Cascade CounterPoint

At last count, more than one and a half million children now benefit from school choice programs across the Unites States. With 75 programs in 34 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, more than half of America’s K-12 students are eligible to participate in an educational choice program if they choose.That number is set to rise. Last week, the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program opened its application process. On February 4, the parents of more than 42,000 students applied, breaking Tennessee’s record of 33,000 first-day applications for its school choice program in 2025.When the Texas legislature created TEFA, it was the largest school choice program at the time of its inception in the country. The legislation funded Education Savings Accounts for an initial 90,000 students, with a total of one billion dollars. Each student account will be valued at $10,000 or more, depending on individual circumstances. Funds can be used for private school tuition, tutoring, transportation, special needs therapies, and other education-related expenses. Eighty percent of first-day applicants indicated they intend to use the funds to attend private schools, and 20 percent plan to choose other options.Last year, new educational choice programs launched in seven states: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Tennessee. Now Texas is giving record numbers of children access to learning environments in which they have better opportunities to reach their potential. Oregon education policies should expand options for students here, too, so all children can have an effective, meaningful, and empowering school experience.

In 2011, Portland Public Schools adopted a dual-enrollment policy allowing students in Jefferson High School boundaries to choose from one of three area high schools. Of the twenty-four hundred high schoolers inside its boundaries, about two-thousand have opted for alternatives, leaving Jefferson with only 391 students this year.The Portland school board is pouring enormous amounts of money into Jefferson which receives more operating dollars per student than any other local high school because of its higher percentage of Black students – about 40 percent -- and is about to start building a 1,700-seat school for Jefferson students at a half-billion dollars -- one of the most expensive schools ever built in America.Despite such extravagant spending, Jefferson students have routinely ranked highest in absenteeism and lowest in academic scores among local high schools. Sadly, the district fails to understand the social determinants of academic achievement. In their decades-long effort to close the achievement gap between Black and White students, Board members are focused on bureaucratic solutions such as money, facilities, class size, and racial composition.But academic excellence is primarily driven by human factors beyond the district’s control -- such as family structure, parental oversight, student effort, and peer influence.In the hopes of filling the new Jefferson high school building, Superintendent Armstrong called on the board to end dual enrollment in September 2027. While many families expressed concern about losing school choice, their voice was never heard at the January 13 meeting. The board had already decided -- if families would not choose Jefferson, then the district would conscript them. Chances are this decision will backfire, as enrollment is forecasted to drop fifteen percent by 2035 and ending school choices will accelerate that trend.Parents always have options—whether the district offers them or not. They won’t be held hostage to attend a school that doesn’t meet their student’s needs. Open enrollment policies are growing rapidly nationwide and 23 states now have them. PPS could be part of that movement, and the Board should consider expanding dual enrollment for all students in the district. Not only would this empower more families, it would bring market forces into the district to help schools maintain or increase enrollment.Mike Tomlin, coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers for 19 years, was asked about a star player missing due to a contract dispute. He quipped, “We’re looking for volunteers, not hostages.”Portland Schools are making a $500 million bet that filling Jefferson High with hostages will be a winning strategy. Without school choices, the odds don’t look favorable.

On December 30th, Chief Petitioners plunked down the last pile of signatures on the Secretary of State’s desk. It was a slam dunk for the Oregon System.In a record-breaking 40-ish days, a quarter-million Oregon voters lined up in every county to sign the “Stop the Gas Tax” petition and refer Governor Kotek’s $4.3 billion transportation tax to the November ballot.These voters participated in the “Oregon System,” a form of direct democracy passed in 1902 and giving voters the right to challenge legislation in a veto referendum. Since then, Oregon voters have repealed 42 laws.Oregon Freedom Coalition’s Nick Stark told Cascade there were nearly enough signatures to even qualify for a constitutional referendum.The record-breaking signature drive signaled legislators that Oregon’s voters are up for any challenge—especially the legislative session beginning in February.No sooner had Stark spoken, when Governor Kotek called for lawmakers to “redirect, repeal, and rebuild” the transportation bill, admitting that “thousands of Oregonians across the state have made their point.”As designed, the Oregon System earned the Governor’s attention.So what’s next? The Bill’s Chief Petitioners say a full repeal isn’t the best answer as it would gut the good parts, re-institute tolling, and halt the audit of ODOT.In any case, the Governor and her supermajority are back where they started one year ago, unable to govern and unable to carry out the state’s most basic functions: to maintain roads and bridges—the stuff all of us need and care about.Two things—a lack of imagination in spending solutions and a narrow fixation on collecting more taxes—make up a mindset where nothing can be done unless voters pay more for less—more for gas taxes, more for fees, more for dying transit, and more for fewer roads and fewer lanes for cars.While New York’s socialist mayor touts the “warmth of collectivist action” — taxpayers in Oregon were nearly condemned to the cold gulag of blistering tax increases and service decreases. That is, until a quarter-million voters decided to light a fire, ignited by the spark of individual freedom.

