SF Board of Education Halts Decision on School Closings

If the interested are really about getting more students enrolled into San Francisco PUBLIC schools, then the school board needs to allow more students into their neighborhood school.

Otherwise, forget it. I know many parents who are fed up with the current system and find it easier to just enroll their child into a PRIVATE school. The *top* schools like Stuart Hall, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Hamlin, Katherine Delmar Burke all charge in excess of $20-25,000 per student. The parochial schools charge a bit less, yet none of these schools have any problem attracting students.

A return to a more sensible enrollment plan that allows students "priority" at their local schools will get these students back into public schools.

I know the next question is "what about diversity?" You know what, the neighborhoods are not diverse, why force the students and their families to bear this burden? Students will face enough "diversity" in their life, let them go to NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS NOW!!!!!!

As recently as three weeks ago, the closure of additional District 5 schools was a done deal. But after two weeks of press conferences and organizing around the disparate racial impact of these closures, the entire closure plan on is hold. Chief credit for this turnaround goes to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who has taken the lead in building a citywide coalition around the closure issue. Mirkarimi’s efforts on school closures and other issues have put him in the forefront of addressing two critical priorities that Mayor Newsom has claimed as his own: how to stop the exodus of families with children from San Francisco, and how to specifically reduce African-American displacement. But it is Mirkarimi, not Newsom, who has assembled the multi-racial, class diverse coalition necessary for progress.


Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi did something unusual last week: he put Mayor Newsom on the defensive over his policies toward two of his priority constituencies: children and African-American families. The Mayor opposes Mirkarimi’s plan for San Francisco to loan the school district $5,000,000 to keep schools open, but parents with kids in schools, particularly African-Americans, appear to overwhelmingly favor the Supervisor’s approach.

The school closure issue, like so many others affecting District 5 since Mirkarmi took office, arose suddenly and demanded quick action. Despite the lack of time for much strategic planning, during his first year Mirkarimi prevented the demolition of the Harding Theater, stopped the Redevelopment Agency from putting a Starbucks in Japantown, and ensured the ongoing operation of medicinal marijuana dispensaries through new city regulations.

The Supervisor has also had to deal with saving the Garvey-King Coop, two blocks of affordable housing with 211 rental units, most of which are occupied by African-American families and seniors. HUD has sought to foreclose on this historic ownership opportunity for the Western Addition’s low-income residents, and Mirkarimi has fought vigorously out of the public limelight to preserve this critical housing resource.

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