I am a kindergarden dad. Even scarier, I am a kindergarden dad of a child in (gasp) a San Francisco Public School. I heard all the same horror stories everyone else. I heard of union teachers who are lazy, greedy and unskilled. I saw the stories of school facilities teeming with rusty nails waiting to snag MY son. I even anticipated him running home, hiding under his bed and crying through the night. Well, it didn't quite happen that way.
The teacher is friendly, professional, holds a Masters degree and even graduated from one of the best high schools in Northern California. By the end of the week, she knew all the kids' names, who the parents grandparents and guardians are and even who had turned in which forms. She even called us one evening from home to answer a question. The building is old (constructed in the 1940's), but the interior is clean and well-kept. it has two large yards complete with new basketball nets. The sectary was patient and helped me untangle some last-minute administrative issues. By the end of the second week, the kids were hugging the teacher at the end of class and my son enjoyed the first week of after-school that he literally cried when I came to pick him up.
No, not all is perfect. Like most public schools they are under-equipped and understaffed. But after a month of looking high and low for proof that the terrible stories are true, I just cannot find it. Facts do have a liberal bias.