Portland's schools are broke because Oregon's tax system is a scam: Measure 97 defeated, Nike's Sweetheart Deal with Governor Kitzhaber, Single Sales Factor & Intel, Portland Business Alliance Lobbying, and more. Working-class families pay 9% of their income in taxes. The wealthy pay 6% – corporations like Nike and Intel pay less than a food truck. This isn't an accident — it's theft. We're robbing kids to subsidize billionaires.

You can't “support schools" while voting against taxing the rich. That's like saying you love forests but hate trees.

We've turned poverty into a life sentence. If you're born poor in Portland, your school gets fewer books, broken heaters, and a police officer instead of a computer lab. That's not equity — that's economic servitude.

Telling a kid in Albina to ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’ while their school lacks textbooks is like telling someone to build a house without tools. It's cruelty disguised as advice.

We pay teachers like babysitters and wonder why they quit. Meanwhile, Portland spends $3 million yearly on consultants to write reports no one reads — I live this daily. Priorities, people.

If we can sit on a billion dollars in unused city funds and waste resources ego-stroking the vanity of local politicians, we can damn well pay teachers enough to live in the city they serve.

We will not let state politicians hide behind corporate lobbyists while our schools suffer. We will mobilize in Salem — in person and online — to confront lawmakers who keep tax loopholes open for big businesses like Nike and Intel. Our teams of parents, teachers, and community members will attend hearings to expose deals that harm our classrooms. We will demand the closure of these tax breaks or face community outrage.