Communities Demand Reprieve From School Closures

The San Francisco Unified School District currently faces a budget shortfall of $5 million, and recently unveiled plans to shut down or merge 19 schools citywide to close the gap. Speakers at yesterday’s hearing made it clear they understood the realities of balancing a budget, but that the process and manner the District planned on doing so this year had fatal flaws.

Perhaps the most fatal involves the fact that African Americans make up 36.7 of the children being affected by the closures, yet blacks only make up 13.9 percent of the school district’s student population.

This disparity raised the concern of District 10 Youth Commissioner Cassandra James, who recently relocated to San Francisco due to Hurricane Katrina. The disaster shut her school down in New Orleans.

“It’s surprising that without a disaster here [in San Francisco], so many of my fellow African-American students are facing the same issue of not being able to attend their school here,” said James. “Why do we keep thinking that it’s coincidence?”

In addition, a variety of parents and elected officials decried the School District’s decision-making process regarding the closure plan. According to them, the public received little or no opportunity to weigh in on which sites should be considered for closure, or to offer other possibilities for balancing the budget rather than axing so many schools. This lack of community input led those at the rally to demand an immediate delay in the closure process so their grievances could be addressed.

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