AMARAL: I WILL BE INDEPENDENT VOICE SCHOOLS BADLY NEED

Q: What in your background makes you the best candidate for this job?

A: I am the only candidate in this race who has worked as a classified employee, specifically as a special education paraprofessional, and as a certificated employee, specifically as a special education teacher. Further, I am the only candidate in this race with a master’s degree in education and the only candidate to obtain a doctorate degree in education within two years of the election. Additionally, I am board president for the South Bay Union School District in Imperial Beach and an education activist of over 12 years. In essence, I am the only candidate in this race who inhabits multiple sectors within education, and I have dedicated my life to education. I am not a career politician. I am a teacher. I believe it is time that the people who work most directly with students be the ones in charge of education.

Our education system is in the state it is in because for far too long people have used the institution of education as a steppingstone to advance their own personal ambitions, not to actually improve students’ lives. I am running for state superintendent of public instruction because my students, your students, our communities, families and employees deserve to have a team that knows what it means to actually work at a school full-time and are willing to work with all their heart for every student in California — not for a political party, not for a millionaire, not for union leaders, for you.

Q:

Tony Thurmond has been criticized for not playing a more central role during the pandemic. How would you have led during it? What would you have done differently?

A:

This is one of the central themes that inspired me to run for this position. When I ask many of my co-workers who the superintendent of public instruction is, many of them simply don’t know. When I ask my students’ families, the number is almost non-existent. Superintendent Thurmond was supposed to lead public schools during this pandemic, but instead he was more concerned with making Gov. Gavin Newsom look good.

To start off, I would not have been silent to the governor’s blatant mistakes — from the incredibly slow dispersal of KN95/N95 masks to bribing our schools to reopen using Proposition 98 funds after the spring break of 2021, causing extremely dangerous conditions for our most vulnerable families. However, if I had to choose one mistake that Superintendent Thurmond contributed to that would sum up my frustration, it is his complete negligence toward our students with disabilities and their families. The pandemic only reinforced what students with disabilities have known for years — their lives do not matter, their families’ lives do not matter, their education does not matter. Decisions in Sacramento were made with the most able-bodied students in mind, not with our most vulnerable ones. If I were in the position of superintendent during the pandemic, I would have centered the needs of our most vulnerable communities, not the recall election of the governor.

Q:

Awareness of California’s persistent achievement gap and concerns about student and teacher mental health have been heightened during the pandemic. What, specifically, would you do to address this?

A:

Yes, certain communities do achieve higher test scores, graduation rates and overall better life experiences than other communities, but those differences,