On March 3, 2025, Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against Portland Public Schools (PPS) in Oregon with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint claims PPS is breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. It also claims PPS is violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which bars government bodies, including public schools, from treating people differently because of their race except in rare cases.
In 2020, Portland voters approved Measure 26-215, a $1.2 billion school construction bond that also created the district’s Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE). The center’s guiding principles promise to “center Blackness unapologetically” and to “ensure that Black students and Black Educators in PPS access empowering activities, services, and relationships.” Its services for Black students and families include mentoring, free food, mental health support, transportation help, parent support groups, and affinity groups for Black educators.
Yet PPS’s own report shows that students of many races are struggling. Only 17% of Black students meet the third-grade reading standard, but just 16.7% of Pacific Islander students do. Only 61.5% of Native American students graduate high school, compared with 79.4% of Black students. Still, the extra help goes only to Black students. In January 2025, the school board turned down a proposal for $40 million for a Native Student Success Center.
All this comes while PPS faces a $40 million deficit, and, as of January 2025, the center had yet to break ground on its building.
Defending Education urges the Department to investigate every claim in its complaint, fix PPS’s illegal policies and practices, and order the right remedies.
Read the full complaint below:
