In June San Francisco’s school board wants voters to approve a new “parcel tax” of $298 per parcel of real property. They claim the money — $50 million per year — is needed to provide teachers with living wages. That’s a worthy objective but it’s not the real reason behind the proposed tax. The real reason is buried deep in SFUSD financial reports from 2012 and 2017:
In 2012 retirement costs were 26 percent of the amount spent on teacher salaries. By 2017 that figure had jumped nearly 70 percent. As a result, this year only 29 percent of SFUSD’s budget will go to teacher salaries. That pathetic figure is another example of San Francisco not walking its progressive talk.
Revenues aren’t the problem. District revenues rose a healthy 36 percent over that five year period and Governor Brown’s budget shows spending per pupil in California will near $16,000 this year. SFUSD’s failure to attack retirement costs is the problem.
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