44 Schools to be Renamed
The LA Times reports Lincoln, Washington, Feinstein, Lowell — San Francisco will rename 42 schools but other sites have the count at 44.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are no longer suitable names for public schools in San Francisco. Explorers like Vasco Núñez de Balboa are out too, as is Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
On Tuesday, the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education voted to change the names of 42 schools because of alleged associations with slaveholding, colonization or oppression.
Feinstein, who has an elementary school named after her, made the list because of controversies decades ago, around the time she was mayor, involving the redevelopment of a building that had housed Chinese and Filipino tenants, as well as an incident involving a Confederate flag at City Hall.
Voice of Common Sense
“Do you really think changing the name on an empty building is going to change anything that had been going on inside?” asked Marcia Parrott, former principal at Miraloma Elementary School.
“What is your goal? Racial justice? Inequality? How is that going to occur when there’s nobody in those buildings and won’t be for some time?”
List of Targeted Names
Here is the list of 44 Politically Incorrect School Names.
Other names include Jefferson, McKinley, Monroe, John Muir, Robert Louis Stevenson, Daniel Webster, Herbert Hoover, Francis Scott Key, Mission, and Paul Revere.
Nobody in the Buildings
The children are not in school because of Covid lockdowns.
The clear priority of the board is not education but political correctness.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed made this Comment on Renaming Schools.
What I cannot understand is why the School Board is advancing a plan to have all these schools renamed by April, when there isn’t a plan to have our kids back in the classroom by then. Our students are suffering, and we should be talking about getting them in classrooms, getting them mental health support, and getting them the resources they need in this challenging time. Our families are frustrated about a lack of a plan, and they are especially frustrated with the fact that the discussion of these plans weren’t even on the agenda for last night’s School Board meeting.
That question aside, Breed’s only concern is the timing, not doing it.
I understand the significance of the name of a school, and a school’s name should instill a feeling of pride in every student that walks through its doors, regardless of their race, religion, or sexual orientation. In fact, the public elementary school I attended as a child was renamed for Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks, and I believe it is a name that instills pride for the community. This is an important conversation to have, and one that we should involve our communities, our families, and our students.
No Sense of Pride
George Washington is not a sense of pride. We better get going on that. Let’s wipe him out starting here.
What’s the Cost?
Deputy Superintendent Myong Leigh estimated Tuesday that “new signs would cost about $10,000 per school“.
That’s $440,000 for school name changes.
Care to Take Bets on the Price?
If the board figures it will cost $440,000 then I suspect we double or triple that before these wizards are finished.
If $10,000 is for signs, what about murals, stationary, sports jerseys, stadium logos, politically incorrect statues in front of the buildings, etc., etc.?
Is that the best use of money when kids graduate who can’t read or do basic math?
Mish
This is an apropos post:
Playing it safe
January 31, 2021
Rob Schwartz, CEO of TBWA\Chiat\Day, recently said:
“Every client conversation I’ve had these days is about who is going to be offended by this ad. There’s a lot of discussion about risk mitigation. What that tends to do is that it makes things very bland and not effective.”
BLM High School, Antifa University, …and Obrama on the $ bill, or Hillary for that matter, politically correct warmongers as they were….
PS 1, PS 2, PS 3, PS 4, ETC. You get the drift.
The US founders were fundamentally flawed men who owned other men and ignored women. There is nothing from them that we should emulate. The fruits of their poisoned tree were the US constitution and capitalism. It’s time to throw it all out and start over. We have improved human morality and now understand how to create knowledge, systems and a society. Let’s goooooooo!
Typical modern myopic thinking in demanding that people from other historical time periods be judged against mores of today. If the fruit of the poison tree offends you that much then why are you reaping the benefits of it? Divest yourself of the modern world completely if you want to pass your own ideological purity test.
How many of the founding fathers (just have to rub that in like salt in your wound) can you name? let me guess NONE. You probably don’t even know how many amendments there are to the constitution. You see it’s idiots like you that don’t know a damn thing about human morality because you are preaching to those that aren’t even here anymore that you never knew because they can’t respond. You are a coward and a pathetic one at that. You know what socialism leads too? Death and destruction. Just ask the Venzuelans.
