Candidate for
Member, Democratic Party County Central Committee; San Francisco County; Assembly District 13

Hello, I'm KIM-SHREE MAUFAS and I'm running for the San Francisco Democratic County and Central Committee (DCCC) in the 13th Assembly District.

The DCCC is the governing body for the San Francisco Democratic Party. The SF Democratic Party is the official organization for Democrats in the city and county of San Francisco. With more than 250,000 members, we represent one of the most active communities of Democrats in California.

I'm running to represent AD13 on the DCCC so public education can be part of San Francisco's discussion of at-large issues. As a current SF School Board commissioner and past president, I have learned that the city's budget, housing, health care, safety and immigration policies profoundly affect the ability of the district to provide high quality education for every student in San Francisco. I have also learned that the health of San Francisco's safety, diversity and economy depends on the ability of the city's school system to provide a high quality education to all its students.

While the state government controls the funding structure of our schools, the city cannot, however, afford to continue to ignore the condition of SF schools. Furthermore, SF politicians can no longer afford to look at education in isolation of other areas of public concern. Students cannot learn in school if they are sick or do not have a place to study at home. Parents cannot support teachers and be involved in their childrens' schoolwork if they have 2-3 jobs to survive. Families cannot work and learn productively if they are afraid to go out on the streets, and so forth. Resources for our schools are among the crucial variables that must be in place to in order for students to graduate from high school ready to work or go on to college.

Likewise, SF crime is fed by young adults who have been ill-served in our underfunded and sometimes poorly led schools. SF employers complain of an insufficiently educated homegrown workforce. The city's cultural diversity and harmony is threatened by a school system that struggles to serve the needs of English language learners, the differently-abled and ethnically diverse populations.

SF public schools enroll 56,000 children and employ 4,500 staff while benefiting from a vast army of community based and city funded organizations. All these people, their families and friends constitute a huge percentage of the city's population. Their issues are the city's issues: sustained economic independence, affordable housing (home owners or renters), comprehensive youth development, community safety, high quality public schools and accessible quality health care. These issues are inextricably connected.

The need to integrate education policy into the city's ongoing political debates is not the only reason I am running for a position on the DCCC. I'm also running because a seated African American voice and vote is missing from the San Francisco party's table. Someone has to argue cogently that it is not good for the city that the black population of San Francisco is disappearing, having gone from 12 to 6 percent of the population in the last 15 years. Additionally, I've got proven political experience that comes from working with every community in San Francisco and providing outcomes that have achieved our collective goals for a better city and place to raise families. Our perspective on these issues and more shouldn't be a mystery or guessing game. I will make certain that it isn't.

You can help by going to my website (http://www.kimshree4dccc.org) and indicate how we can organize volunteers (kimshree@kimshree4dccc.org) and campaign contributors (http://www.kimshree4dccc.org/donate). There's lots of work for us to do together so lets get started.