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San Francisco goes to war on Woke: 3 school board members recalled for failing students

The board's decision to make admission to high school based on lottery rather than an academic metric and their racial social media posts prompted this

After years of racial strife and a delayed return to in-person schooling due to the Covid-19 pandemic, San Francisco voters unanimously recalled three of the city's seven school board members. The board's decision to make admission to the city's most prestigious high school based on a lottery rather than an academic metric as well as the revelation of racist social media posts made by one of the commissioners in 2016 influenced the special election on Tuesday (February 15).  Preliminary results released Tuesday showed that board president Gabriela López, as well as members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga, were all defeated by more than 70% of the vote. All three had been on the job since 2018. On Twitter, Moliga wrote by admitting defeat. "There are many more fights ahead of us," he wrote, adding that “it has been an honor” to serve. 

Board members, according to Meredith Dodson, executive director of the advocacy group SF Parents, weren't focused on what our kids actually need. Learning loss and achievement gaps exacerbated by pandemic-era remote learning, as well as the commissioners' higher political aspirations and personal pet projects, she claimed, were among the reasons for the recall. She added, "They just really failed our students.” Mayor London Breed also backed the recall effort. She said after the polls closed, "voters delivered a clear message that the School Board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else. Elections can be difficult, but these parents were fighting for what matters most — their children," CNN reports. 

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Earlier, Collins' tweets targeting Asian-Americans prompted the mayor to call for her resignation in March 2021. Collins later apologized unreservedly for her comments in a Medium post in March, but she was removed from her position as vice president of the board. The board's decision that year to switch Lowell High School's enrollment process from merit-based admissions to a lottery system, also enraged voters. The Black Student Union at the school had issued a list of demands to the school district earlier that month, including finding ways to diversify Lowell's student body. Many parents perceived this as a dismissal of their children's academic efforts.

Meanwhile, the board embarked on a high-profile, multi-year effort to rename roughly a third of the state's 130 schools, a process that began before Collins, López, and Moglia took office. According to a resolution passed in 2018, the district should rename schools after “historical figures who engaged in the subjugation and enslavement of human beings; or who oppressed women, inhibiting societal progress; or whose actions led to genocide; or who otherwise significantly diminished the opportunities of those amongst us to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Former presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as well as former San Francisco mayor and US senator Dianne Feinstein, were on the list. In April 2021, the board decided to scrap the plan, which is also a possible reason for this recall.