At TriMet’s December board meeting, director Tyler Frisbee lectured attendees on how 82nd Avenue business owners and motorists should embrace TriMet’s takeover of auto lanes for exclusive busways.TriMet refers to these as Business Access Transit or BAT lanes—which is Orwell’s doublespeak for the opposite effect—reducing business access for people in cars. Portland Bureau of Transportation’s alleged “improvement” of 82nd only turns a street made for cars into an avenue for the minority of pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders.82nd is another flagship for how PBOT intends to “improve” more streets -- by taking away auto lanes to be re-striped as “bus-only” lanes. Traffic modeling shows, of course, this will greatly distress peak-hour travel times by 50 percent and divert motorists to I-205.TriMet’s 72 bus line will be the only beneficiary of this change. A bus that runs every 12 minutes during peak hours, means BAT lanes will be unused most of the time while motorists eye an empty lane, confined to Los Angeles style gridlock.TriMet and PBOT are moving towards a likely February decision on the BAT lanes -- and many business owners have threatened legal action for loss of access to their shops.Director Frisbee, meanwhile, took 10 minutes to make unsubstantiated assertions, to which Cascade’s President, John Charles, has written a response you can read at cascadepolicy.org. Like an evangelist, Tyler Frisbee pleas for Portlanders to repent from their car-centric ways and embrace the narrow vision of PBOT’s Transportation System Plan -- whose tenets are known as “Vision Zero:” Stop designing roads around people in cars to make driving more painful, and convert major roads into avenues for walking, bicycling, and public transit.At the February meeting, the TriMet Board should withdraw this idea and end its war on the majority of people in cars.

In early December, Governor Kotek unveiled “Oregon’s Prosperity Roadmap” and laid out “three broad goals” to grow business, jobs, and the economy. While acknowledging Oregon’s economic decline, her roadmap is only an updated cover for the same GPS coordinates: driving prosperity via state programs.Oregon’s latest “prosperity roadmap” promises growth through new programs and administrative solutions—but decades of similar plans haven’t reversed our decline. Oregon’s governors have been cycling through similar campaigns since Neil Goldschmidt touted “Oregon Shines” in 1989. The problem isn’t the map. It’s the direction.Eighty-five years ago, in 1939, Oregon’s newly elected governor, Charles Sprague, gave his inaugural address on “the economic problem of Oregon.” The Oregon Historical Society features a line from his speech on its courtyard wall, which says:“In the long history of humanity, the most precious spark is that of individual freedom.”In his day, Sprague managed the Oregon Statesman paper at a time when tyrants rose to power, and collectivist states snuffed out the “precious spark” of untold millions. He knew a thing or two about Oregon’s economic challenges on the heels of the Depression, with 15 percent joblessness and dependence on New Deal spending -- rather than private sector growth. His inaugural address emphasized freedom, responsibility, and recovery. His GPS was guided by the notion that individual freedom is the atomic “spark” that ignites human ingenuity to create wealth; and that long-term prosperity flows from free enterprise rather than never-ending public support and centralized control.Oregon needs a new direction and leaders with the will and muscle to remove prosperity-crushing obstacles that prevent us from getting to cruising speed. All roads have off-ramps. Many are ditching Oregon’s obstacle course and taking their sweet rides to cruise into the sunrise of better opportunity.All roads have on-ramps. The on-ramp to lasting prosperity is that “precious spark” of individual freedom. As we debate our economic future, it's important to remember Gov. Sprague's lesson. Oregon’s prosperity roadmap must be guided by individual freedom.Visit www.cascadepolicy.org

