California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Election may change the way the nation focuses on reforming education
What should have been a clear re-election victory for Democratic incumbent Tom Torlakson ended up turning into one of the most heated contests for Superintendent of Public Instruction California has ever seen. Most predicted that Torlakson would win a clear victory in the primary, but falling short with only 46.5% of the vote in the primary has forced Torlakson to face fellow Democrat Marshall Tuck in the general election. While each identifies with the Democratic Party, their stances on education are far from the same.
Torlakson is widely seen as the epitome of the status quo and as a former teacher supports teachers’ unions and the traditional public education system. Torlakson has tried to break his status quo image by taking the stance that he will push to bring reforms in certain areas of the educational system. In particular, he believes that improving the educational system must involve implementation of new Common Core standards and new testing methods.
Marshall Tuck, on the other hand, is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and the former President of Green Dot Public Schools, a leading charter school operator based in Los Angeles. He currently serves as the founding CEO of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. As CEO of this non-profit organization, Tuck worked with the Los Angeles Unified School District to operate 17 struggling public elementary, middle, and high schools serving 15,000 students. Tuck has broken the status quo and has helped introduce innovative digital learning programs to these struggling schools. Additionally a push for greater parent and community involvement has significantly raised the status of these once struggling schools. While many within the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools have praised Tuck, he has received much criticism from those outside the Partnership including teachers’ unions for his support of the ruling in Vergara v. California which dramatically alters the scope of teacher tenure laws.
The two candidates’ opposing stances on the educational system has pitted Democrats against each other and the results of the election may act as an indicator of what direction national education reform should take. Tuck’s push for a more challenging and adaptive educational environment alongside his support of stricter teacher tenure laws mirror the national schism in educational policy considering that similar concerns have been raised by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s push for more rigorous academic standards and new teacher evaluations.
The race has been influenced by $20 million dollars in campaign contributions from various sources. The contributors have ranged from advocates of the traditional education system such as the California Teachers Association supporting Torlakson to advocates of new innovative learning techniques, including philanthropists such as Michael Bloomberg, supporting Tuck. Whether all this money will have a true impact in swaying the 44% of still undecided voters is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that the national debate for education reform has escalated to a new level and that the real winners or losers in this election will be the children of our nation.