Top schools chief flexing his fundraising prowess
During the pandemic, public education became a highly contentious arena for vitriol around masking, vaccines and reopening schools. But those tensions didn't culminate in a heated election for California's top schools chief.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has raised more than 10 times as much money as all his other competitors combined, and he's earned endorsements from powerful teachers unions and interest groups, making him likely to glide easily into a second fouryear term. Because it's a nonpartisan contest, unlike the other statewide offices on Tuesday's primary ballot, if he or someone else wins a majority of the vote, they are immediately elected, without a November runoff.
Thurmond's smooth path is despite reports of a toxic management style, questionable hiring practices and a general lack of leadership in helping schools navigate the pandemic.
Thurmond, a former state Assemblymember and social worker, says he stands by his accomplishments.
“The reason I want this job is because I see what schools need, and I want to see them bounce back,” he said in an interview. “I know how to move the systems to help them get what they need.”
Numerous educators, lawmakers and experts who have worked with Thurmond say much of his work happens behind the scenes. He has launched various task forces and working groups of education experts who generated sets of recommendations for legislation.
Shelley Spiegel-Coleman, a strategic adviser for Californians Together, an advocacy organization for English learners, said Thurmond helped protect funding for teachers' profes
sional development.
“He listens to the multiple voices, and I don't think people give him enough credit for that,” SpiegelColeman said.
The responsibilities of the state superintendent of public instruction are twofold. First, it's to oversee the California Department of Education and its 1,500 employees. The agency largely helps local schools and districts implement the policies set by lawmakers in Sacramento.
Second, the state superintendent uses the office's bully pulpit to bring attention to key issues in education, including literacy, the achievement gap or racial discrimination in schools. The superintendent can then influence the state budget or bills in the Legislature.
The office does not allow for direct control over California's public schools, which largely operate under “local control.” While parents called for Thurmond to reopen schools during the pandemic, he said he wasn't able to do that with “a push of a button.”
Despite these limited powers, the contest for state superintendent hasn't always been this tepid. In 2018, Thurmond and his opponent Marshall Tuck spent a combined $50 million in their campaigns.
Tuck ran on a pro-charter schools platform, which turned the election into a proxy war between teachers unions and advocates for more school choice. But political insiders say the money spent in that election was nowhere near proportional to the powers of the office.
“A lot of the fights around charters are centered around changes to the law,” said Barrett Snider, a lobbyist for school districts with Capitol Advisors. “It's not something that the state's superintendent can do alone.”
Snider said the battle over charter schools has calmed since the last election because the fallout from the pandemic has displaced the debate over school choice.
None of Thurmond's challengers this year have raised nearly as much money as Tuck did, but multiple candidates including Lance Christensen, an education policy executive from the Sacramento region, and George Yang, a software architect from the Bay Area, are calling for loosening restrictions on charter schools.
In his first term, Thurmond created eight task forces. These teams of experts and educators met to discuss ways to address the achievement gap, literacy and access to technology.
Thurmond said the findings from these task forces have informed bills related to diversifying the teacher workforce and expanding summer literacy programs. He said he “stayed up all night” writing a bill, Senate Bill 1229, that would provide more mental health professionals at schools. The bill passed the Senate in late May and is in the Assembly.
“I assimilated some ideas that came out of the task force, but I wrote the legislation,” he said. “Task force members never said, `Hey write a bill.' They said we need culturally competent mental health clinicians.”
The digital divide task force, launched in April 2020 to address the challenges of virtual instruction during the pandemic, raised more than $30 million and distributed more than 100,000 computers and hotspots.
Thurmond is no stranger to controversy and criticism. In September, Politico reported that former employees alleged that Thurmond created a “toxic” workplace through an abusive management style. According to the report, nearly two dozen senior officials had left the agency since Thurmond entered office.
Another Politico report found that he had hired a deputy superintendent to oversee equity who was living in Philadelphia while working for the California Department of Education. Daniel Lee resigned days after the report was published. Thurmond said his team got some “bad advice” on who he could hire.
Thurmond has played a supporting role to Newsom and the California Department of Public Health in helping schools navigate the pandemic. He was absent at a 2021 press conference where Newsom and other lawmakers announced the plan to reopen public schools.
“Saying he played a support role is very generous,” challenger Christensen said of Thurmond. “He was a nonentity.”
Thurmond said his absence from the spotlight has been blown out of proportion.
“The only evidence anyone has ever given is me not being at one press conference,” Thurmond said. “I've visited 60 school districts and brought resources to help schools bridge past the pandemic.”
Pedro Noguera, the dean of the USC Rossier School of Education who participated in Thurmond's Black student achievement task force, said the superintendent could have done more to support local school boards.
“We had all this controversy over vaccines, over mask mandates, over school reopenings,” he said. “I don't see the California Department of Education doing anything to protect school boards.”