As San Francisco’s 49,000 public school students return to classrooms on Monday, education advocates like myself find ourselves cautiously optimistic about the school district’s progress.
Five years ago, parents like me were fighting just to get Board of Education members to focus on student outcomes instead of political theater. Today, we should all feel proud that we have a board following a student outcomes-focused governance framework and a superintendent who is getting serious about prioritizing literacy, math and college readiness. The drama is down, focus is up, and board meetings are (usually) boring.
But having a strong vision and progress on governance doesn’t automatically translate to improvements in classrooms. San Franciscans should still be deeply concerned about persistent learning gaps threatening our most vulnerable children. We all need to remain focused on the San Francisco Unified School District and hold it accountable to the transformative changes that our students deserve.
Here’s an example of what keeps me up at night as we head into the new school year: As the last school year came to a close, I was informed that schools like Bessie Carmichael Elementary in the South of Market neighborhood projected double-digit classroom vacancies for the fall. This school serves at least 90% low-income kids of color — exactly the students our district has historically underserved. Meanwhile, I was told that my kid’s school projected just one vacancy.
While school district officials have since informed us that most of these vacancies were closed over the summer, we are left wondering how many students — particularly at high-priority schools — may return this week without teachers, reading interventionists or adequate social work support.
Compounding potential staffing issues, continued budget cuts will roll out this year, with the school district needing to trim another $60 million. If we don’t have transparent systems to analyze the trade-offs embedded in these cuts, our most vulnerable students will bear the brunt as they too often do. We’re risking wider equity gaps just when we should be closing them.
San Francisco parents have already proven that focused advocacy works. When thousands of parents organized around reopening, we got kids back in classrooms. When we pushed for literacy and math curriculum reform, we replaced outdated programs with evidence-backed ones showing promise.
The district has the right framework, clear goals and leadership stability. But frameworks don’t teach children. People do.
If we don’t ensure every classroom has qualified teachers and adequate support staff, those frameworks are just expensive wallpaper.
In this fragile time, here is what our kids need from every stakeholder:
School board: The post-recall school board of 2022 passed an important set of guideposts and student outcomes goals for the district to reach by 2027. We need the board to continue to demand progress reports toward these goals at every meeting. That means public dashboards with transparent breakdowns of how funds are allocated and true transparency about how our students are faring and how schools are doing. We need the board to stay focused and work together with the superintendent on the things that matter most for our city’s kids: literacy, math, career and college readiness.
Superintendent: After nearly one year on the job, we need Maria Su to continue her commitment to a baseline level of academic excellence across all schools. That means ensuring smooth math and literacy program adoptions, which will require continued focus from all departments to make sure our teachers have the resources, time and compensation they need to be successful. Meanwhile, every student identified as behind in reading or math should receive evidence-based interventions during the school day. And the criteria used to determine budget cuts and ensure high-need schools are fully staffed should be shared publicly.
Teachers and staff: Report understaffing immediately and help the public understand what you need to implement a high-quality curriculum with integrity. Our kids’ families trust you to be their voice when systems fail, and we want to support you and advocate with you for ongoing professional development and resources around these new programs.
Parents: Stay engaged. Ask principals about staffing levels and curriculum implementation. Attend board meetings and hold leaders accountable for transparency promises. Your voices are powerful, and you help our district stay focused.
City leaders: Help our district work toward regaining full local control from the California Department of Education by 2027 through sustainable funding solutions. We can’t cut our way to excellence; partner with state representatives to address structural funding challenges and keep dollars close to students.
The stakes have never been higher.
San Francisco has everything it needs to be the nation’s leading urban school district: wealth, innovation, progressive values and families who care about all children’s success. There’s no reason our city shouldn’t have the best outcomes for kids.
But potential isn’t performance. Good intentions don’t close opportunity gaps.
