CHRISTENSEN: I SEE PARENTS AS KEY TO FIXING K-12 SCHOOLS

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

A: I am a happily married father of five children, now in kindergarten through 12th grade. All are in public schools, with the two oldest in high school and the three youngest homeschooled through a charter school. I know what it’s like to be a parent in today’s education environment, and I’m running to add parents back into the education equation. I’ve been a coach, mentor and lay church leader and have served on numerous community and school board committees.

I also taught fourth grade in Aurora, Colo., after getting a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University in 2001 and before finishing a master’s in public policy degree from Pepperdine University in 2004.

I work at California Policy Center as the vice president of education policy and government affairs and I am a parents’ rights advocate through Parent Union. As such, I was one of the principal architects of the school choice initiative for education savings accounts that circulated this last year.

I was a legislative chief of staff to thenstate Sen. John Moorlach, R-costa Mesa, and a legislative director to then-state Sen. Tom Mcclintock, R-elk Grove, working in and out of the Legislature for 17 years. I also spent time as a finance budget analyst in the Schwarzenegger administration, doing public safety and education funding issues.

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:

I would have done everything different. He abdicated his constitutional authority on schools to the governor and was hardly a presence advocating for kids. While Thurmond did the bidding of the teachers union and kept the schools closed when they could have been opened, I would have been out front making sure that kids were getting back to school as quickly and safely as possible. When our kids lost years of education opportunities and he stood by and did little except for send money for laptops and Wi-fi service, I would have take federal and state relief funds and created accounts for kids to get the kinds of tutoring they needed. And rather than cap charter school enrollment when public schools were closed, as happened when the Legislature passed SB 98 without any pushback from the incumbent, I would have allowed for more charter schools to open. Thurmond admits that he was absent in this extraordinary time but promises to do better. But we saw his lack of leadership, so why would anyone want to do that again? I would commit to not abandoning our kids and making sure that parents were fully involved.

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:

Quit ignoring parents. No amount of government resources or programs or mandates are of any use if the parent doesn’t have a say in where those resources go. When parents feel empowered and can have a say about their child’s education, everyone does better.

Q:

California is facing a teacher shortage, which was only made worse during the pandemic. What is your specific plan to address this?