The King Neighborhood Association supports the Portland Association of Teachers’ bargaining proposal preamble, ‘The Schools Portland Students Deserve,’ which calls for:
–reduced class sizes, and staff caseloads;
–more electives, and a greater variety of programs that students can be enriched by, including music, art, phys ed, and world languages;
–comprehensive support services, including counselors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, second-language instructors and special ed teachers;
–equity in allocation of resources to high-poverty schools;
–limited use of standardized testing in student assessment;
–academic freedom and opportunities for intensive collaboration for professional educators.
We urge the Portland Public School District to negotiate with teachers on these and other critical education issues in good faith. We believe that for our students to feel supported in their learning, instructors need to feel supported in their teaching.