SF Parent Coalition hosts Mayoral Candidate Forum

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - San Francisco's mayor and four other City Hall hopefuls fielded questions during a public forum in the city's Richmond District on Monday. The forum was hosted by the SF Parent Coalition at George Washington High School.

"I will always prioritize investing in our young people," said San Francisco Mayor London Breed, responding to a question about how to best attract and retain city teachers. "We need to build housing all over the city, because the people that we’re able to attract and to retain, need affordable places to live."

Also attending the forum were former interim mayor Mark Farrell, San Francisco supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safai, and philanthropist Daniel Lurie.

"They’ve created such a crazy bureaucracy that we can’t build enough housing for our artists and our teachers, and our principals. When I’m your mayor, I am going to make sure that we get more housing built all over this city, on time and on budget," said Lurie.

Supervisors Peskin and Safai were asked about the District’s plan to shutter a number of schools amid dropping enrollment.

"In politics, I have realized just how profoundly important, what a sacred underpinning to democracy, public education is," said Peskin. "It is why I start with a bias towards keeping our schools open, because I worry that once they’re closed, they’re never going to be reopened."

"I would rather see a plan where we talk about restructuring the size of our middle schools, shifting over to more K through 8 models in the city," said Safai.

The final candidate to take the stage was Farrell, who took on a question about whether homeless families deserve special support in order to help keep their kids in the classroom.

"Those situations tug at your heart strings, more than anything I’ve ever seen, and so the support that we can lend them… prioritizing from a shelter capacity perspective…that to me has to be a priority. They deserve special attention, and we should be giving them that," said Farrell.