actually taken out from home by i.c.e. i have another student that actually died by using drugs because he had no remedy, nothing, no services, so this funding is not for us, just educators, but it's to provide the services that our minorities and our students -- all of our students need. so i ask you to please consider putting that money where it's needed. this is one of the richest cities in the state of california. that money should be there. thank you very much. >> chair fewer: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. jordan davis, and i really think we need to grow the pie. supervisors of this city, ronen, haney, and mar, i'm here to ask -- we ask for a 171.4 million for the prop c bridge, and we can do both,

teachers and housing together. as you know, i am transgender, formerly homeless and disabled. and when i was out on the streets, i didn't care much about these austerity lies. we could end transgender homelessness with only 13.5 million, according to a little birdie that came in my ear over five years. furthermore, aside from the lost hospital that is st. mary's being inhumane and not reimbursement by prop c, any hospital receiving government funding raises the bells for me as a transgender. it's time we get together and advocate for teachers and housing together and stop being

miserly. when people can't afford to live here, and people are homeless, it's time to cut the bullshit and grow the pie. >> i just have to echo what the previous speaker said. grow the pie. our senior and disability action, you know, one of our priorities -- and it's a very big priority is deeply affordable housing and mental health services. i know that the conservatorship issue is going to be coming to rules committee sometime very, very soon. before you consider that, first consider voluntary mental health and substance use services to fund those and give those priorities a chance to work. again, education, housing, all of these things, there's so much of a need, and -- and in

themselves, all of them have priority. so again, let's grow the pot. we have a lot of smart folks in this room. we can figure a way out to figure out a way to get equity for all these communities that are in need. thanks very much. >> chair fewer: thank you, tony. next speaker, please. >> hello. i'm here to talk from the heart and for humanity. and there are homeless people out there on the streets without a shelter, which is an essential need, shelter. we all need a place to live, a place to lay our head. only then can we start to fulfill our needs emotionally and mentally, physically. there's people out there suffering with no toilets, and i -- i think, as far as

humanity, it's something that we're supposed to do. we're supposed to take care of our fellow brothers and sisters and so we have to think from the heart and fill our hearts. the money -- there's enough money in the pie for homeless and for teachers that need to get paid. if it wasn't for teachers, we all wouldn't be here right now, not having any kind of education. so with that -- and i also think we need to -- testifiers and -- and lower income homeless people need to work together and don't -- there's enough money for both. thank you. >> chair fewer: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello, supervisors. thank you and good morning. my name is curtis bradford, and i am the cochair of the

tenderloin people's congress. yeah, the message from me is grow the pie, grow the pie. the truth is pitting teachers against the homeless people who are suffering on our streets is, in my opinion, irresponsible, unnecessary, and frankly kind of ugly, right? we're better than that. there is enough money to do both, and -- and there is a crisis out there, and it's part of a rainy day fund. take the five-minute walk over to my neighborhood in the tenderloin and tell me this is not a rainy day. tell me this is not a rainy day. if you're one of the people laying out there right now -- excuse me, i started to cuss. it's a real rainy day. in fact, i don't know if you know, but we in the tenderloin know we had somebody die right in our streets in this last rain storm, laying there, on card board, in a doorway, cold,

wet, and alone. and if that person had had a shelter bed, i'm not certain, but i suspect if that person had had a shelter bed and access to services, they would still be alive today. so we can do better, we have to do better. there's enough money to do both. let's just get this done. thank you. >> chair fewer: thanks. next speaker, please. >> hello. my name's theresa cooper, and i'm here to support our city, our home. i'm in a group that's called singers of the streets. we are a homeless singer group. we help people out, we give them a meal. it's not really people in city hall, it's religious people that have cared enough about the people that died, cared

enough that they are on the street, and to ring a bell for them. if we are not here to support individuals that live here in our city, i don't know what we are here for because if we're going to keep massaging the rich and hold onto all the money because other people are not worthy or they don't hold positions of authority, as a group, we have come together. our city is -- definitely has a mental health crisis. hello, i have a great time on muni or sfmta. the other mayor said, are we safe in this city? well, not if you've got a mental health person talking about beating people down because they don't have support, talking about beating people down. the fact that we don't have bathrooms -- all you have to do it look to l.a. to see the diseases that it caused, and

