As San Diego Unified deals with a budget deficit recently estimated at $113 million, it’s no surprise that leaders of the state’s second-largest school district would focus on finances. But if board Sabrina Bazzo, Richard Barrera, Shana Hazan, Cody Petterson and Sharon Whitehurst-Payne want to live up to all their many prior proclamations about the welfare of students being their top priority, that must not be their only focus.
Instead, it’s absolutely crucial that they address student safety. In August, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights reported the district had failed to properly handle a single one of the 253 formal allegations of students being sexually harassed and/or assaulted from 2017 to 2020. The district’s response was to blame a shortage of qualified staff and to beef up related resources.
But the notion that it takes specialized training to know the difference between right and wrong — to know that sexual harassment and assault are, you know, awful — deserves guffaws. It is cover for the fact that the district abjectly failed in its responsibilities under state and federal laws. Heads should have rolled. Instead, vague “mistakes were made” rhetoric, especially from Bazzo, is still all that concerned parents get as an explanation.
The second additional focus trustees need to have is even more important. That’s on the question of how well the district is preparing students for life after high school. The oft-heard narrative that SDUSD is close to a model school district is ed by some evaluations, most recently by the Educational Results Partnership. Yet one of San Diego’s most impressive local educators — Shirley Weber, now California’s secretary of state — never was a believer. When she was an Assembly member, she scoffed at the district’s claim of a 91% graduation rate in 2016. The former San Diego school board chair knew all the tricks that districts — and the state Department of Education — have to push up rates and sell positive talking points.
Her scathing critique came to mind in November, when state officials released a huge trove of statistical data on public schools. Some 88% of SDUSD students were reported to have graduated earlier in 2024. But only 63% of graduates were considered prepared for college or careers under state criteria. So how did the 37% of graduates who were unprepared get degrees? There is no conceivable explanation that reflects well on Bazzo, Barrera, Hazan, Petterson and Whitehurst-Payne.
Yes, public schools face immense challenges. But that doesn’t excuse the self-serving obfuscations and happy talk that constantly flow from the education establishment.
