Art Hop Focus:
Community
Day-long celebration
Takes place Saturday
‘City o /
Roses’
Scholarships
College opportunities abound
page 11 inside
40
IjJoFtlanò baeruer
see Arts and Entertainment,
page 11
•^community service
Volume XXXX, Number 19
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
w w w .portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • May 12, 2010
Push
Back
High schools
redo generates
opposition
J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
Four hundred to five hundred stu­
dents, faculty, and alum ni from
Benson Polytechnic and M arshall
high schools converged on a school
board m eeting on M onday night to
push back against a controversial
proposal from the superintendent that
w ould drastically alter both schools.
U nder Portland Public Schools
Superintendent C arole S m ith’s plan,
M arshall w ould becom e a focus
school and B enson w ould becom e
a specialized school open to ju n io rs
and seniors only w ho w ould attend
part-tim e to pick up technical skills.
S upporters o f both schools point
by
continued
on page 18
photo by J ake T homas /T he P ortland O bserver
Benson High School students and supporters march from the northeast school to Portland Public Schools' headquarters in north
Portland on Monday to protest a plan that would significantly alter the school.
Racial Inequities Grow Wider
Report finds
m inorities
falling behind
M inorities in M ultnom ah C ounty
fare far w orse on m any social and
econom ic indicators than other parts
o f the country, and the quality o f life
for these com m unities has even
declined in som e respects, accord­
ing to a new report released last
week.
The findings w ere the culm ina­
tion o f nearly tw o years o f research
by the C om m unities o f C olor C oali­
tion, com posed o f eight com m unity
organizations. T he report w as pro-
Home Repairs Fight Displacement
Bernice Hornbuckle received a
low-interest loan to make major
repairs to her home in the
Interstate Corridor Urban
Renewal Area. The Portland
Housing Bureau is hoping more
people like Hornbuckle will take
advantage of similar programs,
keeping wealth in the commu­
nity.
See story, page 4
photo by J ake
T homas /
T he P ortland O bserver
duced in partnership vyith the N o rth­
w est H ealth Foundation, Portland
State U niversity, and city and county
g o v ern m en ts.
Som e o f the m ost unsettling in­
equities include:
Local m inorities earn h a lf the
am ount o f m oney as their co u n ter­
parts. Individually, the incom e o f
whites w as typically around $33,095,
while people o f color earned $ 16,636.
A third o fm in o rity children in the
Portland area live in poverty, w hile
that n um ber for non-m inorities is
12.5 percent.
W hites are tw ice as likely to have
a b a ch e lo r’s o r advanced degree as
minorities.
continued
on page 4