people are definitely urinating in the drains. health problem. >> chair fewer: thank you. next speaker, please. >> greetings. first and foremost, i want to acknowledge the indigenous land that we stand on, and their slavery. and lastly i want to acknowledge those impacted by the cleerl actions of the united states. my name is reynoldo, and i live in district eight. i deserve and our students deserve, the narrative being pushed by the supervisors and the issues pushed against the homeless and educators, funds are needed in both and at all areas. at my site, there are houses with staff and students. you can't be comreply sit in

the name of funding ed and finding solutions to houselessness. i think it is shameful to be comreply s complicit and explicit. thurgood marshall's an academic high school. it's a hard-to-staff school. please do not make it harder to staff by impacting our wages and limiting our resources. thank you. >> chair fewer: thank you very much. next speaker. >> my name is faisah chapelle, and i live in district five, of supervisor vallie brown. i've only worked at hard-to-staff schools in the

tenderloin, bayview, and the mission. for me to afford a high quality preschool, i have to send my twins to school in oakland. prop g -- before prop g was passed, i was offered a position in redwood city making $7500 a year. i didn't want to accept it, because how could i live with myself, knowing i was leaving our students in the hands of another teacher or worse, l long-term subssubs. students are experiencing incredible trauma. they struggle academically.

homeless need beds in this city, but they need schools, to be the structural and safe setting so they can ultimately learn. vallie brown, i, a black public schoolteacher who started her career in sfusd, i have two teaching credentials from s.f. state and national certification, i won't be able to afford my two kids to go to presill in my own community. please consider the funding necessary to fund our public schools. black teachers matter, blood count students matter. thank you. >> chair fewer: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i was born in tijuana, baja california.

i am an immigrant when i came here age 11. i brought myself through berkeley, community college, and i am a fighter. and i'm here looking at your faces. i should be at my classroom looking at my students and working with my students. but i have to step out of my classroom to remind you that you have the power to fund us. you -- historically, this moment, you have the power. i don't think you should have the power. i don't think we should be kicked in the stomach by someone in irvine who filed a lawsuit because they don't believe in public education. i want to know if our supervisors believe in public education, that if they have my back and they have my students' back. i thought san francisco was better than this. i'm just upset that i should be with my students, smiling at them, but i am here, and i don't want to be here.

i don't want to be talking about why we should be funded. i've been fighting my eviction. as you know, i am barely hanging on here. i have a seven-year-old boy, and i can relate to everyone who has to put their kids through preschool and pay $900 a month. we butt boots on the street. the voters voted for -- put boots on the street. the voters voted for prop g, and here it is. you should do the right thing and support the voters and support our public teachers that should not be here in the first place. they should be in the classroom taking care of their students. >> chair fewer: next speaker. >> good morning. my name is earline de santiago. see if i can make this work. okay. i worked for 22 years at the

san francisco unified school district as a second career. i am now retired, and i work as a day-to-day substitute teacher as well as at uesf. just want to share with you that i am in support of you as well as the supervisors of san francisco. looking at the funds, 180,000 -- million, dividing them equitiablely, i serve as the chair for another institution, when you work with the budget, you know that it is sometimes hard, but i'm asking you how can you justify not treating education and homelessness equitiablely. just want to share one incident with you. last week, i worked at a school

site over on the eastern side of the city. this is actually a school that i originally started working in when i first became a teacher in san francisco. what i noticed was that as a result of the passing of proposition g, the retention at that school site -- i think there was only one teacher that had to be replaced this year. the benefits of proposition g allowed the teachers to stay. while i was there, i have to say the children surprised me. they came up, and they said, how about lunch bunch? i said lunch bunch, what's that? they said, can we have lunch with you. so i thought one maybe would be --

[inaudible] >> chair fewer: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> i support everybody who's spoken here. i'm a native, i went to san francisco unified schools. i also am a resident of visitacion valley, and i was also homeless here after getting out of the service in the 90's, and i recovered from that through the v.a. and through swords to plow shares. i am proud to be here in support for our teachers, but i'm hoping you can find funding to fund this windfall. it's a project that's been in planning since 1994. i personally have been involved since 1996, and that's maseo may apartments. it's a shovel ready project, and with a 16-to 18-month

