Posted on 01/20/2006 9:16:50 AM PST by george76
In front of a crowd of angry parents, teachers and students...
San Francisco's Board of Education Thursday night voted to close, merge and relocate more than a dozen public schools...due to declining enrollment.
The board did its work during a five-hour meeting before hundreds of angry parents, students and teachers who filled the Everett Middle School auditorium and occasionally shouted -- or wept aloud -- as the panel voted on a case-by-case basis.
The first vote hardly caused a stir in the crowd: the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program will be merged into Rosa Parks Elementary School...
But when the board voted to close John Swett Elementary and merge it into John Muir Elementary, Dawayne Baker, a volunteer basketball coach at John Swett, burst out of the auditorium.
In the end, the board decided to close four schools, spare six from closure and relocate or merge many others -- all to save $2.4 million, about half of the $5 million goal.
"These were modest changes,'' said board member Dan Kelly after it was all done. Kelly had supported more changes but did not have a majority vote of the board.
"We should have closed more..."
San Francisco Unified School District officials say they have lost 800 to 1,000 students every year for the past five years, a trend expected to continue for the next five years.
The board and district staff agree they cannot continue to operate the same number of schools with such a severe drop in the student population.
The $5 million represents the amount of money lost this year in per-pupil funding from the state.
The 26 schools were chosen by district staff because they have fewer than 250 students and use less than 75 percent of their building capacity.
Empty desks
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
On the local TV, they said that SF has the lowest % of children of any major city in the US. They interviewed a SF native with children at the local playground. She said that there was a medical marijuana clinic a few doors to the right and a homeless shelter to the left. She was moving to the East Bay soon. Here in the east bay, there is still a housing boom. The city I live in was 23K in 1990, 32K in 2000 and may be about 60K in 2010.
Declining school enrollment problem in San Francisco, wonder why? Could be parents don't want their children to be brainwashed that the "queer lifestyle is good" and so all the good little children will be raised homosexuals.
California school spending is equalized, and much of school budgets come from the income tax. Everybody pays about the same property tax rates but the money is spread around. So San Francisco property and income tax is actually subsidizing low-income districts like many in the North, the Central Valley or LA County.
Private schools in SF are also losing enrollment.
Mostly the recent declines come from low-income people, with or without kids, leaving for places like Richmond, Oakland, LA, or out of state.
Nah, they'll keep the teachers on to teach the homeless or something.
San Francisco is not family friendly, so families are leaving.
The remaining people do not have children...abortions on demand types or homosexuals...
Actually, for years San Francisco has had a decline in children population. The city is tailor-made for young adults who don't want children. Hence, the closing of schools.
Rents and home prices in SF are out of sight. Families can move to your(and my)area, have a much more child friendly atmosphere and even with parents commuting, there's still money left over.
With SF, its not just one thing, but many factors:
Cost of living
Politicians who pander to the homos and fruits&nuts, give 0 representation to familes.
High taxes with little to show in return.
Homeless people everywhere taking craps on sidewalks
Drugs
High crime rate, low percentage of solved crimes.
Sky high real estate prices
Teachers who push a liberal, socialist political agenda.
The landmarks that made SF special are being left to crumble.
Many of the homes around downtown SF being bought as investments or second homes by the uber wealthy who want a place to spend weekends or parties in the city, but live in other parts of the city.
Your basic socialist utopia.
Its very sad because I remember when SF used to be refered to as the Paris of the United States because there was soo much culture, art, architecture, academics, and open capitalism.
Now its just a freakshow and tourist trap.
Wow.
Even as a tourist, who would want to put themselves or their family (with or without young kids) thru that list.
There are many nicer places to spend tourist dollars.
Some place where they appreciate your money.
Actually, many homosexuals do reproduce. You should read more.
The Small Schools Movement
http://www.ncrel.org/cscd/pubs/lead21/2-1u.htm
The Gates Foundation and Small Schools
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/1...4/gate194.shtml
I know... abortion really has nothing to do with it. SF has the most expensive housing market in the nation, and schools aren't that amazing, so any middle-class family is going to move somewhere in the suburbs where they can buy more space and send their kids to good schools.
It's happening in cities everywhere as they prosper and gentrify. Poor families leave, middle-class people stay until their kids get to school age and then they flee for the suburbs. What we have here is an efficient allocation of resources where cities and suburbs serve different populations.
Well, technically yes. But let's be candid here. If the entire population was homosexual, keeping the earth even remotely populated with people would be a real challenge.
May be a good way to go. Let's start in China and India.
Not to worry. Our gay/lesbian/transgender community will just adopt more kids.
"lost 800 to 1,000 students every year for the past five years..."
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