SFUSD reaches budget milestone thanks to new leadership

San Francisco’s public schools just hit a major milestone: the California Department of Education has partially lifted the teacher hiring freeze for SFUSD, allowing the district to hire credentialed teachers for the 2025–26 school year. This signals growing confidence in the district’s financial stabilization plan and marks a turning point after years of dysfunction and near-insolvency.

The Facts

SFUSD has committed to cutting $113.8 million from the 2025–26 budget, with another $13 million to follow in 2026–27. These cuts are focused on the central office and non-classroom costs to protect student learning. A successful early retirement plan helped the district avoid teacher layoffs, and new staffing policies are being implemented to ensure every classroom has a qualified teacher.

The district is also modernizing operations, launching systems like Red Rover to improve hiring, onboarding, and timekeeping. The partial lift of the hiring freeze shows that the state sees SFUSD’s plan as credible—and that the district is making real progress.

The Context

This didn’t come out of nowhere. SFUSD’s financial troubles have been years in the making. Declining enrollment—down more than 4,000 students since 2017—led to falling revenues, while the district failed to rein in spending. Years of mismanagement pushed the district toward state takeover and triggered a freeze on most hiring, putting schools and students at risk.

That started to change after voters recalled three school board members in 2022. New leadership began making hard decisions: eliminating vacant positions, reducing central office bloat, and finally prioritizing student outcomes over political distractions.

The GrowSF Take

This milestone didn’t happen by accident—it took years of hard work, organizing, and winning elections. In 2022, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly recalled three school board members after years of fiscal mismanagement and misplaced priorities. That election—and the one that followed in 2024—ushered in a new majority committed to putting students first and stabilizing the district’s finances.

Thanks to this new majority, under the leadership of Board President Phil Kim, SFUSD is finally back on track. The hiring freeze is being lifted, the budget is on a path to balance, and the district is making smart, student-focused decisions again.

GrowSF was proud to help lead the fight for a better school board. But we’re not done. If we lose the board majority in 2026, we risk slipping back into the dysfunction that brought SFUSD to the brink of state takeover. That can’t happen.