California voters are deciding Tuesday who should advance in the race for state superintendent of public instruction, a low-profile primary contest that will help shape leadership over the state’s 10,000 public K-12 schools.
Ten candidates are running for the nonpartisan office, including several longtime state lawmakers and local education leaders. The top two vote-getters will move on to the November election.
The race comes at a difficult moment for public education in California. School systems are facing budget uncertainty, declining enrollment, uneven academic performance, questions about artificial intelligence in classrooms and other pressures affecting campuses from San Bernardino and Riverside counties to Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego.
The future of the office itself is also uncertain. In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a major restructuring of California’s education governance system that would reduce the superintendent’s authority. Under his plan, most decision-making power would shift to the governor-appointed State Board of Education and a newly appointed education commissioner, while the superintendent would serve more as a public policy advocate.
Newsom has said the change would make the state’s education bureaucracy more transparent and accountable while bringing California closer to how many other states oversee schools. Candidates in the race have criticized the proposal, arguing it would weaken voters’ role in choosing education leadership and give too much power to the governor’s office.
Newsom and current Superintendent Tony Thurmond are both termed out this year.
Unlike past superintendent campaigns, this year’s contest has been relatively quiet. An April poll showed no candidate with more than 10% support, while 32% of voters remained undecided. As of last week, no candidate had raised more than a few hundred thousand dollars. That is a sharp contrast to the 2018 race between Thurmond and former charter school executive Marshall Tuck, which drew more than $50 million in contributions.
One of the most notable developments this year has been the shared endorsement of Richard Barrera, a San Diego Unified school board member, by both the California Teachers Association and the California Charter Schools Association. The two groups have historically been on opposite sides of some of the most expensive and bitter education campaigns in the state.
Their joint support reflects a shift in the politics surrounding charter schools. For much of the past two decades, charter school policy was a defining issue in superintendent races and a major source of campaign spending. This year, it has drawn far less attention, as charter enrollment appears to have leveled off and traditional public schools and charter schools face many of the same statewide challenges.
Also drawing attention is Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board in San Bernardino County. Shaw became a prominent figure in statewide education politics in 2023 after clashing with Thurmond over policies involving transgender students’ privacy rights. She has centered her campaign on opposition to LGBTQ-related school policies. In the April poll, she was tied with Barrera.
Other leading candidates include Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a former chair of the Assembly Education Committee; Josh Newman, a former chair of the Senate Education Committee; Anthony Rendon, a former Assembly speaker and longtime early education administrator; Nichelle Henderson, a Los Angeles Community College District board member; and Ainye Long, a teacher in San Francisco Unified.
The state superintendent’s job pays $210,460 a year.
Original source: CalMatters
