San Francisco schools and their leaders have been in the spotlight recently for a variety of controversies. Some parents have pushed for schools to reopen sooner. A member of the school board is suing the district. An effort to recall some board members is underway. And an initiative to rename certain schools has come under fire. To put the controversies into context, education reporters Jill Tucker with the San Francisco Chronicle and Ida Mojadad with the San Francisco Examiner gave “Civic” an overview of how the school board is elected and what powers and responsibilities it has.
“There’s definitely been more interest in the school dynamics and politics around that, that I think will be really interesting to see how long lasting that will be for future elections even beyond these recall efforts that are happening — if more people are going to be interested in the schools permanently or if it’s because there’s just heightened interest over reopening.”
— Ida Mojadad
“Pre-Prop 13, school boards could raise local taxes so there was a lot more interest in who was on that that board. Now, post-Prop 13, you don’t see businesspeople or a wide range of people running or the school board because they have limited that power.”
— Jill Tucker
A segment from our radio show and podcast, “Civic.” Listen at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 102.5 FM in San Francisco, or online at ksfp.fm, and subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify or Stitcher.
