At this political moment, amid debates over the Jan. 6 investigation and Canadian truck drivers, are the eyes of the nation really upon … a Bay Area school board election?
Yep! In famously liberal San Francisco, an effort to recall three school board members is drawing headlines such as this one in the conservative Washington Examiner: “San Francisco school board recall pits liberals vs. far Left.”
The battle playing out in the City by the Bay is a doozie that could have implications far beyond the classroom: Two years into an exhausting pandemic, are voters here and beyond losing patience with progressive causes?
In simpler terms: Tuesday’s special election in San Francisco will determine whether three school board members — Alison Collins, Faauuga Moliga and Gabriela Lopez — get to keep their jobs. The progressive Democrats have drawn ire for focusing on last year’s ill-fated campaign to rename schools, such as George Washington High and even Dianne Feinstein Elementary, at a time when all many parents cared about was getting students back into classrooms.
Proponents of the recall, including Mayor London Breed, say the board has failed at the basic task of running the city’s public schools. Opponents, meanwhile, have cast the recall as a conservative affront to progressive values and part of a broader attempt to remove left-leaning officials from office.
Throughout the history of the Democratic Party, said longtime California Democratic strategist Darry Sragow, there’s been an “ongoing tug of war” between those toward the center of the political spectrum and those on the left. The pandemic hasn’t changed that or even dramatically shifted people’s political views. But it has made voters more focused on navigating day-to-day life.
“Parents are trying to navigate unprecedented hurdles,” Sragow said. “Kids are suffering.” Even in liberal San Francisco, when a school board spends its energy renaming schools, he said, rather than on opening schools and making sure they’re well-equipped, “they’re talking about things that aren’t that salient to those voters.”
In other words, “it’s a question of priorities,” Sragow said. “The Democratic Party starts to get itself into trouble with the electorate when it focuses on issues that are not core issues to the voters.”
That’s proving true in other arenas, as well. Both San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his colleague to the south, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, who previously held Boudin’s job, are facing recall attempts. Both were elected on bold promises of criminal justice reform. Yet both have become the focus of intense pushback from critics, including some former allies, who now accuse them of being too soft on criminals at a time when the media is awash in reports about violence.
“I based my support for the election of District Attorney George Gascón on the hope he would advance public safety in Los Angeles and because of our close personal relationship of over 30 years,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said in a recent statement. “After observing the negative effects of his policies and practices on public safety, I am compelled to rescind that endorsement.”
The school board recall could give pause or fuel to other candidates or causes, depending on the outcome. But James Taylor, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco, cautions against drawing too many conclusions from the San Francisco election, which is occurring in its own unique set of circumstances.
Tuesday’s election fits “a pattern of increased use of recalls around the country from both parties as a means to hold people accountable or to try to change leadership,” Taylor said.
Conservatives tried unsuccessfully to unseat Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom last year in a recall. Earlier this month, right-wing activists ousted a Republican board member in Shasta County over his refusal to push back against state pandemic restrictions in another recall election.
In San Francisco, the race is not just a battle between centrists and leftists. Other factors, such as race, are also playing a role. The three targeted board members are people of color, as are many of the recall backers, including Breed.
In one controversial move, the school board voted to move from a merit-based admissions policy at elite Lowell High School to a lottery system. The board pointed to systemic racism and a lack of student diversity as reasons for the shift. A court later put the change on hold, but the issue irked Asian-American parents who said it was discriminatory against their children, who make up the majority of the student body. Collins, one of the three recall subjects, had also posted anti-Asian comments on social media prior to being elected, adding to the furor.
But like so often in politics, voters’ moods — and priorities — can be quick to change.
While the school renaming effort may have been a calculated error, Taylor said, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. The decision came in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the broader Black Lives Matter movement, he noted, with students and others across the country calling for the removal of offensive statues and the renaming of buildings and institutions named after racist figures. But then COVID shifted priorities, fueling pushback.
“This is petty politics backed by political opportunism,” he said. In non-pandemic times, “you could have the renaming and there wouldn’t be such a reaction.”
