It’s Valentine’s Day! Please vote out the SF Board of Education!
Tomorrow (Feb. 15, 2022) San Francisco will hold a Special Municipal Election. All SF voters will have a chance to recall 3 members of the SF Board of Education. First go buy flowers, because it’s Valentine’s Day. For those of you who forgot, it’s not too late: you are welcome! I just saved your relationship. Then go fill out your ballot. Please vote to recall Allison Collins, Faauuga Moliga, and Gabriela Lopez.
The basics:
In case you’ve been living under a rock — I got you! Let me explain. A recall (that’s why it’s a Special Election) allows San Francisco voters to remove elected officials before their term expires. In order to get a recall on the ballot, the organizers had to present valid signatures from 10% of San Francisco’s registered voters. That’s about 50,000 signatures per board member. Supporters collected about 80,000.
There are seven members on the board. So, why are only 3 members being recalled? School board members have to serve at least a year to be subject to a recall. The other four members have served less than a year on their current term.
What happens when a school board member is recalled? London Breed (that would be our mayor) will appoint replacements for the remaining term, subject to re-election on the next regular election.
This is the first recall in San Francisco in 40 years. Got it? OK, good.
OK, but why?
Because they are insane narcissists who are hurting your kids. Especially minority kids, whose parents can’t afford to pull them out of public schools in favor of private education. Because they are living in episode of Portlandia. Because they place politics over learning. Because they’ve wasted hours on end on ridiculous debates instead of opening schools, while kids remained home liquifying their brain cells on Tik Tok (quote attributed to Bill Maher? I think). Because the school board is using $1.16 billion dollars of your tax money as toilet paper.
But if you feel like it’s a good day to shake your head in disbelief, OK fine keep reading. TL;TR.
Life of Washington murals at George Washington High School
I guess this is as good a place to start as any.
George Washington High School is home to 13 Depression-era murals that make up The Life of Washington depicting the nation’s first president, and his connections to the horrors of slavery, and slaughter of Native Americans. The murals were painted by Victor Arnautoff, a Russian immigrant, mentored by Mexican artist Diego Rivera. At the time, the murals were considered subversive. Arnautoff’s intent was to correct the whitewashing of America’s ugly past.
In the summer of 2019, The school board in their wisdom decided the murals were too unsettling for high school students to view. In order to make the school a safe space for learning, they voted unanimously to repaint over the murals at a mere cost of $600,000 dollars. After an international outcry, the school board decided that it would suffice to simply cover up the murals as if they were paying homage to John Ashcroft.
If you are confused, so am I. I thought we were suppose to confront our ugly past, not hide from it (insert a reference to ‘Maus’ here)? But never-mind. A California Superior Court Judge ruled that SF officials violated state laws and the murals will remain (for now).
Renaming of 44 schools
For years the board has been trying to rename the city’s schools which they said honored historical figures linked to racism and other injustices. In 2018 the board commissioned a panel to examine which schools should be renamed. During the COVID-19 pandemic their priorities didn’t change. On January 2021 the board voted 6–1 to approve all of the panel’s recommendation. Among the 44 names were presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, not to mention our current Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
The painstaking work undertaken by the panel (in case you can’t tell, I am laying the sarcasm on pretty thick here) included Google searches, looking up Wikipedia entries, and referencing a Top-10 list from the History Channel website. You think I am kidding, but I am not! The rationale for each decision was listed in a (now removed) Google Spreadsheet. The renaming effort turned into a debacle criticized for historical inaccuracies and remarkably flawed research. No historians were consulted.
- Paul Revere made the list because of his role in the Penobscot Expedition of 1779, which the panel mistakenly claimed was intended to colonize the Penobscot people.
- Alamo Elementary School made the list because the panel confused the Texas battle with than the Spanish word for poplar tree.
- Dianne Feinstein erred when she reportedly replaced a Confederate flag after it was stolen from City Hall in 1984.
I am pretty sure I did better research in my high school history class in between watching Friends and Seinfeld.
Tens of thousands of dollars later, after a backlash from students and parents alike, accusing the school board of prioritizing symbolism over school reopenings, after yet another lawsuit, the board rescinded their decision. (For the lawyers reading this, even Laurence Tribe joined the lawsuit.) The school district was ordered to pay legal costs to the tune of 60,000 dollars to cover the plaintiff’s costs.
