Portland Public Schools policy allows parents to buy staff for their children's schools through individual school foundations. The few schools that can raise enough to add more teachers and staff are schools serving wealthier, predominantly white populations.

Fundraising for public schools might seem like a worthy endeavor, but foundation fundraising is causing harm to our community by:

• Disproportionately directing more resources to white students than to students of historically underserved races and ethnicities.
• Giving the false impression of addressing inequities by allocating one-third of all funds raised to need-based grants.
• Directing parent resources of time, money, and connections into individual schools instead of shared priorities that benefit ALL students.
• Distracting many from advocating for appropriate public funding.
• Oregon schools should be fully funded per the Oregon Constitution. As parents and community members we will take responsibility for how we show up for public schools.

The foundation fundraising policy will be under review with the PPS School Board in the 2020/2021 school year. By signing today, we state our support for reforming the foundation fundraising system that preserves injustice in our public school system. Until this policy is reformed, we PLEDGE to avoid contributions that include paying for teachers or staff in individual schools.

For more information and an in-depth look at the supporting data, please visit Reform PPS Foundation Fundraising.