Chris Elliot in the May 2025 special election, won a seat on the Hermiston School Board. Elliott on June 12 shared a Facebook reel referencing an article by a writer with ties to white supremacy and white nationalism to explain Oregon students’ academic challenges. (East Oregonian, File)

HERMISTON — A man who won a seat on the Hermiston School Board in the May 20 election made a social media post referencing an article in an attempt to explain Oregon students’ poor academic performance. The article’s author has ties to white supremacy.

Chris Elliott won the Position 6 seat on the Hermiston School Board with 52.6% of the votes to Mark Millard’s 47.2%. Elliot on June 12 shared a reel — trendy, short videos — on Facebook about an article to criticize state education leadership and policy.

“A new report from the National Assessment for Educational Progress shows that Oregon has scored at the bottom! 50th in the nation for their ability to educate students!,” Elliot wrote in the post. “See it for yourself. Oregon is FAILING! Who is responsible? Governor Tina Kotek – Superintendent of Public Instruction. Oregon Dept of Education – Board appointed by the governor. Teacher’s unions. Oregon Legislation – more specifically the education committees.”

However, the NAEP does not provide an overall state ranking, and Oregon was not listed as 50th in any single composite category. Instead, NAEP offers a common measure of student achievement nationwide, enabling comparisons and insights into educational trends.

According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Oregon students scored below the national average in three of four tested areas. Fourth grade students in Oregon averaged 229 in reading and 207 in math, compared to national averages of 237 and 214.

Eighth grade students in Oregon scored 268 in reading, slightly below the national average of 272. In math, Oregon eighth graders averaged 255, compared to the national average of 257.

The article Elliot referenced is from Steve Sailer, a columnist for Unz Review, Taki’s Magazine, and VDARE.com — websites linked to white supremacy, Holocaust deniers and alt-right media. The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Sailer as a white supremacist and a white nationalist.

Sailer has become a central figure in the “human biodiversity” movement, which promotes race-based pseudoscience. The movement aims to catalog and spread hereditarian ideas about racial differences, often presenting them as “red pills” to influence online discourse.

White supremacists have cited his work, including dozens of favorable references on the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront, reported by The Guardian on September 2024.

In the article Elliot shared, “NAEP Test Scores: Mississippi Miracle vs. Oregon Outage,” Sailer argues Mississippi’s rise in reading and test scores is due to the state enacting education reform, while Oregon’s students have fallen in reading and math scores due to liberal policies.

In particular, he argues when it comes to math, Oregon’s 25% of students who are Hispanic  “score very badly, 245, 12 points below the national Hispanic average and last among states, coming in ahead of only dilapidated Puerto Rico.” And in eighth grade reading, he states, Hispanic students in Oregon scored “fourth worst of the 50 states.”

Umatilla County is home to one of the largest Latino populations in Eastern Oregon, with about 28% of its nearly 80,000 residents — roughly 22,400 people — identifying as Hispanic or Latino, according to Data USA. Many students in the Hermiston School District come from Hispanic or Latino families, a higher proportion than in neighboring Morrow County.

Sailer in the article also states: “The issue is complex because Republicans tend to dominate in two types of states: ones like Wyoming where everybody is white, and ones like Mississippi where whites must maintain a high degree of political solidarity or their state will get turned into Detroit.”

The Hermiston School District issued a response to Elliot’s post: “Although he has been elected, his term has not yet begun. His personal posts are not reflective of the positions of the school district or the board.”

Hermiston School District Superintendent Tricia Mooney said the district “remains committed to creating a safe, welcoming and supportive learning environment for all students. We will continue working alongside our families, educators and community to ensure our schools remain a place where all students can learn and succeed.”

Elliot has not responded to the East Oregonian’s request for comment. While his Facebook page remains open to the public, the June 12 post featuring Sailer’s article no longer is there.

New Hermiston School board members take their oaths of office at the board’s meeting July 14 at the district office at 305 SW 11th St.