How much money does it take to “fully fund” Oregon’s public schools? Last month a Joint Committee of the Oregon legislature released a “Report on the Adequacy of Public Education Appropriations.” Oregon’s Fiscal and Policy Research offices examined the level of funding provided by the Legislature and other sources for public schools.They concluded that public schools today receive the full $13.5 billion recommended by the Education Commission in 2024 to “fully fund schools.” That means the Legislature appropriated $11.3 billion and the Corporate Activities Tax came in at another $2.2 billion. According to the Oregonian’s analysis, advocates for public school funding, like PPS board member Christy Splitt, dismiss the expert report and opines that school funding is “not enough.” She complains the report’s conclusion is the result of a “political narrative.”However, the facts remain that school funding has increased over the years while academic outcomes and the student population have declined. Lawmakers have asked for accountability on how schools are using state dollars, only to see plummeting national scores of about 25-percent proficiency in reading and math for today’s eighth graders.Maybe more money is never enough because money is not the problem – or the solution – to Oregon’s education. At Cascade, we believe options in education would make better use of funding and allow parents a greater say in choosing the school -- public, private or charter -- that meets their child’s learning needs.Read the full commentary at www.cascadepolicy.org

On December 2, Portland Public Schools board voted unanimously to purchase the One North commercial building for $16 million to house the Center for Black Student Excellence, but the building’s purchase price is only the beginning. The building needs another $20 to $25 million in renovations and two to three years of construction. For the next three years PPS will own an expensive, mostly empty shell. While fostering student excellence should be the district’s priority, this plan is fiscally reckless and logistically flawed. In November, Cascade submitted an Analysis to the PPS Facilities Committee enumerating the risks associated with the One North purchase. The Oregonian editorial board repeated some of Cascade’s concerns.Portland Public Schools faces a $50 million budget shortfall, yet they’ve committed to purchasing property with operational deficits for an undefined program. When board members questioned this gap—money that could fund teachers or educational assistants—proponents dismissed concerns. One called it a “drop in the bucket.” Another complained that such questioning “doesn’t feel very fair.” For taxpayers facing cuts, such resistance to basic financial scrutiny is unacceptable. There is a better solution: to integrate the center into Jefferson High School’s construction. This eliminates costly conversions, cuts delays, and saves tens of millions of dollars.The board has a mandate to spend $60 million on Black student excellence. It doesn’t have a mandate to spend it foolishly.Read the full commentary at www.cascadepolicy.org

The Oregon Department of Energy, or ODOE, recently published its Oregon Energy Strategy which centers on “decarbonization” by eliminating the generation of fossil fuels in Oregon.ODOE director Janine Benner told the legislature, “It’s not a matter of when the energy transition from fossil fuels will occur; It’s already happening.”If so, It’s proceeding at glacial speed. ODOE’s webpage on Oregon’s electricity supply shows that, between 2012 and 2024, fossil fuels remain the dominant source of electricity. It’s true that wind and solar grew to 11 percent, but only after hundreds of millions in subsidies.What’s most concerning today is the reality that wind and solar are intermittent. For engineering reasons, both the supply of and demand for electricity must always be in equilibrium. Sudden drops caused by weather could lead to blackouts.Grid operators need “dispatchable” energy sources. Wind and solar are not dispatchable, making them unsuited for the utility grid—and for the coming century.The energy transition isn’t happening because it can’t happen. Decarbonization conflicts with the demands of a modern economy. Shutting down coal and gas plants and ending fossil fuel sales would transport us back to the nineteenth century. Oregon’s political leaders have embraced energy poverty at a time when electricity demand is skyrocketing. The fuels needed to power new data centers and electric vehicles are nuclear, coal, gas and hydro—none of which are planned to increase in Oregon due to regulations.Welcome to the nineteenth century. Stock up on candles.For the full commentary visit www.cascadepolicy.org

Cascade recently participated in U of O’s Inspire Oregon summit on Rural Housing Policy, where policymakers, administrators, and leaders met to discuss policy and draft recommendations for Oregon’s next legislative session. Discussions centered on a theme: that of navigating state regulations so rural citizens can have local control in Oregon’s housing crisis. Since 1973 Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Act has restricted communities from meeting the housing and economic needs of their growing populations, in essence, favoring land preservation over housing and economic uses, and stifling Oregon’s rural communities. This leaves local citizens without a voice in their own backyard. In a session on “Streamlining Development Process,” they discussed improving the process for what’s known as “use by right” to encourage residential housing projects. However, local opponents and special interest groups continue to stunt and delay “use by right” policy through the Land Use Board of Appeals. They work to block projects and convolute the process for home builders.This year, the legislature tried to clarify “use by right,” amend the convoluted procedures, and limit opponents’ ability to sue over permitted developments.Rural housing advocates will be asking legislators to adopt policies that favor residential development while respecting property rights. Oregon should decrease risk and regulatory cost for developers, simplify codes, and increase local control so communities can solve their local housing crises.Read the full commentary at CascadePolicy.org.

