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 The proposed change would limit transfers between schools, which
white and affluent families have disproportionately used to remove
their children from low-performing schools.
School systems across the United States are increasingly segregated
along racial and economic lines, 60 years after the U.S. Supreme
Court struck down the notion of "separate but equal" education,
according to a UCLA study published in May.
But the proposal would not work as intended, said opponents, many
with the Don’t Shoot PDX activist group, who spoke against the
changes at the Portland meeting.
"The new policy language is well-intentioned but ineffective," said
parent Matthew Markanovic, calling the proposal "the public policy
version of a drunken Facebook post."
 Other demonstrators said parents had not had enough time to weigh
in, and that they did not trust public school leaders to implement
policies that benefit people of color.
District officials, who said they were caught off guard by Tuesday's
protest, canceled the meeting and postponed the vote, but allowed
those in attendance to continue speaking.
School district spokesman Jon Isaacs told Reuters an earlier version
of the proposed policy changes had already proved effective.
Four years ago, the Portland school district ended most transfers
between high schools, while the new rules would also limit transfers
for kindergarten through eighth grade students.
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"Enrollment at Roosevelt High School has climbed from 500 students
to 1,100 students, and the graduation rate is up from 44 percent to
66 percent in the four years since that policy change," Isaacs said
of the school, which had lost white and affluent students before the
earlier policy change.
Segregation has soared in the western United States in particular,
according to the UCLA study, which also found that black and Latino
students tend to attend schools with a substantial majority of poor
children, while white and Asian students are typically in
middle-class schools.
In Portland, school segregation is an inadvertent legacy of the
George W. Bush-backed No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which made
it relatively easy for parents to transfer out of neighborhood
schools, Isaacs said.
The measure led to overcrowding in some schools and empty classrooms
elsewhere, he said.
(Editing by Curtis Skinner)
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