San Francisco Unified School District building in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2024. SFUSD faces a teachers strike Monday following almost a year of troubled contract negotiation.

There is truth, there are facts and then there is the debate over the San Francisco Unified School District.

It is a fundamental truth that the educators who instruct San Francisco’s children should not have to commute from three counties away to do so. It is a fact that teacher salaries in this city are often too low to afford the incredible expense of living here.

But there are also other pertinent truths and facts.

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Student outcomes in the San Francisco school district, while improving, are still unacceptable. Enrollment has plummeted amid broader demographic trends and frustration over the politicization of offering basic coursework such as Algebra I. Fewer kids in schools means less money from the state — which seeds roughly 70% of the district’s budget. 

For years, the district ignored these realities and made agreements to spend more money than it had. As a consequence, the state of California has loomed over its finances with a machete. In December, after four years, the district finally emerged from the worst financial category assigned to public agencies. But state-appointed experts still retain control over financial decisions, ready, willing and authorized to hack away at any expense they deem profligate.

What represents fair and sustainable compensation for teachers under these conditions?

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Nearly a year of contract bargaining between the district and the United Educators of San Francisco, the union representing 6,000 local teachers, aides, social workers, nurses and counselors, hadn’t answered that question as of Friday.

The........

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