Unified school district parcel tax

San Francisco should be the best city for families with children. Employers are focusing more on parental leave policies, but structural problems around housing affordability and school quality have pushed San Francisco’s share of children 40 percent below the national average (13 percent vs. 23 percent). To the extent that San Francisco teachers are underpaid (their $69,000 median salary is about 85 percent of median earnings, though this gap shrinks when including benefits), we should give them raises.

Parcel taxes are an effective funding source, since they tax apartment buildings the same as a single-family home. This aspect incentivizes density and is progressive since apartment residents tend to have lower incomes (though it’s also regressive to the extent that richer people own more valuable parcels). Prop G is good policy on both sides.