In the face of a Governor who refuses to act responsibly by fairly raising taxes and closing tax loopholes, public education advocates are mobilizing in numerous ways for numerous responses. Not only are we continuing our advocacy in opposition to Schwarzenegger’s outrageous attacks against public schools, but locally we are devising solutions that will help increase our financial stability and independence.

School communities are sending the Governor stacks of postcards; individuals are making phone calls and writing letters; unions and supporters are demonstrating. This Friday from 5pm to 7pm at 555 Franklin Street the San Francisco PTA is hosting a Flunk The Budget Potluck to which people should bring food and a cell phone, and the PTA will provide the space and most importantly the phone numbers of legislators and members of the appropriations committees (RSVP to 415-290-2708 if you plan to attend.)

Also at the city level is a parcel tax, the Quality Teacher and Education Act which will be on the ballot as Proposition A this June. At just under $200 per parcel, the goal of Proposition A is to make sure that every child has a strong teacher by:

creating a reliable revenue stream so that our salaries are competitive and allow us to attract the best teachers;

instituting a more rigorous mentoring and counseling process, so that teachers are both supported and held accountable, with clearer mechanisms for removing individuals who don’t meet expectations;

providing incentives for teachers to work at schools with high-turnover and in high-demand subject-areas; and

investing in desperately needed technology infrastructure upgrades.

With so many other Bay Area municipalities with parcel taxes dedicated to their schools, Prop A make much sense for San Francisco, and in this frightening budgetary climate, it’s one of our most realistic and best shots at getting the resources our kids need.

Propo A requires a two-thirds majority to pass, which means that school supporters have to put out some effort to get out a large number of sympathetic voters. Since most people in San Francisco don’t have children, making contact through phone calls and door knocking will be key. Phone banking is happening practically every evening at the offices of the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) at 2310 Mason St. People can contact Rachel Norton at rpnorton@hotmail.com to come on their own, or take the lead from schools around the city and organize a group from your school to phonebank together. If phone calls aren’t your thing, precinct walking is happening every Saturday. Those who are interested should be at Civic Center Secondary (formerly John Swett Elementary) at 727 Golden Gate Ave at 9:30 am to pick up materials and instructions.

With everyone locally doing whatever they can to find needed funds for schools, the missing piece is solid leadership from our legislators, something along the lines of what Carlos Garcia, Superintendant of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) mentioned in a Town Hall meeting at the Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco meeting on April 26th—a lawsuit against the state, filed on the grounds of insufficiently funding public schools.

Such a tactic is about the most appealing thing to be mentioned in many years, and we are well-positioned in some ways to tackle this now. The recently released Getting Down to Facts report issued by faculty at Stanford and undertaken at the Governor’s own prompting, provides the at the very least baseline data upon which to make such a case. Organizing the leaders of the various school districts and the municipalities in which they reside will have to come next, but it’s hard to imagine how such an effort could be anything but beneficial to all concerned.

Some may say such activities are pipe dreams, but what better time is there to point out that the Emperor has no clothes, then when there is nothing left to lose.

Lisa Schiff is the parent of two children who attend McKinley Elementary School in the San Francisco Unified School District and is a member of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco and the PTA and is a board member at the national level of Parents for Public Schools.