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San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Maria\u00a0Su testifies during a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on parental rights and school content policies on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Kevin Wolf\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
When San Francisco schools Superintendent Maria\u00a0Su testified before Congress on Wednesday<\/a>, I\u2019ll be honest, I was worried.<\/p>\n A hearing titled \u201cBreaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America\u2019s Schools\u201d had the fingerprints of political theater all over it \u2014 another opportunity to use the city\u2019s schools as a punching bag for national audiences who\u2019ve never set foot in one of our classrooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is why the SF Parents Coalition\u00a0sent a letter to Congress<\/a>, along with three parent leaders, to defend our schools and our San Francisco values. But as it turns out, we may not have been needed.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In many ways, the hearing played out exactly as expected. Three hours of grandstanding, gotcha questions and exchanges designed to generate Fox News and social media clips rather than answers. But buried in the predictable partisan back-and-forth was a genuinely revealing moment \u2014 one that I think every San Francisco parent should know about.<\/p>\n Yes, House Republicans pressed Superintendent\u00a0Su and her colleagues from other school districts in blue cities on the culture war issues that cable news can\u2019t get enough of \u2014 drag queen story hour,\u00a0transgender bathroom policies, and, in one exchange with Chicago\u2019s superintendent, a graphic question about abortion methods. We\u2019ve seen this script before. San Francisco and other progressive districts get cast as villains, and the goal isn\u2019t dialogue; it\u2019s a hit job.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Superintendent Su handled it well. She kept the focus on students and on what the San Francisco Unified School District is doing, not on scoring debate points. To be fair, the district has handed its critics plenty of ammunition over the years. But here\u2019s the thing: Su was able to deflect those attacks because real progress has been made \u2014 even if the work isn\u2019t finished.<\/p>\n The moment that stopped me came from Republican turned independent Rep. Kevin\u00a0Kiley of Rocklin (Placer County), a frequent San Francisco critic. Of course, he opened with the familiar litany of transgressions: the district\u2019s ill-considered attempt to rename 44 schools during extended COVID closures, the elimination of eighth-grade algebra, the outdated reading curriculum, the controversy over ethnic studies. None of it is new to us.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But then he did something I genuinely didn\u2019t expect: He acknowledged what\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen big improvements in recent years, so I think that\u2019s something to celebrate,\u201d Kiley said.<\/p>\n He then gave\u00a0Su the floor to walk the committee through the progress: eighth-grade algebra restored, the budget back to positive certification, new reading and math curricula, a standardized ethnic studies course.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kiley didn\u2019t pivot to a gotcha. He let the record speak. No knife twist. No setup for a closing attack. Just an honest accounting of where things were and where they are now. In Congress. In 2026. I\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n That exchange only happened because of years of hard work by families, teachers, district staff, community members and elected officials who stayed focused on what actually matters: the kids. It also happened because families refused to look away when the district got things wrong. When district representatives walk into a congressional hearing with evidence of real progress, the attack lines don\u2019t land the same way. That\u2019s not an accident; it\u2019s the result of accountability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Yes, there were still distortions during the hearing. At one point, Su was asked to name an age she thought was appropriate for students to be exposed to drag queen story hour. That\u2019s the kind of question designed for Fox News, not for fixing schools. There will always be moments like that. National politics doesn\u2019t reward nuance. But here\u2019s what I\u2019ve come to believe: The best defense against caricature is a district that\u2019s too busy making real progress to be defined by its worst moments. When we bear down on the work that parents and students actually care about \u2014 reading scores, math outcomes, a budget that doesn\u2019t lurch from crisis to crisis \u2014 we deprive the loudest critics of the oxygen they need.<\/p>\n The lesson isn\u2019t complicated; doing the work is the strategy. Stronger math and reading outcomes. A budget that functions. Curriculum that actually serves our kids. These aren\u2019t partisan goals \u2014 they\u2019re what every San Francisco family actually wants. And they\u2019re also our best political argument. We can\u2019t lose focus chasing sideshows.<\/p>\n What struck me most about the Kiley exchange \u2014 and what East Bay Democratic Rep. Mark\u00a0DeSaulnier echoed \u2014 was how central family engagement is in ensuring that a district delivers for students. The one place a longtime critic and a champion of public education found common ground was that none of these improvements happens without listening to families.\u00a0<\/p>\n Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.<\/p>\n