An actual public post: San Francisco parents (with kids who are, or may be in the public schools)

[eac]

James and I met Sunset Sup and Candidate Carmen Chu on the street today, and when I put a word in her ear about reforming the lottery system (so that my daughter's chances of going to one of my top 7 picks in the City are better than 55%) she pointed out that the Board of Supervisors doesn't have ultimate control of that problem.*  The school

Comments

Re: I'm biased, but..

[eac]

This is the elementary school system, actually -- and it is a mess...

Re: I'm biased, but..

[eac]

It is the single thing that will drive me out of San Francisco.

Everything else I can cope with, but if I have to drive Katie all the way across town to an elementary school I don't like -- or I'm facing 12K + private school tuitions -- I will leave.

Re: I'm biased, but..

[mstinkerbell]

I think the problem is it might take years to reform. And like we've discussed before, these are test scores that the schools are being rated on. It'll be interesting to see what the schools are actually like when you tour. Of course, by the time the school lottery system changes and Katie is starting K. You never know what the schools will be like.

[christopher_]

Hi,

It's so good that you're thinking ahead; I hope that you'll get to know people who will both listen and lead, and not just make easy compromises and dress it up as reform.

Big cities need thoughtful, involved people. It'll be a shame if SF has to find someone to replace you.

[eac]

I'm a little jaundiced about this, and I'm not sure that 3 years ahead is good enough. But I'm not going down without trying.

[kmhoofnagle]

My brain cramps wildly at the idea of this situation. On the one hand I completely understand how the problem arises. You have to let the kids in bad schools get out. On the other hand, that's outrageous. There *has* to be a better answer than such a dire crapshoot.

I can also only barely imagine the firestorm *any* decision will bring down on the heads of the deciders, because there's going to be some winners and losers and the losers are going to have a fit.

Anyhow, good luck with this. I don't envy you.

[eac]

I'm not sure it can be fixed, but I'm not going to preemptively define it as failed.

If I were in change (ha) I'd systematically close the worst schools and rebuild them - perhaps focusing on magnet programs in their places as a way to combat their urban blight problems. Then I'd reopen the lottery with a greater emphasis on letting people go to schools in their region of the city. But of course a school, however bad, is a cultural asset to a neighborhood that needs it, so that's a really unpopular idea, too.

So we'll try, and if we have to, we'll do something else.

[megasus4]

So San Francisco has a voucher system? And not only that, but a voucher system based on luck of the draw???

Vouchers are stupid. If a school's bad, fix the school.

[eac]

There are no vouchers