Why I oppose Proposition H

By Colin V. Gallagher

The following is an extended version of the ballot argument which I submitted against Proposition H, which would amend the San Francisco City Charter to allocate at least 2.5% of the City's General Fund to create a "Public Education Enrichment Fund" to spend in designated public education programs.

The language in the proposed Charter Amendment that the Board of Supervisors may reduce the City's contribution to the "Public Education Enrichment Fund" by any monies received from the state is not a realistic limit on spending. Even if the state were to contribute more education funding to San Francisco, elected officials are are unlikely to have the political will to make such offsets when advocates of greater spending on public education will portray such offsets as actual spending cuts.

The proposal additionally fails to establish why one-third of the "Public Education Enrichment Fund' should be allocated to art, music and physical education programs while science and engineering programs, for example, would not receive a set-aside. Even if spending in these areas would promote greater "self-esteem" on the part of student artists, athletes and musicians in the SFUSD, the measure unfairly stigmatizes students of the sciences by excluding them from the $60 million subsidy.

Finally, decisions about spending priorities in the next 12 years are better left to our elected officials, rather than enacted by referendum without the public being fully informed about which other programs should be cut or whose taxes should be raised to provide for these guaranteed levels of spending. This measure is ill-advised and would contribute to the City's budget chaos without resolving any of the problems of the San Francisco Unified School District. Vote no on Proposition H.