'The city of San Francisco has risen up!' Three woke school board members are BOOTED OUT in recall election funded by Silicon Valley billionaires after they focused on renaming 44 schools instead of reopening them during pandemic

 Three woke San Francisco school board members who invested more time on social justice issues - like the botched renaming of 44 schools - instead of reopening them during the pandemic have been ousted in a rare recall election funded largely in part by Silicon Valley billionaires and millionaires. 

In a hot-button election, 70% of parents in the liberal city voted to recall the board members on Tuesday, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections.  

The school board has seven members, all Democrats, but only three were eligible to be recalled: school board President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins. 

The effort was well-funded by some of Silicon Valley's billionaires and millionaires, led by early Apple investor Arthur Rock, who poured more than $500,000 of his billion-dollar fortune into the recall. PayPal CEO David Sacks - who has three children and opposes mask mandates and school closures - donated $75,000, and venture capitalist Garry Tan donated $26,000.

Among parents' main frustrations were that the school board failed to address reopening schools during the pandemic, and instead focused their efforts on renaming 44 because they claimed they were named after 'problematic' American icons, like Paul Revere and Abraham Lincoln. 

But committee members embarrassed themselves after it was revealed they did not consult historians and used inaccurate Wikipedia entries and other non-scholarly sources to determine which personalities were racist and problematic. 

'The city of San Francisco has risen up and said this is not acceptable to put our kids last,' said Siva Raj, a parent who helped launch the recall effort. 

'Talk is not going to educate our children, it's action. It's not about symbolic action, it's not about changing the name on a school, it is about helping kids inside the school building read and learn math.'

The school board also scrapped merit-based competitive admissions at elite $42,000-a-year Lowell High School, which disadvantaged Asian American students.  

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is now tasked with appointing replacements to the board.   

'The voters of this city have delivered a clear message that the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else,' Mayor London Breed, who supported the recall, said in a statement. 'San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well.'

The election was the first recall in San Francisco since 1983, since a failed attempt to remove then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein after she passed a handgun ban.

San Francisco School Board Commissioner Alison Collins was voted out during Tuesday's recall election 

School Board President Gabriela López (left) and Vice President Faauuga Moliga (right), both Democrats, were ousted by parents angered over their prioritizing of progressive initiatives over school reopening  

Sarah Stettler, Jennie Lucas, and Elisa Smith cheer as they celebrate at the pro-recall party at Manny's restaurant on Tuesday

David Thompson (left) poses for a selfie with his son Lucas Tamayo-Thompson and friend Leanna Louie (right) as they celebrate the board members' recall on Tuesday in San Francsico

Billionaire and early Apple investor Arthur Rock, 95, poured more than $500,000 into the San Francisco school board recall campaign 

Silicon Valley millionaire investors David Sacks (left) and Garry Tan (right) contributed $75,000 and $26,000, respectively, to help oust the three board members 

Opponents called the recall a waste of time and money, as the district faces a number of challenges including a $125 million budget deficit and the need to replace retiring Superintendent Vincent Matthews.

But parents in the politically liberal city launched the recall effort in January 2021 out of frustration over the slow reopening of district schools, while the board pursued the renaming of 44 school sites and the elimination of merit-based competitive admissions at the elite $42,000-a-year Lowell High School.

The campaign to recall the three school board members attracted major donations from Rock, the 95-year-old billionaire who was an early investor in Intel and Apple; as well as Sacks and Tan. 

Rock, who has an estimated net worth of $1.1billion, has given nearly $400,000 directly to two recall committees, and an additional $150,000 to two political action committees supporting the effort, reported The Daily Beast.

Public records indicate that during the 1980s and 1990s, Rock donated money mainly to Republican candidates and causes, but over the past three decades he has emerged as a major Democratic donor, including to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

A major proponent of charter schools, Rock has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into school board elections in districts from coast to coast, including Los Angeles, Minnesota, New Mexico, Georgia and New York, reported Mission Local.

Additionally, Rock has donated some $12million to charter schools and organizations that promote charter schools all over the country. In San Francisco, the school board has been hostile to the proliferation of charter schools. Opponents of charter schools believe that charters draw the top students from regular public schools, leaving behind the most vulnerable students to be educated, with fewer resources, and reducing the overall quality of public education.  

The second-highest donor to the recall effort in San Francisco is David Sacks, the founding COO of PayPal and general partner at his venture capital fund, Craft Ventures, who contributed $75,000 to push out the three school board members, after bankrolling a failed effort to recall Gov Gavin Newsom. 

