This week the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) held its first recall election in nearly 40 years. In a landslide vote, board members Alison Collins, Gabriela López, and Faauuga Moliga were recalled, with over 70 percent of voters supporting their removal.
Conflict in the state’s seventh largest district has been brewing throughout COVID-19. SFUSD closed in March 2020, and was heavily criticized for a path to reopening that was fraught with delays. An initial proposed reopening date was postponed by a collapse in talks with the teachers union, leading the city of San Francisco to file an unprecedented lawsuit against its own school district, describing the district’s reopening plan as full of “ambiguous, empty rhetoric.”
In the midst of discussing school closures, SFUSD also debated policies relating to race and equity. In January 2021, the board voted to rename 44 schools over concerns about historical ties to racism or sexism. Not only did the names addressed – including Abraham Lincoln, Dianne Feinstein, and Paul Revere – face widespread criticism, but the timing of the less‐than‐urgent decision was puzzling to many parents seeking in‐person learning, particularly as students of color within the district faced greater learning loss.
In February 2021, the board turned its attention to magnet school Lowell High, voting to permanently remove merit‐based admissions to combat “pervasive systemic racism.” The benefits of such a drastic change were disputed by the community, especially Asian Americans whose children disproportionately attend Lowell, and legal challenges ensued over the board giving “inadequate notice” to parents. The changed admissions policy was extended until the 2022–2023 school year, but its long‐term future is murky. Meanwhile, an unearthed tweet with racial slurs against Asian Americans by then‐board vice president Alison Collins (one of the now recalled members) added yet more volume to the community outcry, all while schools remained closed.
SFUSD eventually opened schools in April 2021 and canceled the renaming proposal. But the damage had already been done. Parents Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj began the recall efforts in February 2021.
Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom has been tracking SFUSD’s constant clashes in our Public Schooling Battle Map, and they are a prime example of why school choice is vital. When a school board of seven dictates policy for over 57,000 students it is no wonder that deep, painful disagreements – disagreements that divide people into angry camps – occur. Board conflicts are sometimes painted as being the result of angry Republican activism, but debates within a district that voted 85 percent for Joe Biden show that even those on the Left, who may even often agree a lot politically, have diverse values and educational needs that a single system cannot meet.
The good news is, though California currently lacks private school choice, 2022 ballot initiatives that would amend the state constitution and create education savings accounts could potentially change that. And it is, indeed, time to bring educational freedom to California instead of locking families into districts and forcing ugly social warfare.
