Sue Lani Madsen: End of an era for 4-H, back to grassroots for grange

County extension agents and 4-H clubs have been central to rural life and county fairs for over 100 years. That era may be ending as volunteers wake up to the increasingly woke programming out of Washington State University Extension.

4-H describes itself as “the nation’s largest youth development organization.” It was originally designed to introduce new agricultural developments coming out of the land grant universities. It has been part of the county extension system since the system itself was created in 1914, at a time when rural voters and feeding the world dominated the national agenda.

Now, instead of research-based education in agriculture, many feel it’s pushing a new kind of programming and are ready to drop it.

WSU Extension operates under inter-agency memorandums of agreement with each county, with counties providing reimbursement for services rendered. Lincoln County commissioners served notice last month, pointing out that unilateral changes to the terms of their contract with Extension require negotiation, and “if no alternative is found, we will consider your September 3, 2021, letter as a written notice of termination, effective January 1, 2022.”

According to Scott Hutsell, Lincoln County commissioner: “We’re in a holding pattern at this moment; we’ll talk to the 4-H leaders and see where they’re at.”

The September 3 letter extended the governor’s mandates to 4-H volunteers and part-time county staff. Demanding proof of vaccination was not well received. As of October 18, volunteers and staff who declined to provide their personal health information were “moved to inactive status.” Essentially, fired.

But it would be wrong to interpret the split as just another vaccine-driven debacle.

This is about a university insisting there is “no indoctrination, or even favoritism, for a particular worldview, political affiliation or interest group” while at the same time blindly promoting a progressive worldview with its favorite causes as if they hold no seeds of cultural controversy.

The denial of bias quoted above was part of a memo sent in September by WSU Extension to the Eastern Washington Council of Governments. It was signed by Vicki McCracken, director, and Michael McGaffney, assistant director of WSU Extension, on behalf of the university, and addressed to Wes McCart, Stevens County commissioner and the current chairman of the EWCOG.

What 4-H volunteers circumspectly describe as that “weird stuff out of WSU” had been called out directly by McCart as support for critical race theory-based training, the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBTQ agenda.

The university’s worldview accepts these phrases uncritically. Other worldviews see critical race theory as perhaps useful in law school policy analysis but not useful when translated into telling a 4-H club in tiny Ralston they’re “too white” and must have more ethnic diversity in the club. That’s not a realistic conversation in a place listed for tourists as a picturesque ghost town.

But it does have an active Grange, according to former 4-H parent Janice Dennis, and Grange might be a solution for disillusioned 4-H parents and volunteers. “It would be great if we could see some of these granges around Eastern Washington come back to life,” said Dennis.

Lori Matlock, manager of the Northeast Washington Fair in Colville, agrees. Her concern is for the kids who would lose the opportunity to participate at the county fair if 4-H fades. The Spokane Junior Livestock Show and many fairs require participants to be enrolled in a formal program, usually 4-H or FFA, in order to raise and sell their animals through the fair auction.

Matlock and a group of Stevens County grangers met this week with Tom Gwin, president of the Washington State Grange, to learn more about the Grange Youth Fair Program. She hopes “kids who hear rumors of no 4-H, they’ll know we are going to take care of them. This will be back to grassroots.”

Cost would be equivalent to 4-H membership, free for children whose parents are Grange members. Youth will still keep record books, participate in community service and practice public speaking and demonstration skills. All without either funding or meddling from the state.

The youth Grange movement is gaining momentum. Hutsell will meet with Lincoln County 4-H leaders on November 3 at the fairgrounds in Davenport. Matlock will be meeting with her fair board and county commissioners in the next few weeks. McCart said, “If our fair board brings us a proposal to approve another option with a quality youth program, we’ll certainly consider it.”

Tom Gwin, president of the Washington State Grange, is also a board member for the 4-H Foundation, a nonprofit supporting 4-H programs. “We’re not trying to take members from 4-H, but to provide choices for families,” said Gwin.

Washington State University has lost touch with its base. And it may lose even more in the coming weeks as county commissioners develop their budgets for next year and parents make choices.

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.