Concerns Regarding the Removal of Principal Vidrale Franklin and Equity in School Fundraising

At Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco, we were troubled to hear of the recent news about Dr. Charles R. Drew College Preparatory Academy, an SFUSD school in the Bayview. It appears that the principal Vidrale Franklin was forced to resign by the district over allegations related to fundraising. This looks like an example of what scholars call administrative violence or structural violence. 

There is an assumption that all public schools are equally funded, based on dollars per student. This is not in fact the case. Schools in wealthier neighborhoods have Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) that supplement per student funding. In San Francisco, some schools’ PTAs raise over half a million dollars per year. Other SF schools, like Charles R. Drew, raise very little or have no PTA at all. 

The issues in the case of principal Franklin are directly related to the fact that, due to the school’s parents and caregivers being 74.5% social economic disadvantage and lack of financial stability and capacity to manage a high-yield fundraising campaign via its PTA organization. The district was unable or unwilling to help the school set one up and did not provide families and staff with the resources including training to maintain efforts.  

As a result, a beloved Black principal, who attended the school located in a historically Black neighborhood was forced out. Test scores at the school for students in underprivileged groups – a stated primary concern of the district and San Francisco voters – improved dramatically under her tenure. The impact of principal Franklin’s removal is indeed a form of violence: students at the school will have worse educational outcomes which translate to lower adult incomes which in turn lead to increased likelihood of being victims or perpetrators of crime. 

We urge the district to reconsider their handling of this case. We also urge parents and the public to be on the lookout for similar cases where seemingly unbiased administrative decisions disproportionally and yes, violently, affect the future of students belonging to underprivileged communities.