The Facts:

San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has announced it will submit a “qualified” budget to the state in early December 2025, moving up from a “negative” certification and marking a key step toward exiting state fiscal oversight and restoring full local control by March 2026. This progress reflects a multi‑year Fiscal Stabilization Plan that cuts about $114 million from the 2025–26 budget, largely through central‑office reductions and early retirements instead of teacher layoffs, while still leaving projected unrestricted‑fund deficits of $51 million in 2025–26, $32 million in 2026–27, and $19 million in 2027–28 if no further adjustments are made.

The Context:

SFUSD has been under heightened state scrutiny since the California Department of Education (CDE) downgraded its budget to “negative” in May 2024 and empowered fiscal advisors to review major spending decisions, reflecting years of deficit spending and weak controls.

Since then, the district has been implementing a detailed fiscal stabilization plan, including hundreds of central‑office job cuts, early‑retirement incentives, and a switch from the failed EMPower payroll system to the Frontline platform. Together, these moves aim to stop the “credit card” budgeting that threatened insolvency and a full state takeover.

The GrowSF Take:

This milestone is real progress: Superintendent Maria Su and the Board of Education are finally making the tough calls needed to stabilize SFUSD while keeping teachers in classrooms. But a “qualified” budget still means some risk. To truly restore local control and trust, the Board must stay disciplined—prioritizing student outcomes over bureaucracy, negotiating sustainable labor agreements, and being transparent with families about what further cuts mean at school sites. San Francisco’s kids deserve a district that is both academically excellent and fiscally sound, not one financial crisis away from state control.