On Monday, the Center for Individual Rights filed a federal civil rights lawsuit to end Portland, Oregon’s illegal racial funding formula for its public schools:
Currently, Portland Public Schools uses an “equity allocation” formula that distributes additional staff and resources based partly on the racial makeup of each school. Schools receive additional staffing if at least 40% of the school’s students are deemed “historically underserved,” a category that explicitly includes four racial groups. This means that two schools with identical academic needs, test scores, and poverty rates can receive different levels of funding and staffing—based solely on the skin color of their students.
The Center for Individual Rights says “This is not just unfair. It is unconstitutional.”
Making matters worse, Portland school officials recently dismantled the district’s longstanding system of local school foundations as part of its “equity” plan. For years, these foundations allowed parents to raise money that directly supported their kids’ schools to fund additional classroom aides, librarians, and other supplemental staffing.
Now, district officials pool all parent donations and redistribute them across the district according to the school board’s “racial equity and social justice” values. Since the change, overall donations have dropped by more than 80%.
The Center for Individual Rights says that
Portland’s children are harmed. Portland parents are outraged. And they’re fighting back with CIR’s help.
We represent Richard Raseley, a committed father and longtime school volunteer who once led his daughter’s local school foundation and raised over $100,000 to support teachers and staff. Now, barred from helping his school in the ways that once mattered most, he’s fighting to restore fairness and equal treatment for every student in Portland.
Our case is about more than reversing one policy in one school district. It’s about defending every student’s Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the law—and stopping government from allocating benefits or burdens based on race.
This case has the potential to set national precedent and halt a worrying trend of “equity allocation” style funding in school districts coast to coast. This case has already drawn helpful press attention. You can go to our case page to read the complaint and follow other updates.
