I recently wrote an article for my school newspapers on San Francisco school closures and merger. Here is an unedited version of the article that appeared in The Pioneer, Dated Jan26th, 2006

Last Thursday San Francisco’s Board of Education voted to close three schools, merge and relocate many others. In an auditorium at Everett Middle School filled with angry and distraught parents, the Board of Education announced their decision. “They are taking away our hearts by taking away our schools” said Laura Baker of Edison Charter Academy, a primary school operating in the city.
The move is reminiscent of the San Francisco school districts financial situation: inadequate State funding, declining enrollment and increasing operative costs led to the Board’s decision. The school closures will save the San Francisco Unified School District roughly $2.4 million dollars, a mere dent in the growing budget deficit which could well surpass the initial budget gap of $15 million dollars. “Board of educations long range plan, its absolutely myopic,” said district 5 supervisor Ross Mirkarimi “money is not meant for the elite few, it is needed for the schools”. Ross Mirkarimi has proposed a legislation that will give SFUSD $5.3 million advance from Prop H funds, one-third of the money is meant to be used for discretionary funding, which many believe are emergency funds that can be used to avert the school closure . Majority of the Board members are against the use of Prop H funds, according to Vice President of SFUSD, Sarah Lipson the Prop H funds are only meant to be used to improve school programs and are not meant for restructuring.
The School Board believes that using the Prop H money alone will not solve the SFUSD problem; the San Francisco school district has seen a steady decline in the enrollment over a number of years. Many of the students have been lost to private schools, rising living costs have forced families to move out of San Francisco and look for cheaper avenues. “We are losing students to private schools,” said Joan Livingston, a concerned parent “thirty percent of school age children are in private schools, we must support the resolution to halt the process for now”. Even with declining enrollment the number of schools operating in the city have remained the same since 1986, SFUSD believes that with growing employee salary and healthcare costs they have to bring the school system in line with the current situation. Majority of the children that will be affected by the closure or relocation belong to low income families and minorities, this adds another dimension to an already complex problem. “School closures have fallen disproportionately on the backs of Latino and African American kids” remarked Supervisor Sanchez, an active board member; similar concerns were raised by parents at the meeting. According to SFUSD this might not be the end of this, they might have to close or consolidate more schools if adequate funding is not obtained from the state and the local governments. There are other districts like Richmond and Oakland which might close and merge schools. Similar problems have plagued these school districts, both are dealing with dwindling enrollment and inadequate state funding.