Charter schools are usually associated with conservative politics. But this perception belies the reality that there are hundreds of “progressive” charters in dozens of states. Among the oldest and most prestigious of these is Bernie Sanders High School in Portland, OR.
Nestled snugly between a Starbucks and an Urban Outfitters at the corner of 23rd St. and Cesar Chavez Blvd, Sanders High caters to “the jaded and the unimpressed.” Like most charters, it has a strict uniform policy. (All students wear flannel tops and acid-washed jeans.) But the curriculum at Sanders is anything but conventional. The economics textbook avoids the topic of comparative advantage. The health textbook is a 351-page ode to single-payer. And units 1–5 of the civics curriculum deal with strategies for changing the Democratic Platform, while units 6–10 are a page-by-page examination of Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States.
Thanks to a curious loophole in Oregon law, students at Sanders forego traditional standardized tests in favor of an ever evolving “purity test,” which no student has ever passed. Former students attribute the test’s difficulty to its general tediousness, and to the fact that nobody at the school is qualified to administer it.
As a general rule, athletics are frowned upon at Sanders, though the administration is always introducing new programs with the goal of boosting participation. The student code of conduct prohibits golf and tennis. Most football games end in protests. And the basketball team quit en masse in 2015 after the coach tried to implement a particularly patriarchal version of the Princeton Offense. Yet Sanders excels at soccer, which for obscure reasons is viewed as morally praiseworthy.
The school mascot, "Bernie Bro," is famous for handing out "free" swag at the soccer games, which parents later discover has been itemized and added to the cost of tuition. This is only one of many sources of tension in the Sanders community. Still, all is forgiven during the annual homecoming game against crosstown rivals, Establishment Prep.
“Just once,” said Sanders team captain, Zephyr Chomsky-Moore, “we’d like to beat them.”
Above all else, former students say, Sanders prides itself on its egalitarian culture, which permeates every feature of school life, from the cafeteria to the classroom. At the most recent assembly, as chants of “Bern, Baby, Bern!” echoed from the rafters of the school’s gymnasium, the voices of students and adults were virtually indistinguishable.