Gavin Newsom announced that he will be giving the unspent dollars from the City’s Public Campaign Finance fund, estimated up to $6 million, to provide tutoring and afterschool help to sixth graders in SFUSD with a promise that if they follow the prescribed program that they can enroll into San Francisco State after they graduate from high school.

Newsom has coined this the “San Francisco Promise.” Various news media stated that the program is being offered to all sixth grade students who follow the requirements of the program. But the Mayor’s own press release states, “This level of support will require between $800 - $2,300 per eligible student, per year. The estimate is that in the first year, 350 6th graders (20% of the approximately 1,735 eligible 6th graders) will commit to S.F. Promise, at a cost of $525,000. The goal is to expand the program to include all eligible 6th graders in the subsequent years.”

Yesterday’s Examiner reported that the program is being only offered initially to students who test “basic” or “below basic” on the California Standardized tests and who commit to the tutoring and after-school programs. “So-called San Francisco Promise” doesn’t provide them with their college tuition (only admission into San Francisco State University.)

There is also a great deal of discussion by the Board of Supervisors on the Mayor deciding to spend city funds earmarked to have clean elections on a campaign promise to help get support from parents-without talking with the people who hold the purse strings first (the Board of Supervisors).

The other people that the Mayor did not include in his decision were the Board of Education (except for his liaison to the Board, Hydra Mendoza). Since Superintendent Garcia committed to this program with only Commissioner Mendoza’s initial acceptance, this may become an issue between the Superintendent and the Board of Education.

Mayor Newsom is stating that he is designing the program to reflect the Kalamazoo Promise. But the “Kalamazoo Promise” provided all students from grades K-12 who had entered Kalmazoo public schools for a certain length of time and who graduated from Kalamazoo public schools up to a four-year ride to any public university in Michigan. Other cities have followed suit.

It would be interesting to see if there will be a firestorm in San Francisco which will result in bad publicity for the Mayor, since only a limited number of parents have children in the sixth grade in public schools.

So here is the difference between Kalamazoo’s and San Francisco’s promise:

Kalamazoo’s Promise

Funds from local businessmen who contributed anonymously to the fund

Funds went to the tutition of K-12 students who had spend the majority of their school years at Kalamazoo Public Schools and who had graduated from Kalamazoo Public Schools got a full-ride to any two- or four-year public university in Michigan that they are accepted.

Volunteers from the Kalamazoo Chamber and other organizations work with the students to get their grades high enough to get into the public higher institution that they (and their parents) have their hearts set on.

Mayor and Superintendent did not go to the press until they were sure that they had the money-in order not to dash people’s hopes and give false expectations.

San Francisco’s ‘So-Called’ Promise

Funds are from the voter-approved Public Finance for Elections fund, which is funded by the City.

Funds will go towards tutoring and after-school programs for a group of sixth graders at SFUSD. No word on what groups will be providing these funds, but it will be community-based organization or a private tutoring company selected by Newsom’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The sixth graders will be admitted into San Francisco State, but they will have to russle up their own funds for tuition.

No word on how volunteers could help implement this vision, if this “So-Called Promise” is to last longer than Nov. 6, 2007 (the day after the election).

Mayor went to the press prior to going to the Board of Supervisors, the Board of Education and the Ethics Commission. Since the Board of Suprvisors would have to approve this budget transfer, this could be a false step. The Ethics Commission also needs to vote on whether the charter creating the Public Finance Campaign fund allows a budget transfer for an unrelated expenditure.