construction period, and it's $10.9 million short of that goal. it's shovel ready, and we would like to see that on the list. i know there are other veterans here that are in support of that, so i'll cede my time to somebody else. but thank you. >> chair fewer: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is linda antwon, and i know a lot of you all know me. i'm here on behalf of carver mission high school, and my child's providers, southeast health center, dr. williams. i'm here because if we do not help our kids, how is our kids supposed to grow? and i feel like the providers is there to help our kids to grow and help, but our teachers is here to help our kids grow to learn to go out in the world and get what they want. i feel like san francisco has

failed us because we all are voting for you that don't live on our side of san francisco. so until you walk in our shoes, the rent that we have to pay -- we don't have walmart out here. we don't have all this extra stuff as if we live out -- and i'm not going to leave here. i've been here since 1963, and i don't plan on leaving here. i want my kids to have what i had: schools that's going to help them, doctors that's going to help them. in order to go to school, they have to be healthy and do the other things they need to do otherwise they get sick. i want help from my schools, teachers. one of my students -- i have straight-a students in the class. don't you know, one of my

straight-a students snapped. when you drive home tonight, you get on that bridge, i want you to think about what my child had to do because i don't want to take that risk to go over the bridge because basically i don't have the gas to go over there. so look at me. my name is linda. i helped build carver doors and walls. i'm tired of coming here and everything that we want, you all slap it under the rug. [inaudible] >> chair fewer: thank you, linda. i'd like to call a couple other names. lottie titus, sabrina frierson -- [inaudible] >> chair fewer: -- david strother, latiita blanc, tyron

king, betty robinson harris, deedee workman. thank you very much. >> good afternoon. my name is michael lee. today, i stand before you as a community -- as a formerly homeless person. i came over here first of all today to acknowledge jeff kosinsky whose dedication and leadership to he rad indicating homelessness in san francisco is inspirational, and the board of supervisors should be emulating his example. this is not an issue of

teachers versus homeless people. grow the pie. you want to talk about a rainy day? the other day in the south of market, in the midst of a rain storm, sfpd was evicting homeless people into the street. this time, they didn't take their tents. normally, they do. rainy day? it's not only a rainy day, it's a morally bankrupt policy which the city of san francisco is pursuing to terrorize homeless people. it is morally bankrupt. so when you talk about a rainy day fund, all you have to do is come out on the streets with myself or calle cutler or anyone from this coalition on homelessness, and we will show you a rainy day. it is morally bankrupt to continue that policy and to

exacerbate it by pitting teachers against homeless people. we need to link arms in order to improve the quality of life for both housed and unhoused citizens here in this city of san francisco. [inaudible] [applaus [applause] [inaudible] >> chair fewer: thank you for your comments, sir. thank you. next speaker, please. [inaudible] [applause] >> good morning, supervisors. my name is judith baker. i've worked in early childhood education since 1967, and i'm still working.

i support funding for the homeless, for sfusd educators and we are also asking for 20 million for early childhood educators for compensation. i'm quoting from a teacher, a preschoolteacher who can't be here. she said preschool educators are couch hopping, having our students go without medical and dental needs due to the high cost of living, and we're repaying school loans for the benefit of families we serve. i also want to speak for the children. the number of times i've had mothers come to the office saying my child is crying and doesn't want me to leave, and i have to leave to go to work. so i go to the classroom and hold the crying child so the parent can leave knowing that the reason the child is crying is the teacher has left and we

don't know when we will get a replacement. 20 million so this does not continue to happen. thank you. >> hi, supervisors. my name is theresa arreaga, i am the executive director for public schools. next door for being with parents for public schools, i'm a native, spent 20-plus years working community and college access. i'm here today because we were early supporters of prop c and prop g -- baby prop c and prop g, knowing that our young people need people in the classroom and safe spaces to learn and grow, and only then can our families do what they need to do to succeed in this city. growing up in this city, i

didn't realize until i went away to college that my experience was unique. i think these critical systems of early education and k-12 are so important. so i'm here to urge you to vote considerable resources out of awac to these areas. as other people have said, there's no reason for us to be fighting each other. this pie can be big enough. property taxes dedicated to k-12 are only 33% compared to 54% statewide, and early ed, even lower. so please, support our families, support our children, help us continue to be a place where we can live and learn and grow. thank you. >> i just want to say that strong schools build strong

