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Portland Public Schools (PPS) spends less of its budget on student instruction than other school districts, and suffers from a large achievement gap between its white and Black students. Those are the two key takeaways from an audit released by Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson on Wednesday.

The audit examined the spending and the performance evaluation practices of both PPS and the Oregon Department of Education (ODE). It found that ODE does little to monitor how school districts spend their money—much of which comes from the state. Compared to its peers, PPS spends less of its money directly on students being taught, and more on “support services” such as executive administration and legal fees.

“Portland Public Schools has more funding per student than all Oregon peer districts and more than many national peer districts, yet management challenges and an inconsistent focus on performance are hurting students and teachers,” Richardson said in a press release.

Students of color suffer the most, the audit found. State testing found that at PPS there's a 53 percent achievement gap—a phrase used to describe a disparity in learning and student success between different groups—between white and Black students. That’s significantly higher than the 29 percent statewide gap between white and Black students.

The gaps are worse at PPS for other minorities: There's a 36 percent achievement gap between Latino and white students in the district, while the statewide gap is 24 percent. However, PPS does perform slightly better than statewide averages in its achievement gap between disabled and non-disabled students.

The audit also highlights some specific questionable spending decisions PPS has recently made, such as the district spending $13,000 on a single retirement party on the Portland Spirit in 2017. Expenses included shipping flowers in from Hawaii and giving out "crystal clocks" as retirement gifts.

The audit report concludes with 26 recommendations for improvement, which both PPS and ODE have agreed to follow. On a statewide level, ODE plans to work with lawmakers to develop better district oversight practices. The audit recommends PPS conduct an internal investigation to identify potential cost savings, and do a better job evaluating student performance and closing achievement gaps in low-income schools.