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Republican Attacks on S.F. School Superintendent Maria Su Fell Flat. Here’s Why

By Meredith Dodson
Executive Director, SF Parents Coalition

Published June 12, 2026 in the San Francisco Chronicle

When San Francisco schools Superintendent Maria Su testified before Congress on Wednesday, I’ll be honest, I was worried.

A hearing titled “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools” had the fingerprints of political theater all over it — another opportunity to use the city’s schools as a punching bag for national audiences who’ve never set foot in one of our classrooms.

This is why the SF Parents Coalition sent a letter to Congress, along with three parent leaders, to defend our schools and our San Francisco values. But as it turns out, we may not have been needed.

In many ways, the hearing played out exactly as expected. Three hours of grandstanding, gotcha questions and exchanges designed to generate Fox News and social media clips rather than answers. But buried in the predictable partisan back-and-forth was a genuinely revealing moment — one that I think every San Francisco parent should know about.

Yes, House Republicans pressed Superintendent Su and her colleagues from other school districts in blue cities on the culture war issues that cable news can’t get enough of — drag queen story hour, transgender bathroom policies and, in one exchange with Chicago’s superintendent, a graphic question about abortion methods. We’ve seen this script before. San Francisco and other progressive districts get cast as villains, and the goal isn’t dialogue; it’s a hit job.

Superintendent Su handled it well. She kept the focus on students and on what the San Francisco Unified School District is doing, not on scoring debate points. To be fair, the district has handed its critics plenty of ammunition over the years. But here’s the thing: Su was able to deflect those attacks because real progress has been made — even if the work isn’t finished.

The moment that stopped me came from Republican-turned-independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of Rocklin, a frequent San Francisco critic. Of course, he opened with the familiar litany of transgressions: the district’s ill-considered attempt to rename 44 schools during extended COVID closures, the elimination of eighth-grade algebra, the outdated reading curriculum and the controversy over ethnic studies. None of it is new to us.

But then he did something I genuinely didn’t expect: He acknowledged what’s changed.

“We’ve seen big improvements in recent years, so I think that’s something to celebrate,” Kiley said.

He then gave Su the floor to walk the committee through the progress: eighth-grade algebra restored, the budget back to positive certification, new reading and math curricula and a standardized ethnic studies course.

Kiley didn’t pivot to a gotcha. He let the record speak. No knife twist. No setup for a closing attack. Just an honest accounting of where things were and where they are now. In Congress. In 2026. I’ll take it.

That exchange only happened because of years of hard work by families, teachers, district staff, community members and elected officials who stayed focused on what actually matters: the kids. It also happened because families refused to look away when the district got things wrong. When district representatives walk into a congressional hearing with evidence of real progress, the attack lines don’t land the same way. That’s not an accident; it’s the result of accountability.

Yes, there were still distortions during the hearing. At one point, Su was asked to name an age she thought was appropriate for students to be exposed to drag queen story hour. That’s the kind of question designed for Fox News, not for fixing schools.

There will always be moments like that. National politics doesn’t reward nuance. But here’s what I’ve come to believe: The best defense against caricature is a district that’s too busy making real progress to be defined by its worst moments.

When we bear down on the work that parents and students actually care about — reading scores, math outcomes and a budget that doesn’t lurch from crisis to crisis — we deprive the loudest critics of the oxygen they need.

The lesson isn’t complicated: doing the work is the strategy.

Stronger math and reading outcomes. A budget that functions. Curriculum that actually serves our kids. These aren’t partisan goals — they’re what every San Francisco family actually wants. And they’re also our best political argument. We can’t lose focus chasing sideshows.

What struck me most about the Kiley exchange — and what East Bay Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier echoed — was how central family engagement is in ensuring that a district delivers for students. The one place a longtime critic and a champion of public education found common ground was that none of these improvements happens without listening to families.

Thousands of San Francisco public school families have spent years demanding stronger academics, better outcomes and real accountability. The SF Parents Coalition pushed for acceleration options for kids in math. We pushed on curriculum. We pushed on the budget. And when the district responded — when Su and her team actually delivered — we said so publicly. That progress deserves recognition.

District leaders need to know that San Francisco is watching what’s working — and counting on them to keep it going. Our message is clear: no more backsliding to the years when political distraction cost our kids algebra, a functioning budget and more than a year of in-person school. Our kids are watching, even when Congress isn’t.