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As the Portland School Board considers closing as many as 20 elementary, K-8 and middle schools, each of its seven members has asked Portland Public Schools to consider various factors as it determines which buildings go on the chopping block. Yet all have called on the district to prioritize equity in its process.
There’s a reason they share that concern: School districts nationwide have often shuttered low-income schools and schools that serve higher percentages of students of color.
Data PPS presented to the board Tuesday indicates that, indeed, its Title I schools largely have lower enrollments than schools that draw from wealthier families. Title I schools—which have a higher share of families receiving government assistance—have struggled to sustain the enrollment thresholds that the district says are required for robust programming (360 students or more for elementary and 500 or more for middle schools).
For example, while 35% of the district’s non-Title I elementary schools met enrollment thresholds last year, just 18% of Title I schools did. In the 2031–32 school year, the district projects 25% of its non-Title I middle schools will meet thresholds, but none of its Title I middle schools will.
Gabrielle Haber, speaking on behalf of a parent coalition giving voice to Title I schools throughout the district in the closure process, says low enrollments at such schools are the consequence of “underinvestment, redlining, and special exceptions that have privileged better-off communities,” adding that PPS has an opportunity to right that wrong this time around.
PPS officials have emphasized that enrollment is just one factor of many that it will consider in its “rightsizing” process. Other factors include everything from facility quality to how much transition a school community has already undergone (think schools already affected by previous boundary redrawing processes).
Eddie Wang, the School Board’s chair, says that the data shows Title I schools are at a higher risk of receiving less robust resources from the district, given that higher enrollment is often linked with more available services.
“If we do nothing, our Title I schools will be in an even worse position than they are today,” Wang said on Tuesday. “I think there’s a lot of fear around consolidations...but this is also an opportunity to do something new.”
