January 7, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cascade Policy Institute
4850 SW Scholls Ferry Rd., Ste. 103
Portland, OR 97227
Media Contact:
John A. Charles, Jr
President & CEO
Phone: (503) 242-0900
Email: [email protected]
Portland, Ore. – On January 7, the Portland Public School board is scheduled to vote to refer the largest bond measure in state history to the ballot in May. If approved, the measure will authorize the district to borrow up to $1.8 billion through the sale of General Obligation (GO) bonds, imposing new tax liabilities on district taxpayers for the next 25-30 years.
This vote is likely a surprise to most voters, because PPS has made little effort to seek public input. No stakeholder advisory committee was formed, and the wish list of items to be funded was created almost entirely by district staff. As a result, the bond proposal now before the Board asks for too much money and provides voters with too little information.
Cascade Policy Institute is recommending to PPS at the 5:00 p.m. public hearing that the Board send the bond proposal back to committee for further refinement. The number of projects should be reduced, and voters should be told in greater detail what facilities will be built or modernized. The Board has until February 28th to refer a measure to voters.
Specific problems with the bond include:
- The Board has mismanaged funds from the $1.2 billion bond approved in 2020. The public approved $366 million for a rebuild of Jefferson High School – the largest amount ever budgeted for a single school in Oregon – yet nothing has been built, and the project is now $125 million over budget, for a total of $491 million.
- The 2020 bond also included $60 million for the Center for Black Student Excellence, yet none of the money has been spent and no one at PPS can even explain what the CBSE will be, who will attend, or how it will operate.
- The district persuaded state legislators to approve $120 million in 2022 to move Harriett Tubman Middle School, due to concerns about air pollution from ODOT’s highway widening project on I-5. None of that money has been spent, and PPS now concedes that there are no viable sites within the Albina neighborhood to build a new school.
- PPS is working out an agreement to sell the 10-acre site that currently houses the Prophet Education Center (PEC) in NE Portland, in a sale process that allowed only one bidder. PPS is seeking only a “cost-neutral” transaction, even though state law requires that the Board aim to maximize the investment value of assets for the benefit of students.
- In the 2025 bond proposal, PPS plans to spend $1.15 billion to modernize or replace Jefferson, Ida B. Wells, and Cleveland high schools, plus unnamed elementary and middle schools, without providing specific school budgets. Yet, last June the district was budgeting over $430 million each for just the three high schools, which totals much more than $1.15 billion. No methodology or analysis has been provided to explain these changes.
According to Cascade Policy Institute President John Charles, “PPS does not have the credibility to pass a bond of this size. The bond should be redrafted to address a smaller number of projects, including the rebuilding of Cleveland and Ida B. Wells high schools, and upgrades to various athletic facilities including the Grant bowl. This can probably be done for $750 million or less. Other projects on the PPS wish list should be deferred to subsequent bond measures, or paid for out of the District’s General Fund.”
Cascade’s detailed critique of the bond measure can be viewed here.
About Cascade Policy Institute: Founded in 1991, Cascade Policy Institute is Oregon’s free-market public policy research center. Cascade’s mission is to explore and promote public policy alternatives that foster individual liberty, personal responsibility, and economic opportunity. For more information, visit cascadepolicy.org.
