew Research.
Students are taught to view one another based on race and sex rather than on character which becomes polarizing.
Early sexualization, pronouns, boys in girls bathrooms, graphic sex novels in the school’s library has parents concerned and threatens childhood.
FAILURE TO SUPPORT THE PARENTS' ROLE
Oregon’s statewide school report card got an F for transparency in 2024 from the national nonpartisan organization, “Center for Reinventing Public Education”, for making it wildly difficult for parents to track a student’s progress.
In March 2022, it was leaked that the Salem Keizer School District had put Transgender Policies in place behind parent’s backs that instructed teachers NOT to inform parents about issues that come up at school.
These policies also allow (transgender identifying) boys in girls bathrooms putting young girls safety and sense of security at risk. They also say it is ok for boys to play on girls sports teams and room with them on overnight fieldtrips without telling the parents unless the student says it’s ok.
Here is the link to those policies, SKPS TRANSGENDER POLICIES.
Why We Exist
The possibilities are endless
Designing a high quality education program that is based on your own family’s needs and schedule, is much easier that you think, even for single working parents or when both parents have to work outside the home. Pods, microschools, coops, homeschool– are much more flexible, time efficient, and productive in preparing students for life than government schools.
There is an answer to the public education problem!
YOU are the answer! Determing who will teach the children is the most IMPORTANT decision of our lives, because the student will become like their teacher. Our future depends on the values that we decide to pass on.
The purpose of school has always been to pass on values and to teach a perspective for approaching life. There is no such thing as a neutral teacher. Research is clear: When children are raised with strong moral foundations, they grow into capable, resilient, and generous citizens.
“Within the character of the citizen lies the welfare of the nation.“
—Cicero
NEON Kidz is not about fixing public education. It’s about introducing families to better alternatives—grounded in values, truth, and opportunity.
We’re here to inspire families to reclaim their rightful role in education—by offering alternatives that prioritize excellence and opportunity.
Our vision is to become the most trusted source in the Willamette Valley to find novel educational opportunities and innovative tools to equip and empower parents to offer the highest quality education to their child.
A Better Way Forward
We Had To Act
The purpose of school has always been to pass on values and to teach a perspective for approaching life.
Research is clear: When children are raised with strong moral foundations, they grow into capable, resilient, and generous citizens.
The possibilities are endless
Designing a high quality education programthat is based on your own family’s needs and schedule, is much easier that you think, even for single working parents or when both parents have to work outside the home.
Pods, microschools, coops, homeschool– are much more flexible, time efficient, and productive in preparing students for life than government schools.
There is an answer to the public education problem! YOU are the answer! Parents who take the lead in making sure that their child has the best opportunity available are the answer.
Determing who will teach the children is the most IMPORTANT decision of our lives, because the student will become like their teacher.
A Better Way Forward
NEON Kidz is not about fixing public education. It’s about introducing families to better alternatives—grounded in values, truth, and opportunity.
We’re here to inspire families to reclaim their rightful role in education—by offering alternatives that prioritize excellence and opportunity.
Our vision is to become the most trusted source in the Willamette Valley to find novel educational opportunities and innovative tools to equip and empower parents to offer the highest quality education to their child.
We will be constantly adding to our website until it is truly comprehensive.
And we plan to hold regular meetings next year that includes a little learning and time for discussion and networking about how to raise the bar for education in our community.
We are also looking toward hosting a podcast to help parents sort out their education choices and resource materials.
Our future depends on the values that we decide to pass on.
“Within the character of the citizen lies the welfare of the nation.“—Cicero
WHAT HAPPENED?
What’s Happening in Our Schools — and Why It Matters
Public schools were started with the purpose of developing engaged citizens with outstanding character. However, the Deconstruction Movement starting in the 1960’s, labeled traditional values as oppressive and racist.
Many leaders in education thought school could be values NEUTRAL. But this is impossible. Now they teach a different set of values that is diametrically opposed to the Judeo-Christian values that the USA was built on.
In February of 2021, the Oregon State Board of Education (OSBE) adopted new social science standards integrating ethnic studies into each of the social science domains. School districts are not required to implement the new standards until the 2026-2027 school year.