communities. and strong schools support kids. we have some awesome, wonderful teachers in san francisco. we have wonderful programs in our schools in san francisco. there are amazing things going on in san francisco schools. in the 25 years that i've been teaching in the district, i have seen a district that goes from teachers living close to the communities that they work in, having the time to give extra time after school to work and to give more to their students to a situation where teachers are living far away across the bridge and leaving the school district because they can't afford to live here anymore. in the last couple of years, last year or so, we actually

hear voices from teachers who say they are going to say. you know, continuity is what makes our program strong. when people leave, they can't build relationships with kids, with the community. they keep us strong. so i just -- my name is julia fong. i didn't say that before. i work in district four. i'm a seventh grade teacher at lawton k-8, and i really want you to remember our schools and support on yur schools. thank you. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the board of supervisors. first of all, i'd like to thank you, those what are not on the budget and finance committee to hear this. i think it's important. this year is the 50th year since i began teaching in san francisco at james denman -- at

that time junior high school. i've seen everyone in the district receive a layoff notice, i've seen 1,000 people layoff notices. i've seen layoff notices go out for just enough people so we would qualify for expending rainy day funds. now, we have turned things around. during the time that i was in the eusf presidency -- uesf presidency, i had a drawing done by a second grade girl. it showed classrooms, it showed students, and the legend said a classroom is a place where you have students, desks, but most of all, you have a teacher. what we are asking for is full funding of the $60 million that

we need to get through 2021 with the 7% raise that they've earned. we need that to continue having teachers in the classroom to continue the wonderful things that you've heard here. i hope you will do the right thing and fully support the $60 million that is needed for the schools. thank you. >> hello. my name is santos moreira, and i'm here today to ask that you respectfully balance the budget and help maintain the diversity of san francisco by keeping families here. just real quick, it's -- you know, this is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and on $15 an hour, that's only

about $30,000 a year. it's pretty difficult to get to the next stages, so any money that could be afforded to the teachers, it goes -- excuse me. i'm a little nervous -- the teachers that need to be supported, and also, it shouldn't be a crime to be homeless or to be in a difficult situation, so with all due respect, please balance the budget. thank you. >> hello. my name is a.j., and i'm blessed to be here in this sanctuary city. i may be just passing through, but i have learned a lot, and i came here to learn in a sanctuary city and homelessness manner. however i may be homeless, but i'm not a bum, but i've learned

from fools and from sages, and i also learned a lot from education as i graduated from cal state long beach with honors and on the dean's list. what i shall say is this. i have learned much in the streets, and i have learned much in the classroom, however, we are in the school of life. if the rainy day fund is so rainy as the winter wind blowing an apple or fruit off of this free to form some sort of pie that creates a surplus, forgive us our trespasses. let's eat the pie together because the fruit may have fallen from the tree next door and if we're not sure where the tree may have came from, or the

fruit. i may not know the antidote, and i might need some direct information from a more educated individual than i, however, we may share and eat together. let's use the rainy, wet money. if it's rainy, it's slippery. the law may be reduced. no matter which way you cut that pie, it's going to be a tricky situation regardless. so let's eat together. amen. [applause] >> chair fewer: thank you, sir. >> my name is mari del luna. i have been a child advocate for over two decades. here in the city, there are no child care options without

subsidies, and i was working my dream jobs supporting students with disabilities and finding dream jobs and i couldn't afford making it on my salary as an educator. i still struggle with gameful employment through the sky rocketing costs of housing and child care costs. my child and i have spend dozens of hours dropping off literature at thousands of homes in san francisco. i'm born and raised in this city, and i'm one of the few families who actually still left in the city, fighting every day to stay here. i am fighting for the next generations like my child to have access to quality,

affordable child care in san francisco t francisco. the lawsuit that's happening with all of our funding is a slap in the face to everyone that's going to try to stay in the city. let's fulfill the will of the voters right here, parents, students, teachers, right here. i'm here to fight for what the voters want and what all parents have been saying across the nation. i heard that there's about 50 million that you are talking to go for education. please specify what that is so we don't have to fight each other, okay? specify what's child care and what's specified for public education. think about the parents, think about the students. thank you. >> my name's julie roberts-fong. i'm one of the founders of the san francisco parents families union. i want to say that k-12 and public school needs are happening to all the same

