Teacher storage

Mr. Hinkle - Yes, possibly close schools. But even more, do away with the excessive number of administrative positions.

According to article published in Imprimis, Hilldale College,...

Percentage Growth of Population in Public Schools, 2000-2019

Students = 7.6%

Teachers = 8.7%

District Administration = 87.6%

The author is correct that South San Francisco Unified is a "failing district", but draws the wrong conclusions.

1. Local school districts are super-rich. So much so that Education Augmentation Revenue Funding (ERAF) is send back to cities and counties.

2. SSFSD is a "Basic Aid" district - they don't care about enrollment numbers, fewer students means more money can be moved from "education" to "administration"

3. In fact once a district turns "Basic Aid" (most peninsula districts are now) cutting "customer service" and keeping families away often becomes top priority

4. When students leave you would think class room sizes would shrink - and yet they still grow.

5. Small class room sizes matter at all ages - even University and beyond. It's the difference between real Education and providing a slide-show or watching a youtube video.

6. "Teacher Shortage" is another trick of bad local school districts to excuse their poor education results, but it is a made-up crisis.

7. "Teacher Shortage" is also the perfect explanation why the ratio of administrators:teachers keeps growing in favor of district administrators.

8. SSFSD pays its teachers above average and 3-4 times more than an average private school teacher gets.

9. And still only 33% of it's budget goes to teachers (salaries and benefits)

10. because SSFSD also pays its administrator way, way above average

Summary: teachers, class room size, budgets, etc are NOT the problem. ALL local school districts have too much real estate in the form of magnet schools, middle schools, alternative schools, middle schools, etc. If you see public schools with names or themes like "Academy", "Alternative", "Parent Participation", "Language Immersion", "GATE", "enrichment", "Montessori", "K-5", "Middle", you also found the problem. The more schools like this a district has the worse their financials. Just look at San Mateo, Redwood City, and SFUSD - three of the worst districts and with the highest percentage of families attending private and charter schools.

And every time voters approve another real estate bond - they help to make this worse. The real solution would actually be "Defunding the School Districts".