An open letter to Carlos Garcia

In every superintendent's career there comes defining moments, this is one of yours. 

In the last two years there has been a marked increase in students applying to kindergarten in the San Francisco Unified School District. This increase was due largely to a temporary increase in birth rate. This year it is reported that we will see 575 additional applicants for positions in our kindergartens. But this year, the increase is significantly different from the year prior. The birth surge is over and what we are seeing is a reaction to our troubled economic times. Parents who did not consider sending their child to our schools now find that with uncertain income, they would rather send their child to public school than private school. Parents who considered moving from our city have decided that times are too risky and have stayed in town and have now applied to our schools.

So what does this mean to our school district?  Let’s look at the numbers.

For each child that starts kindergarten and eventually graduates from high school the school district will receive $100,000 in funding per child. With the additional children who are applying this year, staying through graduation means that the District will receive close to $60 million through these children’s school tenure. This will happen for every year that we are able to sustain this number of students applying for our schools.

For years, parents of children who attended public schools have tried to influence their friends and families to choose public rather than private. We have advocated that if they only tried public schools they would be happy with the quality and performance of the schools for their children. The economic downturn has given us a golden opportunity, but now we hear from the School Board that next-year classroom size for kindergarten will be increased to 22 children.

Class size is one of the popular criteria that parents use in selecting a school for their children.  Private schools promote small class size as a tool to fill their class room. If we increase class size, as soon as the economy gets better, these parents will flee with their children. If we leave the classroom size as is, we have an opportunity not only to keep these 575 extra children this year but get another 575 next year and thereafter.

It is said that this increase in class size will save the district $1 million a year. These 575 additional pupils will generate the school district $5 million a year.  There are other solutions to our budget situation.  We must not take the short-term view; instead, we should grab this opportunity to shore up our budget with the increase in per diem over the long term. In the Wizard of Oz, they pulled back the curtain and saw that the big machine was being run by one man, a man with vision. In your defining moment are you?