I’m a lifelong Democrat and I support the San Francisco School Board recall.

Parents and community members across every San Francisco neighborhood have come together to gather a record number of signatures to recall incumbents on the Board of Education. Meanwhile, instead of defending their record, the three incumbents — Alison Collins, Gabriela Lopez & Faauuga Moliga — try to brand the recall as simply the work of out of town Republicans, reminiscent of the 1960s Southern politicians who railed against “outside agitators.” The truth is that we have a people’s recall of San Franciscans who are tired and frustrated with School Board members who have failed the children’s educational needs and jeopardized the fiscal integrity of the district itself.

I am a lifelong San Francisco Democrat and proud graduate of our public schools who, like so many others, supports the recall. I come from a union and Latino family steeped in education and activism. I have served in the administrations of three Democratic presidents and as general counsel to the US Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution. When not in public service, I have led a national immigrant rights organization, taught in the classroom and been a law school dean. I echo Frederick Douglass’ words that “Education is the key to freedom.” Equal educational opportunity is the foundation for societal and economic advancement, particularly for newcomers and people placed on the margins of society. Mentoring students is one small way I have attempted to pay forward my gratitude to my teachers and coaches who gave me the solid educational foundation all our students should have but are not getting today.

Thousands of San Franciscans have concluded that the School Board has abandoned the quest for academic excellence and is making no progress on achieving equality. Many families are leaving our public schools. San Francisco has a record high population but our public schools enroll barely half the number of students we had in 1965. Despite our high housing costs, many parents take on private school tuition in order to provide for their children. Those who can’t afford to leave have little choice but to remain. While San Francisco voters consistently support school bond measures, the School District has failed to provide oversight of the money, has difficulty explaining where and whether it was spent and we are left with school building conditions that are unsafe and ill suited for children or staff members. School board members have undermined the legitimacy and quality of public education in San Francisco.

During the height of COVID-19, the School Board devoted greater attention to changing the names on the outside of school buildings than on accepting the Superintendent’s recommendation for a safety coordinator to enable students and staff to return safely to those buildings. Their answer to the semester’s long frustrations of distance learning was to offer all students “A” grades in every subject, until state school officials threatened to deny academic credit to the scheme. On the financial side, the School Board is presiding over a structural imbalance producing a $116 million deficit this year and even larger deficits in the future. State education officials have now stepped in to take direct action after not receiving a fiscal stabilization plan requested since 2020 from the School District. On the same day the state admonished the Board for its failures, the Board voted to spend more money on attorneys in a failed attempt, already rejected by the San Francisco Superior Court, to tear down murals at Washington High School at a cost of up to $1 million.

While a recall is a serious remedy, the damage to children’s education is compounding daily. Losing time means losing children. This School Board has proven that it can not be trusted to make key decisions and should be removed now, not in 2023 when their terms run out. State law already shields elected officials from recall at the beginning of their terms. We should not be denied our democratic right to recall them based on their actions in office just because it is close to the end of their terms. We rejected that argument when Donald Trump said it was too late to try to impeach him and when Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was too late in President Obama’s term to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. The time lost in the educational lifetimes of San Francisco students is too precious to wait to act. San Franciscans should look closely at the School Board’s dismal record and, on February 15, vote to recall Collins, Lopez and Moliga from office.