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San Francisco Mayor on Recall of School Board Members: 'We Failed Our Children'

Landon Mion
Landon Mion  |  February 20, 2022 2:15 PM

San Francisco mayor London Breed (D) said Sunday that the three school board members recalled last week did not have their priorities in order when they were focusing on efforts to rename schools rather than reopening schools.

During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Breed said the recall "was really about the frustration of the Board of Education doing their fundamental job, and that is to make sure that our children are getting educated, that they get back into the classroom, and that did not occur."

She explained that the board members were "focused on other things" that were "clearly a distraction," noting that renaming schools and making changes to the district are important but that what was most essential is having children back in school.

"San Francisco, our Department of Public Health, we've been a leader during this COVID pandemic. and in some cases, we have put forth the most conservative policies to ensure the safety of all San Franciscans and our vaccination rates and our death rates and other numbers demonstrate that we are a clear leader," Breed said. 

"But we failed our children. parents were upset, the city as a whole was upset, and the decision to recall school board members was a result of that," she continued.

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Board President Gabriela López, and Commissioners Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins were recalled last week. More than 70 percent of voters in heavily progressive San Francisco voted in favor of the recall of the three board members.

Parents become frustrated with the district continuing with remote learning despite residents in the county and state desiring a return to classrooms. Numerous lawsuits were filed against the board in an effort to reopen schools.

Instead of prioritizing a return to in-person learning, the board was pushing efforts to rename 44 schools named after past presidents or other individuals who were perceived as racist.

The district also looked to eliminate merit-based admissions at an elite high school with a high admission rate for Asian Americans. This, after resurfaced tweets from Collins showed her claiming that Asian American students used "white supremacist" thinking to gain an advantage over their black counterparts.