Sacks, who has been vocal about his opposition to school closures and mask mandates, tweeted after the vote on Tuesday: 'Every child deserves a high-quality education. School boards and administrators work for parents and students, not the other way round. Competence matters more than ideology. That's what San Francisco voters affirmed tonight.'

Garry Tan, co-founder of Initialized Capital, contributed just over $25,000 to the recall effort. Tan began donating to local elections last year, pouring $50,000 into a campaign to recall the ultra-progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who has been widely criticized as being soft-on-crime. 

The mayor, one of the most prominent endorsers of the recall, praised the parents, saying they 'were fighting for what matters most - their children.' 

Several of controversial tweets penned by Collins in December 2016 targeting Asian-Americans are pictured 

Siva Raj, a father-of-two tech entrepreneur, helped launch the recall effort alongside his partner Autumn Looijen (pictured together)

The pressures of the pandemic and distance learning have made school board races a hot-button topic as frustrations over pandemic measures reach a boiling point. 

In San Francisco, one of the nation's most liberal cities, the recall effort split Democrats. Breed, a Democrat, had criticized the school board for being distracted by 'political agendas.'

The ousted board members - Collins, Lopez and Moliga - had defended their records, saying they prioritized racial equity because that was what they were elected to do.

Both sides agreed that San Francisco's school board and the city itself had embarrassed itself under the national spotlight.  

One of the first issues to grab national attention was the board's January 2021 decision to rename 44 schools they said honored public figures linked to racism, sexism and other injustices. On the list were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and trailblazing U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Instead of consulting historians to inform their decisions, the committee members used inaccurate Wikipedia entries to justify renaming the schools.

Several citations used in the debate have now been proven to be factually incorrect, including a false claim that American poet James Russell Lowell did not want black people to vote and that Paul Revere's military activities were tied to 'the conquest of the Penobscot Indians'. 

Activist and first-grade teacher Jeremiah Jeffries, who led the committee, is said to have 'ridiculed' a proposal to bring in historians for consultation.

Jeffries reportedly stated: 'What would be the point? History is written and documented pretty well across the board. And so, we don't need to belabor history in that regard. We're not debating that. There's no point in debating history in that regard. Either it happened or it didn't.'

He added: 'Based on our criteria, it's a very straightforward conversation. And so, no need to bring historians forward to say – they either pontificate and list a bunch of reasons why, or [say] they had great qualities. Neither are necessary in this discussion.' 

The effort drew swift criticism and critics said it made a mockery of the country's racial reckoning. Angry parents asked why the board would waste time renaming schools when the priority needed to be reopening classrooms.

One of the first issues to grab national attention was the board's January 2021 decision to rename 44 schools they said honored public figures linked to racism, sexism and other injustices. On the list were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and trailblazing U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein . Instead of consulting historians to inform their decisions, the committee members used inaccurate Wikipedia entries to justify renaming the schools. Activist and first-grade teacher Jeremiah Jeffries (pictured), who led the committee, is said to have 'ridiculed' a proposal to bring in historians for consultation

The school board's plan to scrap merit-based admissions at the elite Lowell High School, where most students are Asian, drew ire from local parents

After an uproar, the school board scrapped the plan.

Collins came under fire again for tweets she wrote in 2016 that were widely criticized as racist. In them Collins, who is black, said Asian Americans used 'white supremacist' thinking to get ahead and were racist toward black students.

Racism against Asian Americans has come under a renewed focus since reports of attacks and discrimination escalated with the spread of the coronavirus, which first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China.

Collins said the tweets were taken out of context and posted before she held her school board position. She refused to take them down or apologize for the wording and ignored calls to resign from parents, Breed and other public officials.

Collins turned around and sued the district and her colleagues for $87million, fueling yet another pandemic sideshow. The suit was later dismissed.

Moliga (far right) canvassed with Dr. Ponipate Rokolekutu, left, and Gaynor Siataga, right, before polls closed on Tuesday

Many Asian parents were already angered by the board's efforts to end merit-based admissions at the elite Lowell High School, where Asian students are the majority.

As a result, many Asian American residents were motivated to vote for the first time in a municipal election. The grassroots Chinese/API Voter Outreach Task Force, which formed in mid-December, said it registered 560 new Asian American voters.

Ann Hsu, a mother of two who helped found the task force, said many Chinese voters saw the effort to change the Lowell admissions system as a direct attack.

'It is so blatantly discriminatory against Asians,' she said. In the city's Chinese community, Lowell is viewed as a path children can take to success.