Yee's class warfare

SUP. LELAND Yee's proposal to carve the San Francisco Unified School District into two thoroughly unequal halves is such a terrible idea that we hardly know where to start.

So let's begin with a dose of reality: contrary to what you read in the daily newspapers, the SFUSD is not a disaster. The previous administration made some horrible financial decisions, but on the whole, the district continues to offer solid instruction, and it continues to improve. Last year San Francisco schools posted the highest high school math scores among urban California districts and ranked second or third in every other testing category.

Unfortunately, the SFUSD still has one major problem: inequality. While some schools shine, others are struggling – and far too many are ethnically homogenous.

Yee's proposal would make that problem a whole lot worse. The supervisor and former school board member wants to create two San Francisco school districts, with Twin Peaks as the dividing line. His scheme would divide the district by race and class – isolating the more diverse east-side students from the largely white and Asian middle-class students in the city's western half. All of the top 10 elementary schools and four of the top 5 middle and high schools (as measured by the state's Academic Performance Index) would be in the western district. It's an ugly idea that flies in the face of the principle, articulated in Brown v. Board of Education 48 years ago, that separate schools are inherently unequal. It would allow the better-off schools and better-off kids to thrive, while leaving the rest of the city behind.

Unfortunately, this proposal only makes sense in the context of Yee's personal political aspirations.

Tempers have flared over this year's school-assignment process. Even though the SFUSD managed to give more families their first-choice school this year than they did last year (90 percent of high school students got into the school they wanted), some west-side families were frustrated when their kids didn't get assigned to Lincoln or Washington High Schools. The district eventually agreed to expand enrollment at those schools, but not before Yee (who just won the Democratic primary to represent the west side of town in the state assembly) recognized a political opportunity. He's decided to put the needs of his better-off constituents ahead of the needs of the city as a whole.

It's worth noting that Yee, who has made a habit of poking his nose into the school district's affairs, never approached district staffers about this plan. They heard about it when they received calls from reporters.

It's also worth noting that Yee was caught using a friend's address to get two of his kids into the west side Hoover Middle School when he lived on the east side of town.

The division plan would require a charter amendment (which would involve an nasty, divisive campaign). Yee's colleagues should pronounce it dead on arrival. Even better, Yee – who has ambitions of running for mayor someday – should withdraw this horrible proposal now, before it leads to a needless class and race war that he will have started.