San Francisco school board members ousted in parental backlash

San Francisco voters have recalled three school board members who spurred a parental backlash for pursuing the renaming of schools and other progressive policy changes as classrooms remained empty during the coronavirus pandemic.

Initial returns Tuesday night showed that voters overwhelmingly voted "yes" to recall Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga, three of the board's seven members — 79 percent voted to remove Collins, 75 percent to remove Lopez and 73 percent to remove Moliga. The early results were dramatic enough that backers quickly declared victory and Moliga acknowledged his apparent defeat.

The outcome in one of the nation's most liberal cities signaled that education issues remain a potent motivator for voters two years into the coronavirus pandemic, with midterm and gubernatorial elections on the horizon.

"The voters of this City have delivered a clear message that the School Board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else," said San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who supported the recall, in a statement. "San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well."

Breed will get to appoint the three replacements to the school board.

Schools in San Francisco remained shuttered longer than in most other cities, even in California. Students there did not return full time to the classroom until last August

As distance learning dragged on, school board members drew national ridicule as they moved to rename dozens of institutions, including Abraham Lincoln High School. A push to end merit-based admissions at the prestigious Lowell High School infuriated some parents and drew derisive national coverage; Collins raised the temperature further by suing the district for $87 million after she was penalized for an old tweet accusing Asian-Americans of “using white supremacist thinking to get ahead.”

Recall proponents, which included Breed and state Sen. Scott Wiener, wielded a significant financial advantage as a deep-pocketed tech executives, real estate interests and prominent charter school backer Arthur Rock channeled some $2 million toward the effort.

Supporters of the targeted school board members argued their vigilance helped keep coronavirus rates and outbreaks low and that the recall election was a waste of money.

California has not yet gone as far as other Democratic-led states that have dissolved student mask mandates. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has promised to release a timeline at the end of the month, and the Legislature will consider controversial legislation broadly making coronavirus vaccines a prerequisite for in-person learning.