December, 2024, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) finally admitted what was going on behind closed doors.
They documented on their website that they had “reimagined the purpose of schools during COVID to emphasize Care and Connection,“ adding, “Transformative Social Emotional Learning (TSEL) deepens and focuses traditional SEL to center identity, agency, belonging, collaborative problem solving, and curiosity.”
In other words, school would now be about exploring a CHILD’s sexual identity and making sure that they conform to the group standard.
WHAT PARENTS NOTICED SINCE 2021
- Pronoun buttons handed out to students
- Students in Kindergarten are told that their gender is fluid
- Tampons in elementary boys bathrooms – The “Menstruate With Dignity” Law
- Teachers being taught how to QUEER their classrooms
- Sharp rise in students identifying as LGBTQ+IA
- Questionable books in the school library – teaching sexual pleasure through cartoons – that staff and administrators said is necessary for some students to feel welcome.
- AND educational failure by every standard
Success was now connected to sexual freedom rather than achievement.
The Student Success Plan was implemented through Student Investment Accounts (SIA)that was code for “funding mandates” and according to ODE, “was created through deep collaboration with LGBTQ2IA+ affinity partners from across the state. It was informed by LGBTQ2IA+ student voice. This plan was also developed amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. The COVID-19 crisis and the LGBTQ 2IA+ Advisory Group’s dedication to the work through the challenges serves as a testament of the importance of the effort.”
A Transforming "SHIFT"
SEX ON THE SCHOOL CALENDAR
The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) posted Spring, 2025:
“The 2021 social science standards reflect a shift in content best addressed through pedagogical methods that create a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students to study and discuss issues of discrimination, equity, racism, and prejudice.“
Unfortunately, students are NOT more safe and they are LESS welcome than we taught the Golden Rule.
Why Do We Send Kids To School?
After the learning loss from school shutdowns during COVID, instead of trying to catch up, Oregon schools quietly began replacing textbooks and transforming policies to align with a commitment to EQUITY.
Equity sounds like something we should all be able to embrace but actually was part of a world-view about social power and identity which is why it is so dangerous.
The effort to “transform society” started at the World Health Organization under the specialized agency for education at the United Nations, UNESCO, which states on their website they have “a special focus on gender equality”.
ODE defines education “equity” on their website as:
“the equitable implementation of policy, practices, procedures, and legislation that translates into resource allocation, education rigor, and opportunities for historically and currently marginalized youth, students, and families including civil rights protected classes.
This means the restructuring and dismantling of systems and institutions that create the dichotomy of beneficiaries and the oppressed and marginalized”.
What are these system and institutions that are targeted for dismantling and deconstruction?
God, faith, the nuclear family. The laws and principles of this land that created the most personal freedom and opportunity ever known.
-BEWARE OF EQUITABLE LEARNING –
BROUGHT IN THROUGH ETHNIC STUDIES
- EQUITABLE HISTORY: The 1619 Project Teaches that the USA was founded on slavery. This is a very one-sided view that scholars opine is iinaccurate.
- CSE: COMPREHENSIVE SEX ED. This is not Sex Ed. It is a curriculum written by Planned Parenthood based on the Right to Pleasure.
- TRANSFORMATIVE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING (Subjective feelings supersede biology or objective facts. Examples are “Safe & Welcoming” and “Every Student Belongs”. In addition to social learning theory, social cognitive theory (SCT) is reflected throughout Rights, Respect, Responsibility, recommended by ODE, https://3rs.org/3rs-curriculum/3rs-curric-search/
- EQUITABLE MATH: Ethnomathmatics (2+2=5) https://equitablemath.org) It is racist to show your work.
- EQUITABLE SCIENCE- NGSS the Next Generation Science Standards. The new Oregon 2014 Science Standards on March 6, 2014… https://www.genderinclusivebiology.com/bettersciencelanguage- From ODE: gender inclusive languages from the NGSS website–“To support all students, present & future, we must adapt existing biology teaching to grow a gender-inclusive curriculum”.
Join the Movement
If you’re one of the many parents looking for something better—you’re not alone.
NEON Kidz is uniting families who believe in education that aligns with family values and cultivates good character.
Together, we can raise the next generation with clarity, courage, and conviction.
