I chose the United Educators of San Francisco because I wanted to choose something that I was interested in, but that no student would choose. UESF has represented me for my entire career, and I wanted to learn more about what they do. I also wanted to understand what I could do to be more involved personally.
Identify
San Francisco pays its teachers significantly less than other districts. For the same qualifications, a teacher could easily move to a neighboring district and earn more pay for the same work. The same teacher could earn tens of thousands more per year by simply moving a little bit north or south.
Pay is so dramatically low that a teacher ended up homeless while teaching full time. The effect is largest on new teachers, who earn less money. Additionally, housing costs have increased dramatically so people who recently move to SF are paying much more in rent.
SFUSD is projected to spend more money, while getting less from the state. SFUSD can't run at a deficit, so it will have to cut spending. Salaries and benefits are the most obvious ways to save money. A lot of the money is allocated for specific purposes, so money for making a school accessible for people with disabilities can't be spent on teacher salaries.
Analyze
Classism, because the housing affordability crisis is directly related to income and wealth. Home ownership is impossible for nearly all teachers, unless they're independently wealthy. Only 0.7% of all homes for sale are affordable on a teacher's salary.
Ageism, because UESF/SFUSD salaries scale directly along years of service. Two teachers teaching the exact same classes with the exact same qualifications will be paid differently depending upon how many years they've been in SFUSD. It's not based directly on age, but on average older teachers make much more than younger teachers.
A lot of the funding problems for schools start from Prop 13 in 1978. It lowered property taxes and made it almost impossible to increase them. This decreased tax revenue meant that statewide, school funding dropped dramatically and never recovered. Also, if you or your family owned the house for a long time, taxes are much lower.
Act
UESF is part of a We Can't Wait campaign with other teachers' unions in California. Demands include fully staffed schools, increased pay, budget stability, and better working conditions. To my knowledge, this is the first time UESF has coordinated with other unions in the state.
UESF worked with San Francisco to build Shirley Chisolm Village, which is educator housing in the Sunset. I remember discussions of teacher housing before I started, in the early 2000's, and it took decades for it to finally open. The costs are subsidized so that educators can live in the city where they teach.
UESF has worked in partnership with SFUSD to receive state grants. UESF works towards advancing public education, not only in opposition to SFUSD but also in cooperation with them. It’s easy to forget that educators’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions, and when one is well funded the other one will be also.
Reflect
UESF supports the Peer Assistance Program (PAR), which allegedly targets older, black, and Latino teachers. Teachers who refuse to participate claim to be bullied and harassed. Money from other programs has been instead spent on PAR.
UESF filed an unfair labor practices dispute around SFUSD's payroll system problems. Some of the problems have been resolved, both before and after the unfair labor practices dispute. Without union protections, it's possible that the problems would be as widespread now as they were in January of 2022.
UESF negotiated a $9,000 raise for 2023-2024 and 5% in 2024-2025. The flat amount specifically helps newer teachers more, since it’s a higher percent increase of their base pay. It’s still below the rate of inflation, but is a major improvement.
Outside of salary negotiations, I don't pay much attention to what UESF does, so I was surprised to see all of the non-salary work they do. Even though there were just negotiations, there are more coming in 2025. I am an assembly delegate during the 2023-2024 school year and have not decided if I will continue