January 10, 2022 Todd David

Why Urbanists Should Vote Yes on San Francisco’s Board of Education Recall Campaign

Nearly a year ago, when the San Francisco Board of Education was making national (negative) news, I made the case for why urbanists must engage more actively in public education.

Now with the SF Board of Education recall fast approaching on February 15, I’m strongly encouraging urbanists to vote YES on the recall of Commissioner Alison Collins, Vice President Faauuga Moliga, and President Gabriela López.

The reason is simple: Great cities maintain great schools. When it comes to building thriving and inclusive urban centers, providing high quality and diverse public schools is just as important as providing high quality and accessible housing, public transportation, and open space.

Yet for too long urbanists have largely ignored public education issues at our peril. And in San Francisco, that’s allowed our school board to fail our students, parents, and community at every turn. From grossly mismanaging and deprioritizing our schools’ response to Covid, to recklessly suing the school district for $87 million, these three board members have actively contributed to the chaos and decline of public education in SF.

That harms all of us, which is why the campaign to recall them is widely supported by progressive leaders including Mayor London Breed, State Senator Scott Wiener, Former California State PTA President Carol Kocivar, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Former SF Mayor Art Agnos, Former SF Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, Former Congressman John Burton, and dozens of Democratic clubs across the city, among many others.

And that’s also why the San Francisco Chronicle’s Editorial Board just published this persuasive pro-recall endorsement.

So now that our ballots have arrived, I hope you’ll join me in voting YES on recalling all three board members so we can begin rebuilding San Francisco schools that are worthy of our families.

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