Mish, you had me at ‘San Francisco’.
FLUSH!
” The world we’ve become so dependent on is quickly being turned against anyone who refuses to conform to what amounts to some mangled form of corporate sanctioned, woke imperialism. If you don’t acquiesce fully you’ll be removed eventually. The primary form of leverage being used to bend us into submission are the corporate tools and services we’ve become so dependent on, most explicitly big tech, but increasingly internet infrastructure more broadly. “
Liberal survey says “it’s nothing….doesn’t matter….no big deal.”
This is why Woke Culture bothers me. It’s getting a free ride….the only question left is how far it will go before those who are validating it realize it will affect them in a material way….and it will, before it’s over.
“Is that the best use of money when kids graduate who can’t read or do basic math?”
I read this the other day.
“Consider that in 2019, only 37% of Illinois third graders could demonstrate grade-level proficiency in English-language arts and only 41% could demonstrate grade-level proficiency in math.”
It is not education that is important any more in public schools, it is leftist indoctrination.
I heard stories that teachers didn’t want parents sitting in on their children’s virtual classes. They apparently didn’t want the parents to know what they are teaching their children. They might not approve and complain to the school.
After a ballot proposition passed in a previous election, the California Teachers Association spent on a radio ad, thanking those who voted for it and making a point of telling the listeners that they were going to promote social justice in the schools.
California schools are now pre-registering 16 year old students to vote, so after years of indoctrination, they will go out and vote socialist Democrat at age 18.
There was even a recent ballot initiative to allow 17 year olds to vote in a primary, if they will turn 18 by the general election. I believe it failed, but how long until the indoctrinated adults manage to get the voting age reduced to 16?
Hey Mish, I just viewed your posts from another device and my comments the last few days have been disappeared unless I am logged in. Is there a PC police in play on your site too?
A couple of posts back from Mish, we had great wailing and gnashing of teeth from conservatives who decried the collapse of moral values when people would plan for divorce before marriage.
Now we have great wailing and gnashing of teeth because people want to bring the practices in line with the stated ideals of behavior to be modeled.
My goodness, it seems there are great drifts of snowflakes on all sides.
Remembering my school days, I really don’t think I really gave one thought to the name of my public school (elementary, middle or high, of which some were public figure names). There was no commemoration of that person in the school. It was a name, just an effn name with no association.
Salt lake city streets are numbered north ans
That’s my sentiment also. School names don’t inspire students but it might inspire teachers and staff.
I’m here in Canada watching you clowns blow yourselves up; you couldn’t see this coming from the Left? Mind you, Canada is probably next on the list, as this crap is ubiquitous.
What happened after the French Revolution? The revolutionaries filled with ardour and passion for the new ideas whipped the armies of the counter-revolutionaries and then invaded Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Egypt bringing light to Europe. So if the Woke prevail in the US then Canada is the nearest insufficiently “woke” country in dire need of wokeness.
School budgets could be balanced by selling naming rights to major corporations. Facebook Elementary, Apple Middle School, Tesla Tech School, Google High School.
I wouldn’t make any more of this ill-conceived act than a southern city fighting to keep its schools named after Confederate leaders. I live in California, it is a great place to live (although expensive), lots of people think so too (more than any other state). You will find a few places (like Berkeley and San Francisco) that are a little too “woke” but it isn’t any worse than being totally asleep or ignorant.
Ca is a great place if you have a good income or lots of money and own your own home. For the bulk of the population not so good. Crappy gang infested schools, out of touch tone deaf leadership since we are essentially a one-party state, high taxes, difficult permitting for construction, very corrupt local governments, a ton of homeless with a huge surge coming, extremely expensive housing and a whole lot of virtue signalling BS.
So, CA no different than any other state in the US. Agreed, except for the weather … upper 60s today sunny and fresh blanket of snow on the mountains.
