Very different visions of schools on ballot
In a race that will determine the future of public schools in the Golden State following two years of pandemic closures, student learning loss, crippling enrollment declines and rising chronic absenteeism rates, California voters this fall will choose between very different Superintendent of Public Instruction candidates: incumbent and longtime politician Tony Thurmond and parent choice advocate Lance Christensen.
Thurmond received 45.9% of the vote in the June primary — short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff, as voters, upset about the ways schools were handled during the pandemic, split their choices among six other candidates. Christensen took second place with 11.9% of the votes, and will go head to head with Thurmond in the Nov. 8 election.
The Bay Area News Group interviewed both candidates about their priorities for K-12 education and how they will implement their plans come November if elected. The candidates largely disagree on school vouchers, teachers unions and even ethnic studies and sex education curriculum.
Thurmond has held the state superintendent job since 2019. In other political roles, he's served as a state assemblyman, Richmond city councilman and West Contra Costa Unified School District school board member. He is endorsed by the California Teachers Association and the Democratic Party, among others.
Thurmond has pulled in more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions. He spent $724,000 from
Jan. 1 through May 21, the last pre-primary election reporting deadline, and has over $500,000 on hand for the general election, according to state campaign finance records.
Thurmond is running on a platform of experience, proven ability to work with the Legislature and the state governor to implement policy, and his commitment to keeping state funding in public schools.
Christensen is the vice president of education policy and government relations at the California Policy Center, and a former finance budget analyst for the Department of Finance. Christensen is endorsed by the groups Reopen California Schools, Contra Costa County Parents, the Patriots for Freedom PAC and others.
He received about $42,000 in campaign contributions and spent about $23,000 between Jan. 1 and May 21, leaving about $20,000 on hand, according to state campaign finance records. He lives in Wheatland, a city in Yuba County north of Sacramento.
Unlike his opponent, Christensen is running on a platform of parent choice, conservative values and expertise in state finances. He opposes teachers unions, curriculum surrounding sex education and ethnic studies — which he deems “Critical Race Theory,” supports the parent choice movement calling for vouchers for private schools, and leaving financial decisions in hands of local school districts.
“Thurmond has been a non-entity during school closures and the pandemic,” Christensen said. “We knew we could get in there and would have a shot for the general (election).”
The race is nonpartisan, yet a conservative candidate like Christensen may have not garnered as much support in pre-pandemic years in the liberal majority state of California.
In a massive shift in interest in who is leading public schools, sleepy school board races are now hot button political contests.
Swaths of votes for Christensen came from counties in the Central Valley and far north of the state, Orange County, San Luis Obispo and San Diego counties. Thurmond garnered more than 50% of the vote in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.
In an interview, Thurmond defended the support he's created for families during the pandemic. Over the last few years, he sponsored several bills, including one by state Sen. Anthony Portantino that could help train and place 10,000 new mental health clinicians in schools, and a budget proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom to allocate millions for literacy coaches and reading specialists.
Funding for those areas are reflected in the state's new $128 billion budget for schools recently signed by the governor.
The state school budget has increased by nearly 13% on Thurmond's watch. The additional funds include more than $1 billion dollars for community schools — public schools that provide services to support their neighborhoods.
If reelected, he wants to increase student access to career technical education programs and STEM programs, and provide avenues to recruit more educators to fill a critical teacher labor shortage.
If elected, Christensen said he would encourage the state to conduct an audit of the funding divvied out to school districts during the pandemic. He said he would also work on giving parents more choice and schools more local-level control over budgets and other items, but did not offer specifics.
“They need to own their own success and failures,” he said. He supports vouchers for private schools, and plans to let parents decide where funding for their kids should go, whether it be to a charter, private, virtual or home-schooling.
“We saw public schools ill-prepared to take on the distance learning framework (during the pandemic), but charter schools were mostly adaptable to that,” Christensen said. “Instead of incentivizing more of that kind of behavior, we've continued to push back charter schools and methods.”
Thurmond said his opponent is fear-mongering. He said his team will work hard against any privatization and vouchers, and work to get kids and families back to public schools amid declining enrollment which worsened during the pandemic.
“I think parents have the right to be upset, but the pandemic has a taken a million lives and created huge disruption and we've seen high levels of depression in students,” Thurmond said. “During that time, I've been helping get schools a million computers and helping them get rapid COVID tests. … Our parent power group and other efforts give a reason for parents to re-invest in California schools.”