Press Release

03/04/10 – “I join the thousands of students, parents and teachers across California and here in San Francisco today calling for adequate, equitable education funding for our public schools and universities.

In San Francisco, we have forged new partnerships with our public schools and community colleges to guarantee universal pre-school, universal afterschool programs and a place in our community colleges for every child. Despite these difficult economic times, over the last two years and this year, we will have invested $49 million of our City’s rainy day reserve funds in our public schools to stave off teacher layoffs. But it’s still not enough. Cities and public school districts can’t do it alone.

The State of California’s devastating cuts these last two years to our public schools, community colleges and public universities have put at risk an entire generation of students and undermined our state’s future prosperity. As the world’s eighth largest economy, California should not rank 49th of out of the 50 states in per-capita spending for students. Let’s invest in our students, our future and our state. The Governor and the Legislature in Sacramento must make public education and school funding reform a top priority.”