SF parents cry foul over proposed early childhood education budget cuts

SAN FRANCISCO – There’s a tug of war in San Francisco between Mayor London Breed’s office and early education advocates over a voter-approved business tax and proposed budget cuts. 

For more than 30 years Andy Reed has been guiding children to see the world from different perspectives, make good decisions, and lay a solid foundation for their education.

“It’s always fresh. It’s always a new discovery no matter how many years we’ve done it,” said Reed.

Childcare advocates said the mayor’s proposed $50 million in cuts to the city’s Department of Early Childhood will harm recent progress and jeopardize facility upgrades, assistance for low to middle income families, and stabilizing educators salaries through professional development.

“I know so many people in this profession who have left to go into tech or real estate or any other industry so they could afford to still live here in the Bay Area,” said Reed.

Preschool administrators and parents are outraged, saying funds for early childcare are being ripped away from what residents voted for in 2018 known as Baby Prop C, a commercial rent tax to fund early childhood education. 

 “We partially receive a scholarship to go here. For us that’s helpful.  It’s necessary because childcare is so expensive,” said Courtney Hight.

Cuts to childcare are on the table… to help fill empty offices which has become a “crisis’ ‘ according to Mayor London Breed. 

The idea is to give a tax exemption for sub-lessees as an incentive and help address a near 30% office vacancy rate, the highest among major cities in the country.

 “Eventually there’s a tipping point. This is not sustainable to keep adding tax after tax after tax,” said Breed. 

Breed says current childcare services, or teacher salaries won’t be impacted and that the Department of Early Childhood is sitting on a surplus of funds in the $400 million range, collected over the years.

 “They’re not even able to spend some of the money they were allocated for the current fiscal year,” said Breed.

But early education advocates are quick to point out those funds had been frozen until recently.

“I really worry about San Francisco. We need to expand childcare.  This is going to mean it will contract.  That’s not good,” said Phoebe Hearst Preschool Executive Director Irene Byrne.

For Reed, the longtime teacher is concerned about other childcare facilities with limited resources.

“Not very many small programs have the reserves to weather it and come out the other side,” said Reed.

Breed says there’s a “double dipping” from this rent tax, emphasizing the tax exemption is only for sublessees and that the tax paid by the original lessee is not being amended.

Childcare advocates disagree with how the Mayor is portraying this, saying no single business is being taxed twice.

Negotiations between the Mayor’s office and childcare advocates are ongoing