UESF News |
|
|
UESF EndorsementsThe UESF Executive Board has made the following endorsements for the November 8th ballot: • Mayor: John Avalos, Dennis Herrera, and Leland Yee in no ranked choice order. Initiatives: • Yes on A – Repair Our Schools
Volunteer Today!UESF Phonebanks Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday through the election. 5:30-8:30 p.m. Orpheum Theater Bldg. Materials Prop. H flyers - English | Spanish | Chinese Prop. A flyers - English |
Final Election Push to Defeat Prop. H & Pass Prop. A!
Volunteer to precinct walk this Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and to phonebank at 5:30 p.m. on November 7 and 8.
All campaign activities will take place at IFPTE Local 21, at the Orpheum Theater Bldg. – 1182 Market St. @ 8th, Room 318.
There are two measures on the November ballot that directly impact education. Prop. A, the school bond, deserves our full support, while Prop. H, which tries to radically alter the SFUSD's school assignment system, should be defeated at all costs.
Prop. A is a $531 million school bond that will finish the plan to completely fix, modernize, and repair all schools in the SFUSD. It represents the third phase in the district's successful ten-year plan to renovate and update all SFUSD schools.
Because of recent budget cuts, the SFUSD has no funding to dedicate to infrastructure improvements. Prop. A will ensure the much-needed work will get done, using a dedicated source of funding that cannot be taken away by Sacramento.
Upgrades include:
* Repairing deteriorating restrooms
and leaky roofs
* Replacing outdated electrical systems
and lighting
* Upgrading HVAC systems
* Updating fire alarm / sprinkler systems
* Improving access for disabled students * Retrofitting for earthquake safety
For more information about Prop. A, go to www.repairsfschools.org.
Prop. H is a dangerous initiative that seeks to limit parent choice in deciding which schools their children should attend by narrowly defining school attendance areas on a geographic basis. Proposition H is a misguided, ill-conceived, unnecessary, costly initiative that could do great harm to our schools.
WATCH THE ANTI-TEACHER, ANTI-UNION SPONSOR OF PROP. H IN HER OWN WORDS.
First up, Prop. H takes away parents' rights to find a school of their choice. According to the SFUSD, under the current system 80% of parents receive one of their top choices and 75% do not list the nearest school to their home. If Prop. H were to be implemented, more than seven out of ten students would be assigned to a school their parents would not choose on their own.
Prop. H could also cause chaos in our schools. The language of Prop. H demands changes to school assignments in the 2011-2012 school year. That's this year. If Prop. H passes, the School Board will be forced to consider mid-year changes to school assignments to comply with the will of the voters. Imagine the chaos in school communities this winter and spring if SFUSD was forced to change the school assignments mid-year.
The SFUSD spent many years and scarce district resources working diligently to revamp the school assignment system with input from every major stakeholder in the district, including thousands of parents. Rather than wait to see the result, disgruntled parents put Prop. H on the ballot before the work could be completed. We should give the current system time to work and make adjustments as necessary rather than waste hundreds of thousands of dollars overhauling the school placement system again.
Last but not least, Prop. H could quash diversity in our schools. With its laser focus on promoting neighborhood schools, Prop. H could force the stratification of our schools on racial and socio-economic lines. This could lead to lawsuits and years of legal battles, potentially costing the district millions in legal fees. We must not go back to the 1950s when all we had was neighborhood schools and de facto segregation.
A broad spectrum of city leaders and organizations have come out against Prop. H, including all seven members of the Board of Education, eight of the eleven City Supervisors, our entire Sacramento delegation, the San Francisco Democratic Party, and the San Francisco Labor Council. For a complete list, click here.
Prop. C - Consensus Pension Measure Vs. Prop. D - Adachi's 'Son of B'
This November San Francisco voters will also have an important choice to make in deciding which pension reform ballot measure to support. The first, sponsored by Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Labor Council, is a compromise measure that would save the city up to $1.3 billion over the next ten years. The measure represents a consensus amongst city stakeholders that provides significant savings to the city, while not endangering the retirement of San Francisco's hard-working civil servants.
The second is sponsored by Jeff Adachi, the San Francisco Public Defender who last year brought the infamous Proposition B to the ballot. That measure would have dramatically diminished not only city employee pensions, but the Health Services System, potentially impacting SFUSD employees as well. Though the new measure won't directly impact SFUSD employees, the Adachi measure is Wisconsin style politicsat its worst, created without public employees at the table, representing a direct assault on the San Francisco labor movement. It's chief financial sponsor is billionaire investor Michael Moritz, who helped pay up to $5 per signature to get the measure on the ballot.
