San Francisco’s public schools have an enviable amount of money to spend on their students compared with many if not most of the other 1,000 districts in California. The funding windfall comes from additional voter-approved funding streams and City Hall’s financial support added to the state and federal dollars.
But district officials, including the superintendent and the school board, for years have failed to stay within that flush budget, spending more money than they received annually, using reserves and pandemic one-time funding to backfill.
They always knew it couldn’t last, but failed to make the hard calls to balance the books.
Now they have no choice. At the current rate of spending, the district won’t be able to pay its bills within the next few years. It will be $421 million in the red by the 2025-2026 school year.
For starters, Superintendent Matt Wayne is recommending cutting more than 900 jobs, all currently vacant, but about a 10% reduction in overall staffing across the district.