TriMet has a Board Retreat this week. Looking at their agenda, the first thing you’d notice is what’s missing. You won’t find any urgency to address their financial decline—or touch on operating losses of $850 million in 2024.The only agenda items to mention money are the “Financial Scorecard Update” and “Federal Grants Update.” But TriMet’s problems go far beyond keeping score of revenue and expenses.According to financial reports, every metric related to productivity, cost-effectiveness, and financial sustainability has declined for 10 years.Fare revenue—down 52 percent; rides down, 28 percent; farebox recovery down, 8 percent from 34 percent.The only things going up are taxes and bureaucracy. TriMet’s tax revenue is up 75 percent; labor cost, up 86 percent; full-time employees, up 19 percent; administrative, up 88 percent.Undeterred, however, TriMet still plans to expand light rail into Washington, whose express bus is already superior to light rail. And to spend $350 million on reducing lanes for 82nd Avenue.Wednesday’s agenda should focus primarily on the crisis at hand: how to reduce costs and raise revenue. TriMet doesn’t even have a minimum farebox standard. It should.Our advice to the TriMet board? Use your time wisely. Procrastination is not a strategy.TriMet Retreat Should Focus on Crisis, Not Expansion 

Since 1965, Congress has been subsidizing transit and taxpayers have spent well over $2 trillion dollars on transit. That’s in the same territory as the U.S. deficit.In these 60 years, transit operating costs have increased 500 percent while fare revenues have ticked up a modest 10 percent. Total ridership – in actual numbers – has decreased by 10 percent, and riders per capita for urban residents has fallen by more than half. Instead of improving efficient transportation, transit agencies have bloated their bureaucracies and nearly tripled their workers. Today, they spend 55 percent more on "general administration."Most transit makes congestion worse, not better. Aside from New York, transit uses more energy and emits more greenhouse gases per passenger-mile than cars and light trucks. Worse yet, transit spending siphons billions from improving roads for 100 percent of Americans.It's time to stop this trillion-dollar boondoggle. Next year, congress will consider new legislation in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill. Congress should end transit subsidies or tie them to fare revenues, so that transit must boost ridership—not spending—to increase funds.Read more at $2 Trillion and No One Aboard - Cascade Policy Institute

This week, Cascade’s president, John Charles, testified at Portland Public Schools’ Bond Accountability Committee. He commended BAC’s work reviewing this year’s $2 billion Portland school bond and agreed with their assessment that building three large high schools when enrollment is declining is a mistake. He asked BAC to “Speak directly to the taxpayers who will have to pay hundreds of millions in unnecessary construction costs.”When Portland Public Schools passed the largest bond in state history, to build the nation’s most expensive high schools, the measure required oversight by a citizen committee.When the BAC reported on the bond, they expressed concern about “building such large schools…given declining enrollment and decreasing birth rates.”Their advice at the October meeting was ignored, and the Board voted to move ahead with plans to overbuild three high schools by several thousand seats.In a not-so-distant fiscal crisis, journalists will ask the school board, “What did you know and when did you know it?”They’ll be forced to admit they ignored the warnings of oversight committees and citizen research groups like Cascade. PPS board members have breached their fiduciary duty and act as though there will be no consequences. Dear BAC – please tell the taxpayers.Read the full commentary at ⁠Dear PPS Bond Committee: Please Tell the Taxpayers - Cascade Policy Institute⁠

