San Francisco parents and educators hungry for information about a projected $113 million cut in the public school budget received bitter medicine from school Superintendent Maria Su at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. For the first time, school district officials unveiled the drastically reduced level of staffing and resources school sites could expect in the fall. Depending on factors largely outside the school district’s control, the budget cuts could be even more severe than what was presented at the meeting.
Faced with the prospect of running out of money in 2026 and having to turn over financial control to the State of California in return for a financial loan to stay afloat, school district officials presented to the public the struggles it will undertake to avoid schools being pared back to a bare minimum of a principal, a clerk, a custodian, and an unspecified but smaller number of teachers and aides. For schools to have one or more counselors, social workers, or additional teachers, the district is exploring how to use its restricted funds and where to make cuts away from the classroom. As part of this budget plan, the superintendent intends to reduce the central office administrative budget by at least 20 percent to produce a savings of at least $20 million.
Dozens of parents, students and teachers spoke at the board meeting about the harsh impact the cuts would have on their classrooms and questioned whether the school district could maintain educational quality for students in such a condition. Budget cuts would force consolidation of different grade levels of students into one classroom and put extra burdens on teachers either to prepare two sets of instructional materials or risk teaching too fast for the younger students and too slowly for the older ones. In the eyes of these community members, having counselors and social workers at their schools is essential, not extra. Responding to school board President Phil Kim’s pleas echoing those concerns, the state’s fiscal advisor guiding the school district to find budget solutions insisted that the staffing model was designed to show the limits to what the school district could afford.
If the Trump Administration eliminates the U.S. Department of Education, every school in the nation could be at risk.
Even “what the school district can afford” rests on a shaky foundation of money from Sacramento and money without new strings from the Trump Administration in Washington, D.C. In January, Governor Newsom’s budget proposal maintained state education support at last year’s levels and had a slight surplus. Then came the Los Angeles fires, which will likely diminish the amount of state money available for San Francisco schools to account for fire victims’ relief, subsidies for future insurance hikes, larger fire prevention budgets and the uncertainty over the amount of state tax revenue that will come from a recovering Los Angeles. The next version of the proposed state budget will be issued in May. The final state budget is due to be approved in June, after the school district approves its own.
The state budget uncertainty pales in comparison to the impact of a federal budget cut. As Superintendent Su stated, “Federal budget cuts would devastate the school district. We receive upwards of $50 million. There is no way we would sustain that amount of cuts.”
Every school district in the nation runs the risk that some or all of the money they receive from the U.S. Department of Education will evaporate or go elsewhere if the Trump Administration is successful in eliminating the department. Even if the department survives, money for special education or low-income students may be reduced. San Francisco runs the special risk of being targeted for its immigration sanctuary policies. Moreover, if the Trump Administration disqualifies undocumented students or children of undocumented parents from eligibility for funding, San Francisco would also suffer a cut. Without a way to fill those gaps, the school district would have to cut even more.
Superintendent Su insists that the budget forecast and planning are in their early stages and that school district officials are still quantifying additional funding that, while it comes with restrictions, can be used for educational and other needs. These funds will help pay for the counselors, social workers, arts and music instructors, and other personnel that allow the school district to go beyond “the bare minimum” at each school. But a $113 million cut can’t avoid eliminating programs and personnel that school communities have been accustomed to.
Superintendent Su promises that making these necessary cuts will enable the school district to be “in a better place” two years from now, fully solvent and providing stability for staff and students. For that to take place, the budget cuts must not cause more families to leave the public schools and the school district must prioritize popular programs that serve and improve student outcomes. Its most difficult task is to weather economic and political storms in Sacramento and Washington that would make it harder to pay for even a diminished educational program.
Painless cures have long been the domain of medical charlatans. Dr. Su’s budget medicine may be difficult to swallow but it may constitute the only responsible prescription for the school district.
