SFUSD Keeps Finding New Ways to Fail Its Students — And California's Exodus Proves It

SFUSD’s pension costs grew 538% since 2006 while revenue grew 123%. That’s $250M/year flowing to retirees before a single working teacher gets paid. David Crane warned the State Teachers Retirement System board in 2006 that their 8% return assumption was fantasy — the state Senate kicked him off the board. Now that gap is why SFUSD can offer teachers only 2% raises.

UESF likely violated PERB rules by calling a strike before completing the impasse process. The union walked out of fact-finding without making a counteroffer, then called a strike anyway. Under PERB Decision 2094-H, that’s an unfair labor practice — and SFUSD could recover direct strike damages including replacement worker costs.

UESF called a strike knowing their own sources said they’d accept the district’s offer after a few days. The district offered 6% raises over three years plus fully funded dependent healthcare. UESF walked out without a counteroffer — not to win a better deal for SF teachers, but to join a coordinated CTA action across 32 California districts simultaneously.

SFUSD’s post-1994 “Diversity Index” lottery made segregation worse, not better. Before the consent decree ended, only 0.6% of SF schools had a single racial group above 50%. By 2005, that figure hit 35%. The lottery also drove roughly 4,000 students out of the district — each one taking per-pupil state funding with them, accelerating the fiscal crisis.

SF Superior Court ruled SFUSD illegally retaliated against journalism teacher Eric Gustafson for defending students who published a story about teacher misconduct at Lowell High. Principal Jan Bautista yanked him from his class and reassigned him to teach English — violating California’s Journalism Teacher Protection Act. A district that punishes truth-telling sets the tone for everything that follows.