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SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS MULTIPLE HAVENS
In her Feb. 25 article [“Lost at MLC,” WW], Joanna Hou raises important questions about Metropolitan Learning Center’s high school program. MLC is a beloved community that has long supported LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent students in affirming ways. That deserves recognition. But it is inaccurate to suggest that no other Portland Public Schools program offers similar support.
As PPS faces a $50 million shortfall next year—on top of a newly identified $12 million gap this year—we must consider the full picture. Class sizes are growing, support staff is shrinking, and students and staff across the district suffer.
Can we ethically spend roughly $20,000 more per MLC high school student than per student elsewhere? Equity requires hard questions about how limited dollars are distributed, especially with other secondary options available districtwide.
The Reconnection Center and Alliance High School are also part of PPS’s Multiple Pathways to Graduation. Both offer small classes, self-paced options, individualized accommodations, and strong socioemotional supports. Wozniak’s description of Alliance is significantly outdated and inaccurate. Alliance and the Reconnection Center are not credit-recovery mills; they are relationship-based, student-centered alternative programs that serve many of the same students as MLC, including those with similar learning needs and histories of marginalization. Reducing these programs to a narrow label diminishes the incredible work occurring that supports students who thrive outside traditional school models.
As painful as it is (and it is!), if we value multiple pathways to graduation, equity in funding must guide our decisions, especially during another year of gutting PPS schools.
Joe Bischoff
Parent of an Alliance High School student
BUSINESS DECISIONS HAVE PERSONAL CONSEQUENCES
I came across your article [“‘A Bad Sign’: Many Low-Income Portlanders Lose a Path to Specialty Health Care,” wweek.com, Feb 18, 2026]. This article really stood out to me as someone who is raising a family near Portland. It is unsettling to see how easily access to specialty care can be reduced to Medicaid patients. For many families, specialty care is not optional, rather it’s an essential.
When a major health care system like Providence limits access for low-income patients, it may be framed as a business decision. Decisions like this have consequences. These kinds of organizational decisions often avoid scrutiny, even though they disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.
Health care institutions hold enormous power. When access is reduced, families are the ones left navigating uncertainty. If we are serious about equity in Oregon’s health care system, we must hold institutions accountable for policies that limit care, not just individual acts of misconduct.
Paola Vargas
Beaverton
MORE BUREAUCRACY THAN BOOKS
I agree with letter writer Karla Forsythe [“Because Our Libraries Are Stunning Again,” WW, Feb. 11]. It is impossible to effectively browse a nonfiction subject when so many of the books are absent, locked in some warehouse. The catalog software does not provide for a search by Dewey decimal number.
This is the latest in a series of anti-book, anti-reader moves by the library administration. They removed half the books at Central—more than 200,000—in 2023. This is a sacrilege. More recently, the Northwest branch, at about 4,000 square feet, was replaced by an 11,000-square-foot building, at a cost of $21 million. According to a librarian there, not a single book was added. The old space had a 9-by-12-inch wire basket for patrons to exchange their own periodicals. It was very popular. It is absent at the new building. A staffer told me “there’s not enough room” for it at the new place. At Central, they are spending a lot of taxpayer money destroying the benches outside the building, in the absurd hope that doing so will reduce drug abuse in Portland. What Central does not have is a security alarm at the exit. They removed it, allowing thieves to steal books and videos by the armful.
The system is top heavy with layer upon layer of managers. For example, Central has a manager and six assistant managers.
When asked, any county commissioner, past or present, has claimed to be a great supporter of libraries, but all have failed to exercise their oversight responsibility. This bureaucracy is a mess.
Bruce Silverman
Northwest Portland
BLAZERS ON ICE
The designers of the upgrade to Moda Center [“Fast Break,” WW, Feb. 18] should design an outdoor ice skating rink since they’re shutting down the one at Lloyd Center. Might get a few more votes that way.
Dave Willhite
Rockwood
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P.O. Box 10770
Portland, OR 97296
Email: amesh@wweek.com