families. there's about 2,000 families homeless in sfusd and many of them are in our schools. $140 million property tax windfall is key to making sure that everyone in our city is paying their fair share. it was an opportunity that voters validated to focus resources on all of its priorities, including funds for community school strategies at 20 schools that serve half of the black students in san francisco. i'm hearing that in proposition five today that supervisors are working on a deal that would dedicate money to housing, preschool, and k-12 school, and i'm cautiously optimistic about that. i'm hoping we'll be able to thank supervisors for keeping

prop g whole and for allowing us to meet our students and families needs. however, this isn't over for families because it sounds like even with the best proposal right now, it doesn't specify what dollars will go to leadership and what funding will be going to k-12. what we're asking today is that you clarify -- you take the leadership and clarify what is included for preschool and what is included for k-12 so that families continue to advocate together and we make sure that all of our needs are met. thank you. >> good morning, madam chair, members of the committee. my name is delores terrazas.

i am the division director of the institute for children, youth, and families. i am the chairman of mission economic agency. i also want to recognize everyone that has spoken before me who has spoken with passion and eloquently about the issues. the early education community is the beginning of the pipeline of education, so there is not really a differentiation. what we need it parity and equity -- is parity and equity in funding. what i'm here to request is that you allocate $30 million for workforce development and compensation. we cannot sustain the gains we made in family support, in housing, in policy that will

sustain workers in this city if we don't have a compensation strategy that is cogent, that is significant, and that will be attractive enough to support the families -- the children of the families that we care for. you have on your -- on your supervisor table people that have expertise, information, data that supports what i'm saying. if you'd like, we can provide that to you again with any other information that you would care to here. thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is kevin miller. i'm a district 11 resident, and i just wrapped up a four-year term on the veteran affairs commission here in san francisco. i'm here in port of our city, our home, and here to specifically speak on behalf of

source to plowshares, where i serve as their communication managers. they're a pie ner in serving at risk and homeless -- pioneer in serve at-risk and homeless veterans. over the last few years, we've done a lot to reduce veteran homelessness here in the city from when the late mayor ed lee made his promise and joined other communities across the u.s. to end veteran homelessness. in the last six years, we've opened housing sites from the veteran commons in the mission district area. the 250 kearny in the financial district area which serves over 130 veterans and also have opened the fairfax which is a permit supportive housing site and safe haven site, but we still have lots of work to do. we still have a plan to actually get to that functional

zero number. and with that, my chief operating officer mentioned earlier that we do have a shovel ready project in treasure island ready to go. it's just short about $10 million of funding, and we're asking that some of this windfall money be dedicated to this project to get dozens more veterans off the streets into permanent, supportive units with the services they need to stay off the streets and maintained in housing. so thank you for your time and i hope you guys consider our proposal. >> prop g is about dignity. prop g means i can save money for the first time in my life. i still pay half my take-home

pay for rent. prop g means i can get my master's degree, develop as a professional and help make sfusd a world-class place to get an education. prop g means that katie, a colleague of mine and d-2 constituent, currently teaching with a multiple subject credential can pay tuition for the single subject math credential she needs to prepare kids for stem in the 21st century. before prop g, paraprofessional churn was devastating. paraturnover prevents or high needs special education students from developing deep relationships of trust with the staff that supports them. before prop g, we lost amazing teachers every year. just in the last two years, we've lost a veteran sped teacher. we've lost a costa rican

teacher who understood the central american refugees we teach better than anyone. we lost a native egyptian science teacher who supported our yemeni students like no other to another metro area. please support us. our students, families, and educators are counting on you. thank you. >> good morning, board of supervisors. my name is nancy obregon, and i'm a native san franciscan. i became a teacher 25 years ago so that students could see their lives through me. for 21 years i taught at leonard flynn in the mission elementary school district, and for the last two years i've been teaching at willie brown. today i'm here to tell you

about the difference prop g has made. -- i was excited to be a founding teacher and looked forward to what the year would bring. we knew there would be challenges being a new school, having new teachers and having to support some of our most underserved students in the city. what we didn't expect was the amount of staff thattest wi le including the principal, in the first year. the second here, the same happened. i know you may have read about it in the paper. willie brown has had its ups and downs, but fortunately, we now have a principal that has been with us two years. although we've still managed to lose a significant number of teachers at the end of the year. when teachers live, it impacts

