San Francisco Superintendent Matt Wayne Talks About Solving the School District’s Budget Crisis

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As a new school year kicks off, San Francisco Unified School District faces several big challenges including pending school closures set to be announced later this month. The district, with a budget of $1.3 billion for this fiscal year, has been overspending for years as enrollment has declined. With its financial reserves running dry, district leaders and school board members have to wrangle in spending to close a $420 million deficit or confront a state takeover. We’ll talk to SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne and other experts about the district’s financial problems, what could happen next, and take your questions. Guests: Jill Tucker, K-12 Education Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle Mark Sanchez, commissioner, San Francisco School Board of Education - San Francisco Unified School District Matt Wayne, superintendent, San Francisco Unified School District Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, forum listeners, it's Mina. I have exciting news. We're taking forum beyond the airwaves,
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0:24.5	Greetings, boomtown.
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0:38.6	Actual speeds vary. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:57.4	Running any urban school district is tough, but in San Francisco, the task is particularly brutal this year.
1:03.9	There's a huge budget deficit and no obviously painless ways to close it.
1:08.3	The key structural problem is that enrollment is declining,
1:11.1	4,000 students since the pandemic,
1:13.5	and thousands more relative to the early 2000s.
1:16.6	So the district has more infrastructure
1:19.1	than it needs to support the current number of students,
1:21.8	and that's a problem that's mirrored in many communities
1:24.4	across our region.
1:25.8	What should SFUSD do?
1:28.2	Superintendent Matt Wayne is here to answer some of the big questions
	...

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