Portland Public Schools (PPS) is set to rezone its high school boundaries in an effort to increase the student population at Jefferson High School through the new Jefferson is Rising comprehensive plan. Jefferson currently enrolls only 391 students — less than 20% of Grant High School’s massive student body.
But many parents are upset: They don’t want to send their students to a lower-ranked school with fewer educational and extracurricular programs, even though by doing so they would contribute toward improving those programs at a historically Black high school.
In a city like Portland, well-known for its progressive ideologies, these reactions seem odd. Following numerous racially-charged murders in 2020, Portland was a hub for Black Lives Matter protests, despite being one of the whitest major cities in the country. Jefferson has the highest percentage of Black students of any PPS high school, so supporting its improvement should be an easy slam dunk, right? Not necessarily.
These reactions to Jefferson’s rezoning proposals clearly represent one uncomfortable truth: Many Portlanders enjoy the idea of progressivism, but are unwilling to make any personal sacrifices to achieve a more equal society.
Jefferson has a disproportionately low number of students because it’s been in a “dual assignment zone” since 2011 — students in the school’s boundaries could choose to attend other high schools, including Grant. What this means is that the students who choose to attend Jefferson are almost exclusively those who are unable or unwilling to commute elsewhere, or those who are part of a small minority of students who find that Jefferson’s offerings, such as its renowned dance program, best fit their needs.
Former PPS parent Steve Rawley wrote in 2009 that student transfer programs like Jefferson’s have a distinctively “self-segregating” effect. Since school funding is distributed based on population, the less fortunate students are also left with fewer resources and opportunities.
Jefferson is the only PPS high school without Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes, though it does have a partnership with Portland Community College.
And now, as the district is trying to level the playing field, albeit belatedly, many parents are frustrated. A recent Willamette Week headline puts it bluntly: “The Future of Portland’s Historically Black High School Could Hinge on White Parents.”
The district has proposed five scenarios for rezoning Jefferson’s boundaries, each with small differences to where certain feeder schools are zoned. Particularly contentious are the possible zoning changes to Irvington Elementary School and Sabin Elementary School. If PPS rezones these neighborhoods to Jefferson, many worry that parents in these relatively wealthy areas will choose to send their children to private schools.
These plans are certainly not perfect — Irvington is closer geographically to Grant than Jefferson and the district doesn’t have a concrete idea of how it will scale up Jefferson’s academic offerings during the transition period of rezoning and remodeling Jefferson in the next few years.
In the grand scheme of things, though, these issues are minor criticisms. Jefferson needs more students quickly, and no solution can work out perfectly for everyone.
Another concern is that Grant will lose students and the funding that comes with them. Again, this isn’t ideal; every school should have the money to fund any program it wishes to. But if the choice is between removing less-essential programs at Grant and adding more necessary programs at Jefferson, there’s clearly a better option.
When critiquing the proposals, parents residing in potential future Jefferson boundaries often begin by stating their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. But, they contend, the rezoning proposals being considered by the district are not the best way to improve Jefferson’s learning conditions.
What’s more, Jefferson is set to be remodeled, with construction beginning in the spring of 2026; students will stay on campus for the duration of the construction. One Sabin parent gave a public comment to the PPS Board of Education in November, saying that she, along with many other Sabin community members, opposes the district “forcing our children to attend Jefferson before construction is complete and full programming is in place.”
Barely mentioned are the 391 students who currently deal with Jefferson’s lack of funding firsthand and would continue to be harmed by further delaying the rezoning process. But the possibility of some students in the affected zones temporarily experiencing these issues while creating a more equal school district is reason enough for many parents to oppose the plan.
“‘There are lots of ways to battle racism,’” Denise Bilbao, a Sabin parent, told Willamette Week. “‘Is my kid’s education the way I want to do that? It isn’t.’”
How, then, does one battle racism? T-shirts? Yard signs?
Back in 2020, Shayla Lawson, a Black former Portland middle school teacher reflected on the time they were asked to teach “To Kill a Mockingbird.” They wrote: “We’ve migrated into a time in which it is more important for people to feel not-racist than it is for them to act not-racist.” If that doesn’t sum up this situation, nothing does.