student teacher connections at the end of the year -- no. some of our students from bayview-hunters point, one of our most socioeconomically challenged neighborhoods having enough instablity in their lives and deserve better. students experiencing homelessness are affected the most. they deserve safe and supportive classrooms in order to build and maintain healthy connections with teachers and other support staff. this academic he year, prop g, we were able to hire -- [inaudible] >> hello. i'm erica ray. i live in district one. thank you for allowing me to give my personal testimony on why i believe san francisco educators deserve a portion of the education and revenue augmentation funds. first, i must stress that these

are excess educational funds. to not give back some of those funds to education seems unthinkable to me. i live and work in san francisco. that gets harder every year. in 2017, my husband was laid off for nearly a year. we accrued a sizeable debt. i seriously considered moving. luckily my husband was reemployed at his business, and the prop g funds that added to my salary this year have made it possible for me to start paying back on my debt and make me more secure. i don't have rent control. i am a moderate special ed teacher at lincoln high school. i rely on paraprofessionals to work with my autistic students, seven of which require aides. there is a severe shortage of

special educators and especially in the mod-severe category. a competitive wage is the only way we can attract and keep new educators in san francisco unified. the prop g addition -- add-on has made san francisco unified more competitive. second, i know the mayor wants the bulk of these funds earmarked for homelessness. sharing funds with teachers isn't taking away supports from homeless, it's just another way to help, and thank you for your time, and i hope this -- we get your support. thank you. >> good morning. my name is lee may lovett. as a long-term educator, i want to set the record straight.

this is not a windfall, it's a long-term surplus, and our property taxes are not going down any time soon. now, my son's teacher has said that she was on t.v. talking about how difficult it was for teachers to live in san francisco in cramped rooms and small inlaws, and when i hear that, it's not just a personal story, it's systemic because two thirds of teachers say they have to pay more than 30% of their income in rent. and so when you lose one out of eight teachers from the classrooms every year, not to mention all the paras, all the staff outside the classrooms who provide so much support -- and not to mention all the early childhood educators, i've worked with 1,000 of them, this is a true crisis. you have to look at education in a really systemic way, how

we support our educators and our communities. so i have two asks. when you build housing, prioritize educators. we need to do so much more. and second of all, fund education beyond the bare minimum because that money for professional development that i just went through yesterday at the college is so critical for no teachers -- new teachers, people in high-needs schools. this teacher training is essential for early childhood educators. again, i've worked with so many to understand you need the training for special ed, for understanding that we need to support the youngest and most vulnerable in this community. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. i'm retired -- recently retired teacher of about 40 years from sfusd. i am an immigrant, and i was raised in san francisco since i was five years old, and i also

have two children that attended san francisco unified from kindergarten through 12th grade. i know how difficult teaching can be. it can be brutal, and it can be rewarding. i am a mother and a teacher, so i can tell you firsthand that teachers are essential partners in the raising of our children. teachers are not asking for the whole pie, just one or two slices. barely one-third. teachers will leave. many have already left. it is mostly the young, energyic, enthusiastic teachers that will leave, not us old people. all they are asking for is to be able to afford to live in the city so that they continue working in sfusd. the students and families in san francisco unified will be greatly affected. we will start out the next academic year with classrooms with without permanent teachers. these classrooms will be personed by various teachers. including substitute reachers,

resource -- teachers, resource teachers, as well as sometimes administrators, as well as being divided up into small groups and parcelled out to other classrooms. the students never recover from these disasters. many of them are pulled out by the families and taken to private and charter schools. right now in san francisco, teachers are receiving a very hurtful message from you. they feel unappreciated and betrayed, and they just want to be able to plan their future without a stable salary that meets the housing needs in san francisco. they cannot stay here. budgets are statements of values. what are your values? please, please walk the talk. >> good afternoon. i'm from district eight, and i worked on baby c, and i'm glad

to be here. i'm retired as a family child care provider, but i felt as though being a teacher is one of the most valuable and wonderful things that we can be, and i wanted to come here because i'm, like, very surprised that there's even a question of how much should be spent for education. i recognized here in the chambers my program of 27 years of being a family child care provider, and i do know that right now, it's at a tipping point where it's unsustainable for educators and parents. frederick douglass made an

important statement. it's easier to build strong children than repair broken man. teachers' salaries are dead last among the state's districts. among all the countless reforms tried over the years, smaller schools, smaller classes, beautiful new buildings, the one that correlates more reliably with good studento outcome is the presence of good teachers and principals that are consistent. san francisco allocates a small percentage of its educational budget to teachers salaries and other educational expenses, 41% compared to 63%. the average earnings of rk woulders with four years of college are over 50% higher than the average earnings of teachers. something to think about. teachers deserve to feel respected and supported in their lives. thank you.