The Portland Bureau of Transportation--or PBOT--is spending tens of millions to convert miles of a four-lane state highway, known as 82nd avenue, into a two-lane neighborhood street and busway.TriMet is headed for a contentious decision November 7th to put 82nd Ave on a major “Road Diet,” cut motorist capacity in half, and replace car lanes with BAT lanes for bikes and transit. It all started three years ago when ODOT transferred the Portland section of 82nd to PBOT, who began spending millions on a scheme to “build a better 82nd avenue.”PBOT’s overarching vision—for 82nd and others—means converting state highways to busways by reducing lanes, adding barriers, punishing motorists with gridlock, and calling it progress. It’s part of Portland’s “Transportation System Plan” that envisions walking, bicycling, transit, and shared vehicles for 70 percent of Portland. Their “strategy for people movement” literally does not include personal vehicles.When Metro, PBOT, and TriMet meet--a rabble of bike activists, lawyers, and Democratic Socialists plan to make a showing and demand more miles of dedicated BAT lanes for buses and bikes on state highways.Oregon motorists make up 90 percent of 82nd avenue users. They’re busy living their lives—not attending PBOT meetings. This time, when TriMet meets on November 7th – let them hear from you. Submit a public comment and tell them to remove BAT lanes from further consideration.

Last week, Cascade's President, John Charles, emailed a Memo to the Portland Public School Board urging them to consider the Bond Accountability Committee’s concerns about overbuilding high schools. Their report concluded by stating that, “…the district should not be building such large high schools when there is not the student body to justify it. Given declining enrollment and decreasing birth rates this issue is even more pronounced given the project budget issues."Willamette Week also cited the statement, raising alarm about the Board’s failure to use demographic and enrollment data in sizing future high schools. Nonetheless, the PPS Board voted to move ahead as planned while Chairman Wang argued that size reduction is "unfair" and failing to explain how empty buildings will better serve students.By 2033 Portland will have at least 3,000 empty high school desks. Even now, talks of school consolidation are ongoing. Do Portland taxpayers want to spend $1 billion on expensive and empty classrooms?On the flip side, Beaverton High School has chosen better, building a high school for 1,500 students with the option to replace a building if enrollment goes up.PPS should design real high schools for real students and expand later if necessary. By ignoring the Committee’s due diligence and moving ahead with over-sized and over-priced schools, they will accelerate the district’s slide into the fiscal crisis they already face. Portland taxpayers and students will ultimately pay the price.Read more at www.cascadepolicy.org

The Portland Public Schools Board is considering the purchase of an 80,000 square foot building to house the “Center for Black Student Excellence.” This triggered a 90-day due diligence review with a final vote in December on whether to purchase the commercial building. While the committee so far has reviewed the building’s merits, they haven’t asked the hard questions. First is the fact that the One North building will not be used as a school, but as a community center and a hub for organizations who “advance a culture of black excellence.” However, PPS is a school district whose primary mission is classroom education. They’ve never operated a community center with classroom dollars and buying a commercial building for non-school programming will be hard to justify.A second question is the legal one. Supreme Court rulings have made it clear that race-based programs in public education violate Civil Rights laws. Is the District Board willing to risk federal revenue for a non-school, race-based program?While buying the One North building is a bad idea for a tax-supported school district, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. Many private organizations serve minority youth with experienced staff and robust programming. The Center would be an imaginative project for them to sponsor.The Center for Black Student Excellence should be a private venture. One great fit could be the 1803 Fund, established by Rukaiyah Adams, who first cast the vision for the Center five years ago. Ms. Adams could use this opportunity to launch the vision without the legal restrictions and challenges sure to arise for a tax-entity like Portland Public Schools.

Last week KGW news reported that Portland area rents are up 22 percent since pre-pandemic levels. We see it everywhere: so-called “affordable housing” costs have risen so quickly that even though cities and states now spend more money than ever, fewer housing units are being built. In April 2024, the Cascade Policy Institute published a report asking why this is the case. Unfortunately, the state of Oregon has refused to make data available that brings to light why rising costs continue to accelerate.Fortunately, in the year or so since then, the Montana Department of Commerce provided data on 190 housing projects. Analysis shows that only one-third of increased costs are due to actual construction; the rest is due to the increasing size of housing projects. Large projects require developers to borrow money, which then adds interest expense. In addition, developers have massively increased the amount they spend on buying property for housing.Developers welcome rising costs because they earn fees from the projects in proportion to the cost of the project. Unfortunately, state housing agencies who hand out “affordable housing subsidies” make little to no effort to ensure these funds are used cost-effectively. This means that affordable housing mainly benefits developers rather than low-income individuals who need it most.

