Budget Committee backs compromise to split ERAF windfall across homelessness, schools and early childhood

The Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee on an extended hearing accepted amendments to competing ordinances that would spend a multihundred‑million dollar ERAF (excess educational revenue augmentation fund) windfall on homelessness, housing, early‑childhood education and K–12 teacher pay.

Chair Sandra Lee Feuer opened the hearing after the committee and the mayor's office circulated competing proposals. The two substitute ordinances seek to split discretionary ERAF money after mandatory baselines and charter‑required allocations; the balance available for discretionary spending was described repeatedly at the hearing as roughly $185 million.

After more than three hours of public comment from hundreds of speakers — including teachers, early‑childhood educators, parents and homelessness advocates — the committee adopted a package of amendments that the city controller summarized as the balanced approach. The amendments create a teacher and early‑childhood educator reserve funded with $52 million of one‑time ERAF/rainy‑day money. The ordinance language makes the reserve a limited, "last‑resort" source for wage gap funding in fiscal year 2020–21 if other city or district…