In November of 2018, Tony Thurmond and Marshall Tuck will face off in the election for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Superintendent of Public Instruction is the figurehead of state education stances and, as C.K.M. AP Government teacher Ms. Jablonski states,“guides education policy.” While the Superintendent cannot technically set education policy, they do have great influence as the highest elected official over state K-12 schools.
With Tuck edging Thurmond by a 37% to a 35.6% vote in the primary, both are moving onto the general election. The two will go head to head on a couple of specific issues, including the debate over support for teacher unions and public schools versus charter schools.
According to political news editor John Fensterwald of EdSource, Marshall Tuck is an avid supporter of privately-funded charter schools. He spent almost 20 years as a school administrator and has served as the president for a network of charter high schools.
On the other hand, Thurmond is a supporter of the teacher unions and the betterment of CA public schools. Before entering into politics, he started as a social worker in many nonprofit organizations to help underprivileged children in the Bay Area.
Both candidates are Democrats but, by nature of the election, are listed as nonpartisan. Fensterwald states that California has “the nation’s largest and most ethnically diverse school system, with 6 million students,” making the election for this state and the outcome quite important. Wealthy, privately funded, charter schools have already given $7 million towards Tuck’s campaign, and the CA Teachers Association Union has given $3 million towards Thurmond’s campaign.
Now, students might be thinking, why would some CA elected position that they’ve probably never heard of concern them? Well, believe it or not, it does.
C.K.M. is a perfect example of a large, diverse public high school, and issues affecting public schools and their teachers are critical in this election.
“We need someone who will not only support McClatchy, but will support this [McClatchy] vision statewide…if we want a better democratic society, this is how you’re going to get it, making schools like ours work,” said Ms. Jablonski.
With this election and local elections in general, even though high school students cannot vote, they can still help to influence the votes of adults they know and educate them on potential policies and effects that can come from the chosen candidate.