I really haven’t had an issue with gangs but I know that there are some places with problems. Taxes are high (but did you know that most blue states receive less from the federal government than they pay in taxes and most red states receive more?). Construction permitting is slow, high homeless population (combination of good weather and expensive place to live).
There won’t be much of any other places in California that copy San Francisco’s school naming stance. I am actually surprised that there are any children left in San Francisco. The parents probably didn’t support it but parents (and children) are an endangered minority in San Francisco. Probably ten non-parent voters for each parent voter.
What’s interesting that I recently discovered is that the SF Chronicle/SFGate comment boards are fairly conservative. While it is not always easy to tell, many seem to be SF residents.
Here we are : ‘1984’ in 2021 !…..Incredible and disgusting ! On top of that, insane, ineffective, so called C19 measures with the only purpose of dominating the stupid herd! Don t you even doubt it, the very rich and privileged DO have their secluded parties ! Maybe it is time to ‘really’ storm ‘The Bastille’?!
Sure, why not. You storm the Bastille first.
Do you actually EVER agree with someone ? I remember I even gave you a like once upon a time ….never again though…. when your only purpose is,…. rrm …rocking the boat(?) …
I often agree with people but when I don’t I say it if I have the time. You believe in a violent revolution where I do not. However if a violent one comes I prefer that it’s you who takes the risks while I stay back and reap the benefits. My comment was a short way of saying that.
That comment was foe FromBrussels.
yes ….COWARDS tend to stay at the sideline….it reminds me of my grandfather’s plight in WW2 , he had a prosperous business before the war, he refused to collaborate with the Germans though and lost it all, was on the run all of the time falsely accused of espionage, was even on death row yet managed to escape ….in the meantime others collaborated and prospered big time…. and Germany won the war after all, 50 years later that is. YES grandpa was a fool….but not a coward …
Wow! You are trading off your grandfather’s valor! Don’t you have an example of your own courage to give us? That would be better.
On se calme un peu. Nous sommes sur une piste qui mène à nulle part. Je ne te vois pas comme un agent du Mal même si tu habites à Bruxelles. Je crois que tu n’es pas belge d’origine et je préfère que tu me dises d’où tu viens. Je crois que tu as dit une fois que tu es russe et si vrai ça ne pose aucun problème pour moi car j’ai travaillé avec pas mal de russes pendant ma carrière et plusieurs sont mes amis toujours. J’aimerais que toi et moi soyons plus civilisés dans l’avenir. OK ?
oui d’ accord….et je repite, je suis 100% belge, flamand plutot, comme mes parents et mes grand parents, je domine mieux l anglais que le francais. Toute ma vie j’ai eu
l attitude sceptique et anticonformiste, toujours pret a défendre les défavorisés,… c’ est peut etre pourquoi que je l’aime bien a Putin, attaqué et vilipendé continument et injustiment par l’Occident en general et l’ Amérique en particulier…. Voilà c’est tout ….Allez, à la prochaine !
Still waiting for you to storm the Berlaymont with you AK47…
School names in San Francisco not be named after real people because that will always create dissention. I propose that San Francisco take a more culturally correct approach that is shared by all its citizens and name the schools after prominent strains of marijuana. Acapulco Gold, Blue Dream, Purple Kush, Sour Diesel, Bubba Kush, Granddaddy Purple, Afghan Kush, LA Confidential, Maui Wowie, Golden Goat, Northern Lights, White Widow, Super Silver Haze, Pineapple Express, and Fruity Pebbles would all make good and easily-remembered names and the students could take pride in belonging to a school named after a weed so many San Franciscans love and worship.
Lol!!! Love it but it’d be a battle as well. They even over-regulated the cannabis industry and pushed them back 10 years. Put all the mom and pops and those who were more medically orientented outta bus with the uber high costs of taxes and licensing and the impossibility of acquiring a location without millions of $$$. Its only legal to conduct business in about 20% of the local juristictions.
How many wanting to rename these places have ever had to scrimp & save and be grateful for having a job in the private sector?