Diversity at all costs
During this national moment of reckoning, we should be having intellectually honest conversations about racism and inclusion. Or so I thought.
In Feb. of 2021, Seth Brenzel, a gay dad volunteered for an open spot on the Parent Advisory Council — a parent group which, as the name suggests, advises the school board. He had all the right credentials. He is the executive director of a nonprofit school that runs music education camps. He is the co-president of the parent-teacher organization at his daughter’s school. And he is raising a multiracial daughter with his husband, who is a child psychologist.
He was finally rejected because he didn’t bring enough diversity to the position.
Alison Collins is something else
The vice president of the Board of Education Alison Collins is perhaps the loudest voice when it comes to DEI. She is feverishly against standardized testing or any kind of merit-based education. Then came her tweets. In 2016, in a series of absolutely baffling tweets, she accused Asian Americans of using “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and get ahead”, calling them “house [n-word]s” and using other racial epithets.
After her tweets came to light the board voted to remove her from her leadership position. Alison Collins then filed an $87 million dollar lawsuit against the school board members. The lawsuit was tossed out of court.
Meanwhile the schools were still closed
In June 2020 the school board rejected Superintedent Vince Mathew’s request to hire a consultant to help reopen schools (apparently because he previously worked with charter schools).
In September 2020, SF public health officials authorized schools to reopen under COVID-19 protocols. Private schools began to reopen as well as public schools in other counties.
In December 2020 the school board set Jan. 25, as the reopening date, which was then delayed indefinitely after the district failed to reach an agreement with school unions on safety protocols.
The mayor and San Francisco’s city attorney filed a lawsuit try to force the school board and the district to adopt a clear plan to reopen and offer classroom instruction whenever possible. District data showed the learning loss has affected students of color and low income students the most. The lawsuit ultimately failed.
CA set aside $2 billion dollars to help school districts reopen. To qualify for the money elementary grades and at least one middle or high school grade had to have in person instruction by May 15th. In a ridiculous and blatant money grab, San Francisco teachers union announced exciting news, allowing some seniors to return a day before the deadline for what they called “in person supervision”. The school board remained silent. Legislators are now urging the state to deny S.F. the reopening funds.
By summer of 2021, most students were not back at school.
Threat of a state takeover
On September 15th the state warned district officials that SFUSD may not be able to pay its bills in the coming years, contending with a $116 million dollar deficit in 2022. Unless specific steps are forthcoming, this may trigger a state takeover.
The state will provide a fiscal expert to help the district submit a fiscal recovery plan to be reviewed by the State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond.
“If you fail to act accordingly, then CDE’s intervention will increase to the point where your governing authority is set aside,” said Michael Fine, chief executive officer of the state’s Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team, at a special school board meeting on Tuesday. “There is nothing good about that process…now is the time to act.”
It is unclear if the cuts the board is proposing will be enough.
The death of expertise. These are the people in charge of your kids’ education?
Okay, I don’t want to try your patience much longer. Lest you get so tired you forget to vote. And I also have to go buy flowers.
But I plan to have an ongoing section in my posts called “the death of expertise”. I promised myself that I would bury my Facebook trolling personality when writing on Medium. But let me have a little leeway to go on a condescending rant.
We’ve created a system where the incentives to work in government are so misaligned, that the only people up for the job have severe personality disorders and are blatantly incapable of getting anything done. And I am speaking kindly.
Would you let these people fix your car if they were mechanics? Would you let these people run a pharmacy? Hell, would you let these people run a Subway? (If you are wondering, the answer is no!) Yet, these people are responsible for educating your children.
The school board consistently failed your students before, but especially during the pandemic.
I doubt it — but maybe this recall will make a small dent and remind the powers that be that their are job is not to pat themselves on the back and feel morally superior. Their job is to educate your kids.
Whether you you lean left or right results matter. Competence matters.
Okay, now tell me what the other side would say
There is no other side, because the situation is dire. But if I had to say something intelligent, it would go like this:
A recall is a blunt instrument that is often misused and has a questionable role to play in a democracy. I know people who I respect that vote no on recalls on principle. The next election is coming up in less than a year anyway. Also, if you are not a fan of London Breed, you might not want her unilaterally appointing new board members.
But these are conversations to have over drinks after your political science class. Were are at a tipping point here, and business can’t go on as usual.
In the face of abject failure, the stakes are too high to reject recall on principle. Waiting nine months until the next election is an eternity for disadvantaged students.