Costly free camp sought to aid families
Summer elementary school plan would provide break for parents
After another school year upended by the pandemic, a group of San Francisco supervisors wants to make summer camp free for all public elementary school students — regardless of their family’s income level.
Supervisors Connie Chan, Hillary Ronen, Myrna Melgar and Matt Haney plan to propose a $15 million budget supplemental at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. But even they acknowledge that will not be enough money to cover the costly program, and they’ll likely need philanthropists or other city funding to make it a reality.
“We’re going to call everyone to join us and make this happen,” said Chan, who spearheaded the proposal. “We know that in San Francisco, people are hurting all across the board. This is a time when we should increase and provide the support for everyone.”
The proposal comes as parents, students and teachers reel from yet another semester of distance learning. Experts worry that kids — particularly those from lowincome families — are falling behind. Parents and city leaders like Mayor London Breed have criticized the school district and board for not trying harder to get a deal with the teachers union to reopen classrooms. Most public health experts have said the risk of inschool transmission is relatively low.
San Francisco school officials approved a health and safety agreement with labor unions this week, but they’re still at odds over what the school day will look like when classrooms reopen. Any return to inperson instruction this year — if at all — is likely at least two months off.
Ronen said the point of the free camp proposal is to give parents a nineweek reprieve this summer. If the city cannot secure enough staff to run the myriad programs, Ronen
said they would explore providing children with subsidies or scholarship to attend private camps.
The plan must be approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed by the mayor.
If approved, Ronen said the city would provide public school families with “a panoply of options” between the city’s learning hubs, Recreation and Parks Department camps and academic enrichment programs. The supervisors also hope to centralize all of the different summer options into one newly created website.
Maria Su, the executive director of the Department of Children, Youth and their Families, commended the proposal. But she said it would “not be possible” to serve all elementary school students this summer with just $15 million.
Su said it’s currently costing the city $55 million for the school year to serve 2,000 children at 81 learning hubs, where they access computers and staff to help them with school work. Current health regulations only allow students to be in pods of 14, but Su said she’s hopeful that number can increase by the summer.
In a normal summer, the city serves more than 20,000 children at camps, but last year that number dipped to 3,000 because of health restrictions.
The supervisors estimate that about 20,000 elementary school kids — costing about $1,500 each for the entire summer — would be interested in the program. That means the city would need at least $30 million to provide the option to everyone who might use it.
“The policy direction is great,” Su said. But “it’s going to cost a lot.”
Such funding could be a big ask in San Francisco, where there are many competing needs amid the pandemic. The $15 million would come from the city’s recently identified budget surplus, but it’s unclear where the rest would come from. The city is still staring down a $650 million deficit over the next two fiscal years.
When asked why all public school children would be included in this proposal — regardless of their family’s ability to pay for a summer program — the supervisors said all parents deserve some help after the turmoil of the last two school years. Ronen and Chan both have children in San Francisco’s public elementary schools who would take advantage of the summer program, if possible. As parents, they said they deeply understand the need for such a program.
“We believe it’s worth the investment to step up and assist these families,” Ronen said. “This is what our taxpayer dollars are supposed to go toward — meeting the public basic needs of people.”
Haney, chair of the budget and finance committee, said the proposal is an “emergency priority that can’t wait.”
“If we have money to spend right now. We have to spend it on our kids who are suffering,” he said.