By John A. Charles, Jr.
The United States Department of Education announced on February 17 that it was opening an investigation into Portland Public Schools (PPS) over a complaint that the district’s Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE) violates the federal Civil Rights Act.
The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating a complaint filed in December, alleging the CBSE violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in education programs and activities that receive federal funding.
According to Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey: “Civil rights law—and basic fairness—demand that every student, regardless of race, has equal access to educational programs and support. Although students of many races are falling behind, PPS is reserving academic interventions and essential resources exclusively for Black students. Discrimination disguised as ‘equity’ is still discrimination.”
The focus of the investigation centers on the recent expenditure by Portland Public Schools (PPS) of $17 million in bond funds to purchase the One North building in North Portland to house the Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE). The PPS website describes the CBSE as a “constellation of academic programs, strategies, supports, and experiences reinforced by physical infrastructure.”
The CBSE mission is to: Advance a culture of Black excellence while meaningfully integrating joy and healing; Unify and elevate the Black educational experience; and improve outcomes for Black students.
The concept for CBSE was first articulated by Rukaiyah Adams of Albina Vision Trust in a PPS Bond Town Hall (breakout room) on June 25, 2020, when Board members were considering bond options for the November election. On July 28, the Board formally endorsed the CBSE in Resolution 6150 and included a budget of $60 million as part of the $1.2 billion bond package approved by voters three months later.
PPS spent the next five years developing the programming needs for the Center. In 2023 the 194-page CBSE vision was published, casting the center as a hub for community organizations who are “advancing a culture of black excellence.”
Now that the federal government is investigating PPS for possible racial discrimination, Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong is claiming that the CBSE is not actually focused on Black student excellence.
As she told KOIN: “The Center for Black Student Excellence was renamed, which is now the Grice and Adair Building for Student Excellence, and it creates an opportunity for us to continue to examine and support our students in North Portland. It is open for all student groups.”
That statement was contradicted by the PPS employee most responsible for developing the educational programming for the CBSE, Aryn Frazier. Ms. Frazier told KOIN News that the center will be open to all students but built around culturally responsive support and career pathways for Black students.
“Black community here put forward an ambitious vision of what we could have here,” Frazier said. “It’s not Black student proficiency, it’s not a smaller achievement gap, it’s Black student excellence.”
Although Resolution 7237 renamed the buildings, as of February 26, the PPS website continues to refer to the program as the Center for Black Student Excellence.
The CBSE investigation comes on the heels of another lawsuit filed against the district last October by Glencoe Elementary School parent Richard Raseley, alleging that the district has engaged in discrimination by allocating additional operating dollars to elementary schools based on various demographic factors including race.
Under a PPS policy adopted in 2011, students identifying as Black, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander are automatically assumed to be “historically underserved” regardless of family income or any documented evidence of being underserved.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Portland by a national public interest law firm, the Center for Individual Rights, working with the local firm of Kell, Alterman and Runstein.
At the PPS Board meeting on February 10, two more parents complained about the “equity funding” policy. Tracy Gluckman and Margaret Henry are parents of first graders at Duniway Elementary School. They called for a “comprehensive staffing review” to address “a systemic flaw in how full-time equivalent (FTE) staffing is calculated.”
They claimed that over the past five years, Duniway has consistently ranked at the bottom in per-student funding despite having one of the largest school enrollments. In 2023–24, this high student enrollment and low dollar-per-student allocation yielded a total funding differential of approximately $1.6 million less than the highest-funded K–5 school not receiving Title 1 funding (the federal support for students from low-income families).
While Duniway does not hold Title I status, it does serve a population of students who face significant socioeconomic challenges. “Currently, these students are disproportionately underserved by the existing funding model, and we are here to ensure their needs are no longer overlooked” they said.
This extreme variation is the result of the Board’s decision to replace “equality” with “equity” when it comes to school funding. PPS adopted the “equity funding” model on the assumption that spending more money at schools with higher percentages of minority students would result in higher levels of academic achievement.
But management has never conducted an evaluation of this strategy, despite being asked to several times by the district’s own Citizen Budget Review Committee.
Cascade Policy Institute analyzed the District’s equity funding strategy in 2024, and found no correlation between increased funding and academic achievement.
The lawsuit filed by Mr. Rasely highlights the lack of compliance with federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution. Racial discrimination is prohibited under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and several U.S. Supreme Court decisions have upheld this in recent years, most notably in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll {2023}. As the 6-3 majority wrote in that case, “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
The PPS equity funding model also violates state law, prohibiting discrimination in any public elementary, secondary or community college education program “where the program, service, school or activity is financed in whole or in part by moneys appropriated by the Legislative Assembly.” ORS 659.850(2)
Discrimination includes any act that “unreasonably differentiates treatment, intended or unintended, or any act that is fair in form but discriminatory in operation, either of which is based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, age, gender identity, or disability.” ORS 659.850(1)(a)(A)
Officials with the Trump administration have made it clear they will withhold federal funding from state and local governments who discriminate on the basis of race or sex. The Port of Portland, Washington County, and the City of Portland all changed their policies last year to align with federal directives.
Is the PPS Board willing to risk $70 million in budgeted federal revenue to continue its race-based funding and programs?
John A. Charles, Jr. is President and CEO of Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization. He researches, writes, and presents testimony and analysis on state and local issues important to the freedom and opportunity of all Oregonians.
