SAN FRANCISCO—The city of San Francisco is allowing non-citizens parents and guardians of children in the San Francisco Unified School District to register to vote for members for the San Francisco Board of Education. Forms were issued for the November 6 election. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted the ordinance amending the municipal elections code.
Proposition N passed in November 2016. According to the SFUSD website, Proposition N allows non-citizens, including people in the country illegally, who have children in the city’s school district to vote in local school board elections. Supporters want to give immigrant parents a voice in how the city’s public schools are run.
David Chiu, who represents San Francisco in the California State Assembly, supported the measure and in the state legislature he is passing several bills to protect immigrants from what he sees as overreach by the federal government. In a July 2016, Op-Ed piece with the SF Chronicle, Chiu wrote:
“We will be asked to choose between two historic candidates for president. One candidate is a former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, who would be the first woman to hold the position. The other candidate is the most anti-immigrant bigot nominated by a major political party in recent American history.
When Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, he reiterated his agenda to build a wall to keep immigrants out of our country. During his campaign, he has referred to Latinos as criminals, proposed banning Muslim-Americans and shown his disdain for millions of immigrants across our nation who seek a better life.”
There are over two-thirds of K-12 students in San Francisco’s public schools who are Latino or Asian American. At least 1 out of 3 students have at least one parent who is an immigrant. Proposition N was rejected twice before voters approved it November 2016.
The measure will be in effect in November elections for 2018, 2020 and 2022. After 2022, it will expire if the San Francisco Board of Supervisors refuse to adopt the ordinance to continue it.
For more details about services provided for non-citizens who have children in the SFUSD visit their website at sfusd.edu.
