Sad Francisco

The charming city by the Bay has some serious edu-warts that need to be excised.

By Larry Sand June 1, 2021

San Francisco is a magical city. My first visit there was in 1969 as a New York City college kid on winter break, and I was enthralled. I was there again in 1996 on my honeymoon, and several times since, and have always found the city to have an amazing vibrancy rivaled only by New York City and Paris. But now, the City by the Bay, notorious for its $61,000 a year tents for the homeless, its public display of syringes and human feces, can add its school system to the nightmare.

First off, the achievement gap. While 70 percent of white students are proficient in math, only 12 percent of black students are. For a city that wears its progressivism as a proud badge of honor, this is especially shameful.

The above statistics were released in 2020, so you'd think the powers that be would have jumped at the chance to correct the dismal disparity, but, no, the city's education establishment has involved itself in other matters.

On January 26, in a moment of monumental self-righteousness, the school board decided to rename 44 public schools because their namesakes were presumably more evil than Satan or even Republicans. Paul Revere, Thomas Edison, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, et al. were accused of perpetrating anti-woke crimes and were canceled.

Malcolm X got a pass, however; the elementary school bearing his name will not undergo a change. Why would a one-time drug dealer, thief, and pimp be exempted? ............March blew in like a lion when it was revealed that San Francisco school board Vice President Allison Collins had made some rather nasty comments about Asian Americans on Twitter a few years ago. ...... they merely removed her as vice president, and stripped all of her committee assignments. But instead of apologizing and graciously accepting the demotion, Collins sued the school district. For $87 million. Among other things, her lawsuit alleges that the demotion caused her a significant loss of reputation, severe mental and emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, humiliation, and (my personal favorite) “spiritual injury to her soul.”..............

So let's see, the district has failed black kids miserably. The school board tried to rechristen 44 schools, many of which were named after iconic Americans. The city sued the school board to force schools to reopen. A school board member sued the school board for "spiritual injuries." The district tried to pull a fast one on taxpayers by kinda, sorta opening schools for a few days, and then announced strict rules for the Prom from Hell. Not convinced of the insanity yet?

OK, how about this . . .

The United Educators of San Francisco passed a resolution on May 19 "no, not about improving student outcomes or getting teachers raises" but rather in support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel, becoming the first U.S. teachers union to officially support BDS. The resolution was passed by the historically illiterate or perhaps anti-Semitic teacher union leadership the day before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire after 11 days of fighting.

The late Paul Kantner, the Jefferson Airplane co-founder and a San Francisco native, once said "San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.".........To Read More...