(Before we get into this, let me just say that there is no amount of money you could pay me to constantly deal with parents. School Board members are angels of mercy and the ones I know are damn fine people.)
Last Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted to put a measure on the next ballot (whenever that is) that would allow the Board of Education to increase their pay from $500 per month up to half the regular salary of a first-year teacher in San Francisco – or about $25,000 per year. Only Supervisors Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd and Mark Farrell voted “no.”
There are many, many problems with this proposal, but today let us discuss one issue conceded by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, “The timing of this is a bit funky.” (Never one to be afraid of funky town timing, Mirkarimi voted in favor of the measure.)
Voters are generally in no mood to give raises to anyone, especially people who ran for office knowing they would be paid $500 per month, but the real killer will be the other measures on the next ballot and the voters they will inspire.
The major measure to look out for is a tobacco tax proposal set to be voted on whenever the next statewide election is held, which optimists still believe will be June. The proposal would assess one dollar on every pack of cigarettes sold in California and use it to pay for cancer research. Tobacco companies have defeated similar measures 14 times, mostly by drowning the opposition in millions of dollars. (They spent $66 million on the last one.) Guess who big tobacco is going to mobilize to get out and vote? Hint: it ain't people who like giving money to government employees.
Incidentally, this is also bad news for Governor Jerry Brown’s tax-extending budget proposal.
But the tobacco measure isn’t the only one that will be a problem: the Students First initiative has gathered enough signatures to be on the ballot at the next local election. (November unless there is a statewide special election before that.) That measure is a policy statement that says students should be guaranteed a spot at a school near their home unless parents want to send their kids elsewhere. The whole thing is a Bronx Salute to the Board of Education’s current student placement “system” and it will attract voters who are angriest at the board.
Add to all this the fact there are no real makings of a campaign in favor of increasing the pay for Board of Education members, and you have a recipe for one big funky failure.
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