United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) is a teachers’ union that advocates for far-left policies in San Francisco’s public-school system and conducts collective bargaining with the school district. It supports left-of-center racial and identity narratives, making merit-based standardized testing optional, and promoting alternative “forms of student achievement data” that promote equality of outcome for minorities. ^[1]

UESF supports the left-of-center Black Lives Matter movement and has created its own “Racial and Social Justice Committee” aligned with far-left racial advocacy. The Racial and Social Justice Committee hosts an annual spring conference, where it pushes left-of-center narratives about alleged systems of racial oppression. ^[2]

UESF opposed 2021 SFUSD budget cuts which would reduce the number of faculty in San Francisco schools. In an article for the San Francisco Examiner, UESF president Cassondra Curiel called the proposed budget cuts “anti-student,” citing proposed cuts to two progressive education programs as examples. She expressed her view that layoffs of teachers and faculty constituted “the antithesis of what our students and schools need,” and blamed these developments on SFUSD’s “fiscal mismanagement.” ^[3] UESF’s website states that the union has allocated funding to build housing for union teachers and is working to increase their salaries. ^[4]

History

The San Francisco Federation of Teachers (SFFT) and the San Francisco Classroom Teachers Association (SFCTA) reached a merger agreement in 1989 which resulted in the creation of United Educators of San Francisco. SFFT was founded in 1919 by French teacher Edward J. Dupuy as a member union of the national American Federation of Teachers (AFT). It was the first local teacher’s union in San Francisco. The SFCTA was founded two years earlier, but in the early years it “preferred to be known as an Association” rather than joining the local labor council, according to an article written by former UESF president Dennis Kelly. The SFFT and SFCTA fought among themselves for state and national representation until SFFT president Joan-Marie Shelley re-won union bargaining power from the California Teachers Association. Shelley then offered a deal to SFCTA president Judy Dellamonica, which led to the joint creation of UESF in 1989. ^[5]

Controversies

United Educations of San Francisco received significant backlash in 2021 when it resolved to support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. In its “Resolution in Solidarity with the Palestinian People” UESF called the Jewish state a “regime of legalized racial discrimination” and urged U.S. President Joe Biden to stop sending aid to Israel. ^[6] Many, especially those in California’s Jewish community, criticized UESF for promoting antisemitism. ^[7] The union replied with a statement against antisemitism, but doubled down on its stance against what it termed the “Israeli occupation.” ^[8]

The union’s executive vice president, Frank Lara, sparked controversy when he re-posted a statement from the U.S. Party for Socialism and Liberation claiming that the U.S. and NATO were partly to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. ^[9] California State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) criticized Lara for “promoting Russian government propaganda” and others called for his resignation. UESF defended Lara’s actions and alleged that these criticisms were “an attempt to undermine the results of the union’s internal democratic election last spring.” ^[10]

Cassondra Curiel wrote an opinion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle in which she claimed that the 2022 recall of three left-wing San Francisco Unified School District board members was a “test run” to give San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) “undemocratic” control over the school district election process. ^[11] The recall was widely supported by parents, who disagreed with SFUSD’s slowness to reopen schools post-pandemic. Chinese American parents particularly criticized the school district’s attempts to change admission to the prestigious Lowell High School into a lottery rather than basing admissions on merit through traditional standardized tests. According to the New York Times, the recall was a “landslide” win for the board members’ opponents. ^[12] Nevertheless, Curiel alleged that the recall was the result of “billionaires and wealthy venture capitalists” buying out the recall and did not represent the will of San Francisco voters. ^[13]

Union Protests

United Educators of San Francisco often appears in San Francisco local news for its teachers’ protests. In January 2022, teachers led a “sickout” protest and refused to work that day. Their intent was to get SFUSD to distribute free N95 or KN95 masks to union-member teachers, provide frequent COVID testing, and continue to guarantee COVID-positive teachers 10 days of paid sick leave. ^[14]

Union teachers led a rally and multiple overnight occupations of school buildings in March 2022, alleging that many of them had not been paid for over two months. SFUSD blamed the situation on a new district payroll system but admitted that the issue was “inexcusable,” with UESF threatening to sue if the problem was not resolved. ^[15] After a final three-night teacher “sleep-in” ending on March 17, the union and school district coordinated an agreement for repaying the teachers. ^[16]

Affiliations

American Federation of Teachers

UESF is a member union of the American Federation of Teachers. In a June 2022 resolution following the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings, AFT expressly stated that it would “work to defeat candidates” who do not support gun control. ^[17] It supported left-of-center judge Ketanji Brown Jackson‘s confirmation to the Supreme Court and President Joe Biden‘s 2020 campaign. ^{[18] [19]}

National Education Association

UESF and the National Education Association (NEA) are affiliate organizations whose members share benefits. ^[20] The NEA claims it is Congress’s responsibility to stop school shootings through passing gun control legislation. ^[21]

Democratic Socialists of America

UESF is a coalition partner of the Democratic Socialists of America – San Francisco (SF DSA) through which it supports legalized, on-demand abortion, among other left-wing policies. ^[22] SF DSA accused pro-life advocates of being “pro-lie” for seeking to abolish legalized abortion instead of concerning themselves with other cases of murder, particularly among minorities. SF DSA called the annual pro-life event Walk for Life “fascist” and described those who stood for the bodily rights of unborn babies as “opposed to reproductive justice for women.” ^[23]

Leadership

Cassondra Curiel is the president of United Educators of San Francisco. She has worked since 2011 as a sixth-grade English language arts teacher at Visitacion Valley Middle School, where she served on the Union Build Committee (UBC) for 7 years. Curiel spent three more years as an executive board member and chair of the UBC Grievance Committee before being elected as president of UESF in 2021. ^[24]

Frank Lara serves as UESF’s executive vice president. ^[25] He has worked for over a decade as a bilingual fourth grade teacher at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School, which describes itself as the “first Two-Way Spanish Immersion School” in San Francisco. ^{[26] [27]}

Financials

UESF’s most recent publicly available financial documents, its 2019 990, showed revenues of nearly $8.9 million, with expenses at $8.4 million and assets of $3.65 million. ^[28] It receives contributions from the NEA, which reported giving $91,400 to UESF in 2018 and $79,000 in 2019. ^{[29] [30]}