More than 1,000 schools closed in the United States in the 2025-26 school year. The trend has to do with declining birth rates, but also with an upending of the public education system from the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. There are dozens of school districts facing closures and consolidations this school year.
One of many school districts facing this prospect is my own kid’s. Portland Public Schools (PPS) is the largest school district in Oregon serving around 43,000 students. This past school year, they proposed what they called “rightsizing”: a massive transformation of the district to address declining enrollment and budget cuts. In early October, they published a set of scenarios which, if approved, could close 11-14 schools, effective with the 2027-28 school year.
PPS’ October announcement has generated a lot of reactions, including straight-up opposition to closing any schools. Many stakeholders had not engaged with the “rightsizing” process prior to seeing the scenarios. But a movement of parents from across PPS’ neighborhood schools had already begun an organizing campaign, one rooted in the values of Integrated Schools, called Rightsizing the Right Way (RTRW), of which I am an organizer. With the support of Portland’s relatively new Integrated Schools chapter, and along with allies such as the PPS Title 1 Coalition, RTRW has been drawing attention to the importance of keeping neighborhood schools intact and to the harm caused by PPS’ school choice policies as a root cause of disinvestment in neighborhood schools and the communities they serve.
Portland’s School Choice Problem
School choice in PPS includes public charter schools, lottery dual language-immersion (DLI) programs (mostly co-located with neighborhood schools), and “focus option” schools, the local term for magnet schools. The current system funnels millions of public dollars away from neighborhood schools into specialized programs that concentrate resources and privilege. In the 2025-26 school year, 3,200 students opted out of their neighborhood schools for Focus Option schools, and with them ~$35 million was redirected away from neighborhood classrooms based on direct school funding (~$61 million districtwide).
Rightsizing the Right Way
In late August RTRW began circulating a petition calling for the Portland Public Schools Board Portland Public Schools Board to prioritize and protect neighborhood schools during its upcoming district rightsizing process. When PPS released its “rightsizing” scenarios on October 5, RTRW called attention to several key points:
- School choice is part of the root cause of enrollment problems for some schools: PPS data showed that eight of the schools slated for closure lose over 20% of their districted students to other PPS schools, notably focus options and charters. In other words, their enrollment decline is not completely a function not of district demographics but of the district’s disinvestment in neighborhood schools in favor of “choice” schools.
- The scenarios represent “equality” more than “equity”: While some efforts seem to be made as a nod to equity (e.g., a higher-income school facing closure and consolidating with a more diverse, Title I school), closure of any Title I schools disproportionately harms low-income and Black and brown students, an inequity consistent with national data.
- Focus Options seem to exist in a different realm than neighborhood schools: Focus option schools with the lowest proportion of historically underserved students stand virtually untouched through the scenarios. The justifications we’ve heard describe these “very popular” schools as “calling cards for families seeking choices beyond their neighborhood schools.” The implication being that the district cannot afford to disturb its most advantaged families, but it’s ok to cause upheaval for everyone else.
This all said, we are aware that the scenarios are just the middle (or even starting point) of conversations. We hope and expect there to be revisions to the next steps of the process and we intend to ensure we keep the problems that school choice has created to be a part of those.
As other communities approach these conversations in the future, we’ve learned some lessons in our approach that might be helpful.
- Keep the message as simple as possible. This isn’t easy! By definition, school choice systems tend to complicate the decision-making landscape in Portland and elsewhere. Our tagline: Make all neighborhood schools places families want to choose.
- It takes time for people to understand the message. Despite having a simple message, it took the district publishing its scenarios for our organizing to take off. Seeing the closure proposals made our arguments concrete for stakeholders. Our petition signatures almost doubled the week after the scenarios were published.
- The organizing doesn’t end with published scenarios or a proposal. The fact that we had already done the research and crafted our messaging meant we were ready to meet the moment once people were ready to engage. We actually think this is the moment when we have the most influence. We have a proposal to respond to and can help work with board members and the district to make changes.
- Your team matters. We have an incredibly clear-eyed and passionate team of volunteer parents on our organizing committee. This has helped us to maintain momentum and keep our mission in focus. While we have close to 500 supporter signatures, we have our detractors! One thing we’ve done is compile our responses to some of the tough questions in a FAQ (scroll down this page).
- Lead with respect and kindness. We’ve gotten a lot of angry (and often accusatory) emails. To be expected, of course. But it’s helped to lead with compassion and realize that every person who is reaching out is doing it because they care. I often go back to a conversation I had with Garrett Bucks and Courtney Martin on Slate’s “How To!” podcast a few years ago about having these hard conversations and how to lead with love. It is also how we are approaching our conversations with the district. You can be kind and respectful while also challenging a person or an institution.
If you are thinking about starting your own organizing campaign similar to Rightsizing the Right Way, I am happy to talk and connect. In the meantime, check out our Substack and Instagram page to get a sense of our approach. (You can reach Elizabeth via the Portland IS chapter email.)
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