City Brights: Rachel Norton : Feb. 25 town meeting will focus on investing in schools

City Brights: Rachel Norton : Feb. 25 town meeting will focus on investing in schools

Feb. 25 town meeting will focus on investing in schools

Last month, Superintendent Garcia announced that the San Francisco Unified School District's expected budget shortfall for the next two fiscal years (2010-11 and 2011-12) had increased to a whopping $113 million. At the January 26 Board of Education meeting, the Superintendent outlined his plans for closing the gap -- including raising class sizes, cutting the school year short and asking for wage and work rule concessions from the district's labor unions.
But a grass-roots network of parents at schools all over the city has decided not to take this bad news lying down. They're mad at the prospect of already cash-strapped schools being forced to cut further, and they're organizing to find solutions -- everything from passing an emergency ballot measure to fund schools, to launching a massive fundraising effort to encourage businesses and city residents to support San Francisco's public schools.
"San Franciscans need to make a decision. Do we want a crime-ridden city with under-educated kids?" asks Crystal Brown, an elementary school parent and PTA member. "Everyone needs to take responsibility for this problem."
The first event in this advocacy campaign is a town hall meeting on February 25, where state legislators, district leaders, business leaders and other advocates will come together to discuss how we got here and ways we might get through this budget crisis. KQED-FM Forum host Michael


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