The board voted 9-2 on Tuesday to place a charter amendment on the November ballot that would allow non-citizens, illegal as well as legal, to vote if they have children in the city's costly but failed government school monopoly.

"This is important because it further democratizes our society," huffed board president Matt Gonzalez. He wrote the measure partly as a response to what he called "the post-Sept. 11, anti-immigrant sentiment that has taken hold in much of the rest of the country."

Note to Gonzalez: An immigrant is someone who has gone through legal channels. That doesn't include illegal aliens, and it's a severe insult to America's immigrants to lump them in with criminals.

If you think it's only border states such as California that force taxpayers to fund illegal aliens' schooling, you're sadly mistaken. North Carolina's government high schools, for example, graduated as many as 1,450 illegal aliens this year, the Associated Press reported last week. Urban Institute estimates that 65,000 illegal aliens graduated nationwide this year. Those figures don't even include all the drop-outs.

Fortunately, AP reported today that San Francisco's latest scheme has already generated opposition. "The city attorney advised supervisors that it if the measure is subjected to a legal challenge, a court would likely find it in conflict with the state constitution, which requires voters to be U.S. citizens."

One of the city's two sensible supervisors, Fiona Ma, said: "There is no question that improving our schools should be a priority for this body. But expanding voting rights to non-citizens does nothing to further those ends."

Incidentally, it's apparent that San Francisco has a much softer spot for foreign lawbreakers than for America's president. Residents will also vote in November on whether to "demand" that President Bush bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq.

When he refuses, we look forward to seeing and hearing the world's most hilarious hissy fit.

Editor's note: