San Francisco Youth Commission presents budget priorities; committee votes to hear and file

The San Francisco Youth Commission on March 19 presented a set of budget and policy priorities for fiscal years 2025–26 and 2026–27 to the Board of Supervisors' Budget and Appropriations Committee, urging sustained or expanded funding for youth voter engagement, school food and wellness services, affordable and educator housing, climate resilience and literacy, youth employment and youth-specific homelessness supports.

The commission’s chair, Jason Fong, told the committee the commission is “a body of 17 young people,” appointed by supervisors and the mayor to advise the mayor and Board of Supervisors. Fong said the commission drafted its priorities while acknowledging the city’s near $1 billion budget deficit and the changing federal administration, and that commissioners conducted extensive outreach to inform the recommendations.

The commission’s priorities included expanding in-school opportunities for 16- and 17-year-old preregistration and continued funding for youth voter outreach; reducing youth social isolation through funded youth events and programs; accelerating completion of SFUSD’s central kitchen and restoring the school food advisory program to improve school meals; and consistent funding for nonprofit in-school youth-development providers and school wellness centers, including…