>> good morning, board of supervisors. my name is lita blanc. i am a resident of district eight. i am a retired teacher, teaching almost 38 years in the mission district, and in those years, i witnessed the critical importance of providing our students with stable environments where they can count on experienced educators in the classrooms. the impact of prop g was immediately fell this fall when classrooms were fully staffedtor the first time in many years. i want to step back almost two years when supervisor ronen held a hearing on the impact the affordability crisis was having on those teaching in our schools. over 60 teachers and parahe d paraeducators lined up to tell their stories barely being able to make ends meet. one factor of that has changed.

the political leadership of the city, along with uesf along with sfusd and the community that supported us waged a campaign to establish an ongoing income stream so that educators would be able to continue to do the work they love. the voters of san francisco overwhelmingly supported prop g because they understand that educators are at the heart of students' success. so i am afraid of the impact of a pay cut to those hard working individuals. imagine what those people will do if they are forced to take a pay cut because the elected leaders of san francisco chose to not prioritize education. thank you very much. do the right thing. >> my name is stephen, and i

teach a special day class for students that we currently refer to moderate to severe extensive support needs. san francisco teachers are expected to earn teaching credentials, masters degrees, rack up thousands in student loans, and we're expected to lead the future of san francisco, earning significantly less than our peers in other industries. this has created a vicious cycle that for most san franciscans is out of sight and out of mind. but if we can turn our attention away from the latest apps and the hottest hipster hangouts, we would see that more and more teachers are leaving this city every single year and this is robbing our students of the consistency

that so many districts are able to offer. [please stand by] -- i'm a parent very committed to san francisco. in this role i'm a special educator at lowell high school and in my role at lowell, not only have i seen many teachers come and go because they can't

afford to live here, very skilled and talented teacher, but i'm affected by the para-professional crisis as well. they're paid even less than teachers and i have gone years, twice, without a para-professional in my program. and my students need a para-professional to gain or to achieve full education. as a parent, i have seen the importance of teacher consistency. my son in elementary school in are, in his six years of elementary school, went through three first-year teachers that have since left the district. so he had skilled teachers some years and he had learning teachers that left. and that dramatically affected his achievement, not only in school but liking school, the community of school. with the prop-g funding, without the funding the city will return to the crisis of not being able to attract and retain new teachers.

we -- not only are teachers leaving the district to go to other places, families are also, because of the teacher shortage in san francisco, families are leaving the district. and we need to reinstate the funding for prop-g to keep things going in the right direction. thank you. >> good morning, thank you for your time, esteemed members of the board. i am kia roy king and i teach alongside hard-working and dedicated and brilliant teachers of lowell high school. i represent them here today. we're asking for $60 million, one-third, one to share with the measures and programs currently under attack. we all know the value of teachers. we all remember at least one who helped to shape who we are today. my path to becoming a teacher was formed in the fifth grade by

miss cheryl cork. not only does miss cork teach us though she was on stage, she was witty and fun in her no-nonsense way. i had struggled with attention and she was the only african american teacher that i had from kindergarten through high school and my experience of learning from her, with her, vastly improved my self-esteem as a young black boy growing up in the 1980s on the peninsula. i saw myself in her. i catch myself most emulating her when i'm guiding my students at wallenberg. and i always wanted to consider to teach at sfsud. and my son is a first grader at the civil rights academy. the salary that the district could offer at the time made a dream of becoming a public schoolteacher impossible. as proposition g was under consideration last year i took and passed nine tests to be qualified to teach in the district with the confidence that san francisco voters would give teachers a living wage.

this year at wallenberg has been transformative for me. most of my students never had a black math teacher and i am reminded of my experience as a 10-year-old kid in miss cork's classroom. for the first time i am blessed to teach students of multiple races, religions and national origins. i ask that you support us. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is bailey robinson-harris. i'm an early education teacher working with young children in san francisco for over 44 years. in every neighborhood with children that were toddlers to 12 year olds, private, for-profit and non-profit and finally here in san francisco i