Fix the Budget, Fund the Future
Our budget campaign is focused on ensuring that SFUSD makes the structural fixes needed to run a fiscally solvent district that maximizes a baseline of excellence across all schools.
SFUSD public school families care deeply about our schools. We're ready to pitch in during tough times. But first, we need clear, honest information about what's happening with school budgets.
Our goals for this campaign is to see SFUSD:
Fix Our Budget
Ensure a Baseline
Provide Transparency
How can SFUSD achieve these goals?
Our budget demands prioritize transparency, stability, educational excellence, and educational equity, addressing the key concerns of families whose children’s schools and learning experiences are impacted by budget cuts, while simultaneously urging budgetary reform that will prevent state takeover of our schools.
SFUSD should provide a public dashboard with transparent, clear, and concise breakdowns of how funds are allocated to student learning, programs, and essential services. These should include regular and detailed reports on resource distribution across all schools, with an emphasis on how that distribution will change after newly proposed cuts to address the $100M deficit.
SFUSD should commit to a baseline level of academic and extracurricular excellence across all schools. This commitment will ensure learning environments where each and every SFUSD student can thrive. SFUSD should share this information with the public as part of a comprehensive plan to both fix our budget and commit to academic excellence and equity at every school.
We encourage parents, teachers, and community members to be part of the conversations around fixing our budget, aligning our resources, tying dollars to student success, to ensure equitable thriving schools in San Francisco.
Many parents are staying optimistic and actively engaged, brainstorming solutions to help the district. Instead of abandoning SFUSD, parents are rallying to increase enrollment, improve the district’s public image, and support schools that will be most affected by closures.
Parents have been coming forward with creative ideas, such as launching PR campaigns to boost enrollment and fundraise for vulnerable schools. There’s a strong sense of community commitment to finding ways to help the district thrive.
- Attend a Board Meeting to stay informed and demand transparency.
- Volunteer with the Budget Campaign Team and help us build collective parent power.
- Demand a Public Budget Dashboard tracking how budget cuts and resources impact students.
Key Resources: Understand the Budget Crisis
We’ve assembled essential resources to help parents grasp the full scope of SFUSD’s budget crisis, and mobilize effectively to protect local control, lift the baseline of excellence, and demand transparency.
- Hear from CA Dept of Education Fiscal Agent, Elliot Duchon, on the budget crisis
- SSC Series & “What is an SSC?”: Learn what a School Site Council (SSC) is and how these elected bodies of parents, staff, and students help shape your school’s Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) and local budget
- Recent School SPSAs: Review real-life examples of school‑level plans detailing how each campus prioritizes student achievement and budgets site-specific funds via the SPSA.
- “What’s the LCAP and Why Should I Care?”: The Local Control and Accountability Plan ties district-wide goals to resource allocation. It’s the roadmap SFUSD must follow, and it’s public and parent-guided.
- “What is a pink slip?”: Understand how layoffs are issued, why they happen, and their ripple effects on classroom staffing and student support.
- Class‑size 1‑pager: Research evidence on the effects of small class sizes on K-12 general education student achievement.
- 2022 Time’s Up: SFUSD’s budget crisis: A powerful retrospective report that diagnoses the structural spending and oversight issues that led SFUSD into fiscal emergency
- SF Parents Coalition Letter to BOE: Intentional, Careful Planning: A strong appeal from parents urging the Board of Education to embrace strategic, transparent fiscal oversight during this crisis moment
- SF Parents 2023 Budget Survey Take-aways: In September of 2023, SF Parent Coalition launched the Survey for Tomorrow’s Schools to be able to obtain parent and community input on what families hope to as a baseline commitment to our schools and our students as SFUSD addresses its budget deficit this year. Parents expect SFUSD’s commitment to a baseline of excellence and equity across every school in our district so that each and every one of our students can thrive. Though we are facing enormous budget challenges as a district, it’s more important than ever that we tie every dollar to the student, with clear objectives for how we are spending public education dollars.
Use these tools to get informed, speak up at SSCs and BOE meetings, respond to surveys, and organize with fellow parents. Together, we can hold SFUSD accountable, protect local control, and ensure every child benefits from a transparent, equitable school budget.
SF Parents invites all SFUSD public school parents to join us in our mission to center student outcomes in district wide decisions.
By participating in our advocacy efforts, you can help ensure that all students have the opportunity to not just succeed, but thrive, in school and beyond.