The Chron coverage of the looming strike at the SF School District has been, at times, surprisingly good. This piece, by Jill Tucker, explains the position of the teacher’s union pretty well:
“We did not come to this decision lightly,” said United Educators of San Francisco President Cassondra Curiel. “We want to be in our classrooms and school sites with all of our students. …. The district has every opportunity to come with the spirit and proposals to make a deal,” Curiel said. “This is like, the homework is due at midnight, and it’s 11:59.”
On the other hand, the Chron editorial board has been, not surprisingly, horrible.
MissionLocal has done a great job of covering the breaking news.
The SF Standard has a typical analysis, saying the problem “has no easy solution.”
Let me put this in a bit of context.
The main demands of the union—paid dependent health care and better working conditions and staffing for special education—would cost about $35 million.
San Francisco added about twice that to the Police Department budget this year, despite the lowest crime rate in 50 years.
The Board of Supes just approved giving $40 million in tax benefits to a luxury hotel in Soma.
A starting SF cop earns $119,000 a year, which is more than most teachers make after decades on the job, even with advanced degrees. A starting SFUSD teacher makes $79,000 a year.
Cops get health care for their families. Teaches have to pay as much as $1,200 a month ($4,400 a year, or about 5 percent of their pay) for family health care.
Many cops make in the high six figures, and after 30 years, they can retire with family health care for life at 90 percent base pay. Very few SFUSD teachers make more than $130,000. Their pensions are about half what the cops get.
The cops get paid for their training; teachers take out loans to pay for theirs.
If you don’t think quality education is a public safety issue, then you should be on the spaceship to Mars with Elon Musk. Why not make it simple: Cops and teachers should have pay and benefit parity.
Meanwhile, almost every unionized city employee (outside of the teachers) gets paid family health benefits. Why can’t the teachers be on the same city system?
The Chron loves stupid red herrings like algebra in eighth grade, but missing from this entire discussion: Revenue. Since Prop. 13, most of the money for local schools in California comes from the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for president, has balanced this year’s budget without making any effort to bring in more money from the 188 billionaires in the state; in fact, he opposes the billionaire tax.
From the California Budget and Policy Center:
“Governor Newsom’s reluctance to propose meaningful revenue solutions to help blunt the harm of federal cuts undermines his posture to counter the Trump administration. While the governor’s budget maintains and protects many current state programs, it leaves millions of Californians worse off as a result of federal cuts. The proposal will leave many Californians without food assistance and health care coverage.
“Californians are facing mounting affordability pressures alongside unprecedented federal harm, including brutal attacks on immigrant communities. The sweeping Republican megabill, H.R. 1, delivers massive tax giveaways to the wealthiest households and highly profitable corporations and increases funding for harmful immigration detention and deportation efforts, while slashing funding for Medi-Cal, CalFresh, and other essential supports that millions of families and low-wage workers rely on. The Legislature cannot allow the cruelty of the federal administration and the governor’s reluctance to act boldly to dictate our future — they must act decisively to protect communities, prevent additional harm, and invest in the well-being of all Californians.
Mayor Daniel Lurie wants the two sides to come together to settle the strike. But Lurie also opposes the billionaire tax, opposes both local CEO taxes, and has done nothing, nothing, to push Newsom, his pal and ally, to raise taxes on the very rich in this very rich state.
Budgets are a statement of priorities. Lurie and Newsom have made theirs clear: Cops are more important than teachers. Billionaires are more important than public schools.
(I have no problem paying police officers a good salary, even though the SFPD spends a lot of money on copaganda. But teachers are at least as important as cops to society, and if we can afford to hire 500 more cops at six-figure starting pay, we can afford to pay the current teaches enough to live in this city.)
Also: Just 0.005 percent of the estimated $1 trillion wealth of just San Francisco’s billionaires would fund everything SFUSD needs. The net wealth of these folks increased 20 percent in the past year.
It’s an absolute disgrace that the teachers have to go on strike to make a living wage and to save special ed.
Priorities, folks.
