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Oct. 27, 2003 |
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Many politically conscious San Franciscans know Gavin Newsom as the pretty-faced spokesman for the highly controversial Care Not Cash campaign. Some consider his plan to substitute the stipends given to the homeless for government care to be anti-homeless and believe Newsom, a notoriously successful businessman, to be nothing more than a tool for the upper classes.
What most people dont realize is that, as a mayoral candidate in the upcoming November election, Newsom presents several valid and practical proposals regarding the improvement of public education and youth programs in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Newsom does not present sensible plans for financially supporting his ideas, and he fails to elaborate on how he hopes to raise the money needed for drastic improvement in the areas of education, public safety and urban parks.
KEANE NG |
Newsom was unable to speak with The Lowell directly, and instead appointed campaign member John Shanley as his personal correspondent. However, instead of answering The Lowells specific questions regarding Newsoms plans to improve public education, Shanley forwarded portions of Newsoms public policy brief from his official campaign web site (www.gavinnewsom.com).
According to Shanley, Newsom believes that urban parks are an important element of San Francisco and plans on dedicating himself to protecting them. Although Shanley did not mention any new plans, he did discuss Newsoms prior accomplishments regarding city parks.
Parks are extremely important to young people, Shanley said. As supervisor, (Newsom) pushed to get a successful $110 million parks bond on the ballot and a guaranteed set-aside for the acquisition of open space for capital improvements to parks.
Regarding the issues of gang prevention and public safety, Shanley said that Newsom feels that the San Francisco Police Department needs to implement the Citistat program a combination of technology and management to collect information and evaluate (police officers ability) to fight crime and monitor gang violence.
Newsom is also concerned with the quality of the San Francisco Unified School District, according to Shanley.
Newsom believes a lack of resources is an ongoing issue for SFUSD, and it is important that our citys resources be used to support children, Shanley said, adding that Newsom will convene leaders and citizens across San Francisco to develop broad-based partnerships with corporations, labor unions, philanthropic institutions, community-based organizations and institutions of higher education to bring their human and financial resources to improve our schools.
Although Newsom refers to particular types of corporations, he fails to disclose the names of any specific companies that have agreed to form partnerships with him; therefore, it is impossible to judge his seemingly ambitious proposal.
According to Shanley, Newsom also plans to reallocate city resources in addition to pressing both the city and the state for further funding for public education.
While Newsom does stress the importance of improving San Francisco schools, he fails to outline any sort of financial action plan for the public to review, which is a serious flaw in his campaign.
Newsome discusses his strategy to draw funding from public and private resources, but does not disclose any specific information. |