If they were distracted by the realities the majority face, spending money renaming these places wouldn’t be on the list at all.
They want to be measured on this? Why not on homelessness, unemployment, tax rates? Only one reason. Because they don’t really give a shit about those things.
Vote’em out.
These discussions always seem to crop up when renaming something from a President to a black leader. Bridges , streets , schools and airports get renamed all the time without much fanfare. In NY the 59ths street bridge, Interboro, Triboro , Idlewild airport etc were all renamed. If it makes the community feel better and the kids learn better why not
They should name the schools like most of those in NY that are called PS xxx (a numeric). Everybody can then get back to doing stuff to help educate the kids.
Damn Jojo, we agree again!
Sorry about the cussing but am so tired of the leadership in Ca. They are incompetent just like Trump was with Covid. We have a royally screwed up Unemployment dept, DMV, public school systems, horrendous homelessness problems etc etc etc
I think our Ca governor Newsome is gonna get recalled. Liking Chamath’s thoughts about running already. No state income tax, school vouchers to improve our education..etc. https://www.chamathforca.com
This would be a gamechanger. Chamath is a technocrat who doesnt mind starting with a clean sheet of paper.
More god damn virtue signalling by the Democrats
Ah yes, the idle rich are busy with their fashionable pleasures. 🙂
America wasn’t discovered by Columbus anyway. If we want to tell the truth, everything should be named after Native indians who were slaughtered by Europeans.
…then why not after native indians who were previously slaughtered by native indians? I mean there must have been some conflicts beforehand also. That would really confuse those claiming ancestral title if they were awarded to a long gone rival tribe out of “historical justice” ? No, you really have to go back to a time when humans were not in dispute to find a name, something like “Amoeba College” would fit for example.
We don’t want to tell that kind of truth!!!
Here, here! Amoeba College would be perfect, but the liberals would get a hissy because one amoeba mutated and became stronger than the other amoeba and subjugated the lesser one. Oh, the tragedy!!!
Hush! You’re giving them ideas!
I have a piece of land in Burnet County….within a few miles of there is a pre-Columbian site where humans lived 40 thousand years ago….which is 27 thousand years before the Native American tribes are thought to have crossed over from Siberia on the land bridge. Nobody knows the name of these earlier people, or where they came from….nothing.
Maybe everything should be named for them….if we just knew their name.
Columbus was a miserable human being. So were all the Spaniards who came to Mexico. Nobody really disputes that, AFAIK.
I grew up in East Texas….the best we know….smallpox wiped out all the local original tribes….moundbuilders…..long before actual humans came north out of Mexico looking for more indigenous peoples to enslave and turn into good little Catholics.
Pandemic related loss of indigenous culture.
Much of Texas was considered home to the Comanches….and a more vicious bunch of people never lived as the Comanches…There was an ongoing war between the whites and Comanches for 50 years, and if it hadn’t been for Samual Colt, we might have lost.
They liked to scalp their enemies and torture them til they bled out….burn them with hot irons,,,,that sort of thing…..whites and other tribes, and torture them to death…..the men that is, and older boys….women and little kids were enslaved.
The Texas Rangers were formed to protect settlers from the Comanche…and their best scouts were Tonkawas….who were the Comanches’ sworn enemies. But before the white men came….in an earlier era, they were aligned with the Comanches.
Times change.
Rip Ford and Samual Walker were the real deal….they invented the Texas Rangers. They perfected the art of Indian fighting. Samuel Walker died in the Mexican War. Ford would win the very last battle of the Civil War for the Confederacy…he coined the phrase “won the battle but lost the war”. He lived until 1897. In his adult life, he was for several years, a practicing physician, later captain and chief tactician of the first generation of Texas Rangers. He would fight in the Mexican War in the US Army, then publish a newspaper, and
fight for Secession…..He was a colonel in the Confederate Army. After the War he would become mayor of Brownsville..and serve in the legislature as a Senator.
He wrote one of the two notable books about Texas history published in the 19th century…a very non PC volume known as Rip Ford’s Texas…..I think every guilty white liberal should read it….along with J.W. Wilbarger’s “Indian Depredations In Texas.”
