Years of funding cuts, rotating superintendents and poor policies have evidently taken their toll on Portland Public Schools, once one of the best school districts in the nation. As Paige Parker reports in The Oregonian today, a new report details the district's deficiencies.

A dysfunctional central administrative office has created an unequal school system for many Portland Public Schools students, especially minorities, poor children and students who speak little English, a team of consultants has concluded.

The findings -- reported to school board members Monday -- came from a yearlong study conducted at the board's request by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.

[...]

The report criticized everything from the district's phone system to teacher recruitment, but the consultants stopped short of calling for a complete overhaul of the central office. Portland's central administration initiates major academic changes, oversees the hiring and firing of teachers and other employees, and tracks how the district spends public money.

As someone who attended one of the more favored schools in the district, I can let you know that there were (and I assume are) great discrepancies in the level of education even within the school. Although poor administration might lead to poor results, the fact is that the greatest problem afflicting the nation's schools is the lack of funding. Until we adequately fund our schools, they're not going to educate our students as well as we want them to.