At the upcoming May 7 school board meeting, San Franciscans will learn the details of a scathing report from state fiscal monitors that documents the enormous challenges of the San Francisco Unified School District: The accuracy of its current budget is questionable; its financial system prevents it from conducting business in an accurate, effective, and efficient manner; and it could become insolvent as soon as the July 2025 budget year if it does not approve layoffs and other budget cuts by May 15.
The district is now facing not just the prospect but the certainty of school closures and consolidations after years of spending more money than its shrinking enrollment generated. Relying on city, state, and federal funds to make up the difference is no longer an option. Without the district making significant budget and management changes, the state superintendent of public instruction will be primed to appoint additional budget reviewers, trainers, and overseers to take on a much larger state role on fiscal recommendations and decisions that typically are the sole responsibility of the superintendent and school board.
Superintendent Matt Wayne and the school board should be supported in taking on this challenge. The board inherited many of the troubles after their predecessors made decisions that drove parents to private schools, rising housing costs pushed people out of town, and greater time and attention were placed on renaming rather than reopening schools during Covid.
In its report, the state describes “errors have been pervasive for years” and that the district has not traced nor been able to estimate in size.
In describing the district’s “tremendous fiscal challenges,” the state report questions the district’s capacity to succeed.
In describing the district’s “tremendous fiscal challenges,” the state report questions the district’s capacity to succeed. In stark detail, it cites “a lack of understanding of critical elements of school finance,” “poor monitoring of fiscal solvency”, and an unwillingness to seek guidance from the state or other school districts. The state monitors came away from a visit to district offices and found that “only one or two individuals in the district know how to generate reports that all individuals in the budget and accounting divisions should be able to run.”
Even when the superintendent and school board moved swiftly to cut from the current year budget, the state called those changes into question as well and expressed doubt about the accuracy of fund balances and the interim budget itself. In short, the state monitoring report concluded that the risk of fiscal insolvency is high.
The district is in the process of seeking community input on school closures and consolidations, which are painful but necessary if we are going to close the financial gap. It seeks to avoid cuts that would discourage new families from sending their children to our public schools or would send current families away. Under a 2022 state law authored by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta and interpreted for school districts by Attorney General Rob Bonta in 2023, promoting equity is a key factor in deciding which schools should remain open, which should close, and which can be combined with nearby programs.
Applying the equity standard is complicated without a common understanding of what it means, whether it is based on economic or demographic considerations or both, or how it is to be determined which community or communities should be considered “distant from opportunity” today and in San Francisco’s past. Complicating these questions is the current way students are assigned to their schools. A school may be located in one neighborhood but the bulk of its students may come from elsewhere. In the absence of neighborhood assignments, for equity purposes, will a school closure be considered a loss to the neighborhood where it is located or will it be considered a loss based on the demographics of its student body?
There are many uncertainties but one thing should be clear: Equity should be defined as a commitment to excellence for all. Unless our schools can produce graduates ready for college and careers and can demonstrate academic progress at the earlier grades, enrollments and revenue will continue to decline. A school that is not providing education measured by student performance in math, reading and other subjects serves neither its students nor its community, no matter where it may be located.
Schools traditionally have been our strength. Quickly after meeting, native San Franciscans ask what high school the other attended. Schools need our help now. The Voice of San Francisco will continue to monitor the school district’s actions as it tries to move away from fiscal insolvency and toward a renewed commitment to excellence for all students.
