Over the last three years, Portland Public Schools has had to cut about $115.5 million dollars from its budget. The gap for next school year’s budget is $56 million, with schools across the district seeing staffing cuts.
But as the district has cut costs across more than 80 schools in the state’s largest district, one line item has jumped.
“Purchased services increased 61.9%, from $269.9 million to $437.0 million,” wrote district officials in the budget book for 2026-27. Total spending across all budgets for PPS is $2.77 billion…