They come from a very different POV than the one that fed you your narrative about indigenous peoples.
I can’t think of a single thing named for Rip Ford….his real name was John Salmon Ford. He got the Rip nickname because he wrote the obituaries for the fallen in the Mexican War, beginning each one RIP.
I read that the problem with Lincoln was that some American Indians didn’t like him. That’s certainly possible. American Indians were really into slavery. Or, it could be that Lincoln coined the term “Native American”, although he used it as an expression for people actually born in the US. Can you imagine that!!!!
This is more serious than just a waste of money. PC crap is bankrupting the intellectual muscle of this nation. Consider 1984, George Orwell understood that words actually mean something which is why the Party was so intent in rewriting them.
Lincoln’s idea, which was probably always a fantasy, was to send the slaves back to Africa. Nobody had a plan for dealing with ex-slaves….how to enable them to survive, even…..40 acres and a mule…was actually good idea…but just like now, the austerity lovers thought it would cost too much.
The endurance and long suffering patience of the American African-American people…..is amazing, and I have nothing but respect for that. I was raised in a family that was not color-blind…..but rather one that was acutely color aware…..and still kind and decent and not racist…at least not in the sense that people understand the term now. Paternal racism? Yes. Haters? No.
40 acres of good farmland and a mule would worth about $260,000 today. I would hazard to guess that that was a lot of money back then too. I would take it now.
I suspect that in France it would cost somewhat more than that….and that the taxes would eat you alive.
My father tried to teach me how to plow behind a mule….I wish I had paid better attention. I have the acres…..and a damn fine tractor, with every bell and whistle…even AC. I’m okay until the diesel runs out.
At the time I’m sure they’d rather go home where they came from? Different times but if I was sent to Russia without consent I’d want to go back home where ever that was in retrospect. Government waste will be forever because they can tax their way out of any issues period.
Still waiting for the official Harriet Tubman $20 introduction. https://time.com/5933920/harriet-tubman-20-bill-joe-biden/
A shaky read, I think. Andrew Jackson might have been a racist like the article say, but two of his three kids were adopted Indians, so I’m guessing not. Of course, that didn’t stop him from killing alot of them…. Still, if he hadn’t faced down Nullification by sheer force of his personality the South would have seceded and in 1830 there was no way the North could have won a civil war. I’m guessing that would have been a bad thing for people who were slaves….
Don’t forget he paid freed slaves the same as whites (to the great dismay of New Orleans plantation owners) to fight the British!
A central tenet of Jacksonian Democracy was the expansion of voting right to all men. Property qualifications and taxes on voting were dropped.
But it’s a blow against systemic racism….how can you put a price tag on that? We must restore equity to the unfortunate victims of slavery…..and by that I mean the fifth and sixth generation descendants of the victims of slavery…….we can never rest until al the schools are renamed for deserving historical persons of color…..like Azie Morton and William H. Holland……whoever they were.
Renaming has a cost. $440,000 (double that is a better guess) is wasted money.
San Francisco has the most per capita wealth in the nation. They can afford it.
10K cost for renaming a public school is BS. The real cost is much, much higher. In Washington, DC, the city estimated that for a big public high school the cost to rename is about 250K.
“does not hurt anything”……you idiot,
I can’t imagine it would be anything short of $1MM. First, this is the government we’re talking about! There must be many changes to be done by highly-paid administrators. In fact, maybe several administrator consultants could be hired! Think about changing the letterhead on stationary, bank account name and summary changes, the school’s athletic uniforms, all the busses to be repainted. How much equipment (desks, basketballs, books, etc) are stamped with the school name (“If found, return to … “).
Addressing the nation’s actual problems would take a lot of effort and introspection, but virtue signaling is easy!
I expect a lot more of this in the Biden era. Renaming things doesn’t do any real harm, but it also solves nothing.
“Renaming things doesn’t do any real harm…”
Except that it pisses of the common sense crowd that knows its wrong!