The National Association of Education Progress (NAEP) annually releases a representative study of students’ academic performance. Known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” NAEP scores are an indicator of how much children are learning.This fall’s report shows only 24 percent of Oregon eighth graders are “at or above proficient” in math, and 27 percent are proficient in reading. Of Oregon fourth graders, 31 percent are proficient in math, 27 percent in reading. These scores are lower than the national average.This isn’t a surprise. Money spent in the public education bureaucracy has increased for decades, but everyone knows academic achievement has declined. It’s no wonder polls show strong majorities of voters, including poll respondents in Oregon, support “giving parents the right to use tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the school which best serves their needs.”Oregon public schools can’t meet the needs of all children for reasons that are many and complex. But solutions can be simple, starting with freedom and opportunity. To improve education outcomes, policymakers should make it easier for parents to match their students with public, charter, magnet, online, private, home, or micro schools that best meet their needs and goals. Parents want their children to learn, and they want access to schools that will help them do that effectively. Children deserve no less than a great environment to reach their full potential.

On September 15, the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) released its 2025 Biennial Zero-Emissions Vehicle Report, revealing that Oregon is far behind on its goal of purchasing 250,000 “zero emissions vehicles” (ZEV) by 2025. The report was established in 2019 by SB 1044 to push ZEV adoption.As of May 2025, 119,850 such vehicles were registered in Oregon, equaling 3.2 percent of the total vehicle fleet. Of those, only 84,636 were true zero-emission vehicles powered entirely by a battery. The remaining 35,214 vehicles were plug-in hybrids, which still rely on gasoline.These numbers show that we’ve reached 34 percent of Kate Brown’s arbitrary EV Adoption Targets established during her era. Even more ambitious goals were set by ODOE for 2035, stating “at least 90 percent of new cars sold will be zero-emission vehicles.”Two obvious reasons come to mind for this failed goal. For starters, EVs cost more than traditional vehicles—a good deal more. For medium– and heavy-duty vehicles the purchase price can be double or triple the price of a diesel or gasoline powered vehicle. In practical terms, finding or installing a charging station can be difficult or expensive, making long-distance trips a challenge to plan.Few people will notice this policy failure because few really care about electric vehicles. The ZEV report is just one example of political elites telling us what to do and then being ignored.Will the Oregon Department of Energy learn from their failure and leave us alone? No. That’s why they work for the government. But if you like your car, gas powered or hybrid, just keep it. Bureaucrats can’t make you buy something you don’t want and can’t afford.

The Portland Public School board is set to approve the sale for the “One North Building” as a home for the “Center for Black Student Excellence.” The District is prepared to spend $16 million from the 2020 construction bond. Yet, they’ve never explained how the Center will operate or who it will serve. The name of the Center implies it will serve Black students, but the staff report claims it will be open to everyone. If true, it should be called the Center for Student Excellence.PPS serves about 44-thousand students over 150 square miles, so how will those students travel to the Center before or after school? The building has 10 parking spaces and isn’t zoned for buses.The staff report also states “student use will be limited.” If so, why purchase a new building with new operating costs? The district already has too many schools while enrollment is in decline.Learning takes place everywhere in the district. Spending millions on a new building is unlikely to have a real effect on academic achievement.Perhaps while evaluating the building, the Board can re-evaluate the Center’s vision with a goal to bring student excellence into every school and tailoring experiences to students from different ethnic backgrounds. Maybe investing in Centers for Student Excellence wouldn’t require a new building at all.

In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregating school children by race was unconstitutional. As a result, districts across America spent the rest of the century integrating schools.In Portland, though, segregation is back in vogue. A group called Albina Vision Trust began promoting the idea of a Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE) in the summer of 2020 and persuaded the Portland Public School Board (PPS) to set aside $60 million for that concept in its $1 billion construction bond that voters approved a few months later.Five years later, none of the $60 million has been spent because advocates have never been able to explain how one single building would advance Black excellence in a district serving more than 40,000 students spread over 152 square miles. A recent Oregonian editorial asked the same question, asking “how this center will finally help the district advance student achievement.”Nonetheless, the PPS Board has announced a plan to buy a new building in North Portland for the CBSE. No details are available, but the purchase will be discussed by the Board at its next meeting on September 9.In the famous 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. School Board of Topeka, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote for a unanimous Court that, “in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” But PPS no longer cares about equality. The new goal is “equity.” Just don’t ask them to explain it.