PPS High School Redesign/Rant

For those who don't know, Portland Public Schools have been losing students for years due to several factors. Whatever the reasons, Portland is has lost well over 20,000 students since the highs of over 80,000 students early sixties. While the population of Oregon is growing, PPS is shrinking. It is because of this that PPS has been engaged in a prolonged and sometimes contentious high school redesign. There were many ideas, but most of them involved the closing of high schools. This new one is no different, with the exception that only one school would be closing.

It's unfortunate, but PPS seems to be fighting a losing population battle. Unless more parents with families move into the city or there is a local baby boom, it's unlikely that Portland will need the use of all of the large comprehensive high school campuses. But it's difficult to close schools because everyone has input, and there are some schools that need to be closed.

But this isn't a problem that is unique to Portland. School districts across the country are flailing due mostly in the short-term to the economy, but also over the long-term due to demographic changes and structural instability and inability of governments to make the hard funding and hiring decisions.

This speaks to a broader societal problem in general. Our priorities are out of whack. We believe that we can fund everything that we want/need, but we don't want to pay for it. What I say is not controversial. What I write next may be. If we can't decide what we will cut, we must find ways of raising money, and if that means raising taxes, then so be it. If it means cutting services, then let's do that. At least we're paying for what we get. The real danger is going down the path that we are.

I'm happy that there is a new emphasis on education, but it's really hard decision time. Do we pay teachers more as Michell Rhee in Washington DC wants to? (Although studies have shown that more money past a certain point doesn't actually improve job performance or increase happiness). Do we get rid of the failing teachers? (Yes) Do we increase the amount of charter schools? (Jury's out on this)

These questions are the ones that we must decide as a society. Whatever the answer, we better figure it out soon, because we should be able to provide an education to students that is at least as good as it was when I was a student twenty years ago. Otherwise we'll continue to be a second-rate first-world country.