Skip to main content
Portland Association of Teachers members across Portland Public Schools participated in a nationwide walkout on Tuesday to protest the Trump administration’s education policy—and criticize local budget cuts.
They joined a nationwide campaign by the National Education Association, the nationwide teacher’s union, that encouraged members to “March Fourth” for education on Tuesday. The march followed the recent confirmation of U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, and President Donald Trump’s talk of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.
In Portland, the PAT also protested the incoming $40 million in cuts PPS has proposed to address its 2025-26 budget deficit. The first draft proposal would chop $29.1 million from school budgets and $12.2 million from central administration.
PPS has been making cuts since the 2022–23 academic year, but incurred additional costs when it signed a new contract with its teachers' union following a strike in November 2023.
At Marysville Elementary School in Southeast Portland, about 40 children, parents and PAT union members, including president Angela Bonilla, marched around the block chanting slogans like “Education is a right, that is why we have to fight” and “Whose schools? Our schools!”
“Marysville Elementary is losing 8.5 FTE for next year, and that is eight and a half educators. That’s over 16 education assistants,” Bonilla says. “We wanted to make sure to make our voices heard and let folks know that it’s important to invest in education and in our communities.”
District spokeswoman Sydney Kelly tells WW nothing is set in stone and that all the cuts presented so far are proposed, not final.
“We are continuing to make changes and adjustments as we receive feedback from principals, teachers, parents, and community members,” she says. “Additional numbers and cuts will be shared publicly on March 18th.”
But Bonilla says the district has started notifying individual principals of cuts to their schools. “Principals have been in the process of advocating to central office for additional FTE,” she says.
The union is more interested in chopping PPS’s central office. Their march came amid a proposal from Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong to reinstate two senior chief positions into her office. The School Board ultimately delayed Armstrong’s motion Tuesday night, after the superintendent said she needed more time to show her math around cost reductions.
Bonilla says there are places the district can cut, whether that be catered lunches for special events, transportation costs for School Board members to attend conferences or other events.
“We think there can always be more cuts from central office, also looking at contracted services,” Bonilla says. “There are lots of ways that our district spends money… that don’t actually impact students’ learning or help us better teach our students.”
Federally, Bonilla says slashes to education could affect everything from lunch programs to staffing. She added the state needs to step up and better fund education during this time, a fraught topic for many legislators in Salem this session. Many have been grappling with how increased spending has not shown improved outcomes for Oregon students, even as a state-commissioned report encouraged spending billions more on education.