BARRERA MINUTE #15 – DOES THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLICINSTRUCTION EVEN MATTER NOW?

There’s an old saying in politics, "Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made." You may have heard about the sausage-making the Governor and state legislature engaged in when they recently pushed through a major re-structuring of the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction using a rushed process with very little input.

The measure transfers much of the management responsibility for the California Department of Education from the elected State Superintendent to an Education Commissioner appointed by and beholden to the Governor.

If you’re like me, your first reaction to this was disappointment and frustration. But I am a person who, in the face of challenges, always sees the opportunities. In other words, despite the unsavory process that got us here, the newly configurated office of State Superintendent offers many opportunities for the person in that role to be effective in bringing reform and student success to every district in the state.

But don’t take my word for it. Please read the following opinion piece by the current and a former Superintendent of Public Instruction:

THE OFFICE OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT IS NOW

MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

by Jack O’Connell and Tony Thurmond

If you blinked, you might have missed it. Buried within the massive state budget bill recently adopted by the Governor and the State Legislature was a provision that transferred the management of our state’s educational bureaucracy from the elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction to an Education Commissioner appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the Governor.

Not everyone was happy about this. Little opportunity was given for classroom teachers -- those closest to our students -- to offer input. Nor were the voters consulted. They established the office of State Superintendent in the state constitution in 1849 and have rejected four separate attempts to eliminate it.

California voters will select the next State Superintendent in November. Many now ask, “Does this office even matter anymore?” Our answer is a resounding “Yes!”

As described by the new legislation, the Superintendent will now be an independently elected nonpartisan voice for the public interest in the governance of the state’s educational systems,

from early childhood education through higher education, including community colleges, the California State University system, and the University of California. The Superintendent is empowered to travel throughout the state to engage with local education leaders to assess and make recommendations regarding trends, challenges and emerging issues in education. He or she is charged with representing the public interest through advocacy with the Legislature and the Governor on areas of high public concern and to make recommendations for addressing identified challenges.

The Superintendent will now also have a vote on the State Board of Education, as opposed to the current system in which the Superintendent’s role is advisory only. As a voting Board member, the Superintendent will have a say in establishing statewide educational policy, which the Department of Education and the Commissioner will then be bound to implement. This will be a platform for advocating for meaningful change.

Taken together, these duties are a mandate for the State Superintendent to be a convener, an organizer, a visionary, and a champion, free from the constraints of bureaucracy and politics. It sounds like a dream job to us.

Based on our sixteen years of collective experience in the role, the heart of the work of the State Superintendent has always involved listening to local educational leaders and communities about the challenges they face, identifying what is working and what isn’t, and advancing solutions and new initiatives to improve outcomes for California’s students. It was never just about the management of 1500 staff members, most of whom are tasked with regulating and ensuring the compliance of local school districts, or managing the Department of Education’s budget. It was never about the corner office or the big building in Sacramento. It was always about a vision of what is best for students.

Using this “bully pulpit” we were able to implement education programs during our tenures that have proven transformational. We narrowed the academic achievement gap for Black, Latino and poor students; shrank class sizes; modernized career and technical education to reflect today’s job market; expanded transitional kindergarten to include all four-year-olds; made free school meals universal; and created the Learning Communities for School Success Program, which channeled money saved from reduced incarceration to support local initiatives to improve attendance and graduation rates and support at-risk students. We traveled to local communities and talked directly to the educators and parents on the front lines. We listened and learned, elevated success stories, and showed local districts how much power they had to make change in their own backyards.

Relieved of bureaucratic burdens, the incoming State Superintendent can go beyond what we achieved. The ideal person for the job is someone who prioritizes collaboration over top-down mandates and who has a track record of bringing educators, parents, students and community leaders together around a shared vision of success. (Full disclosure: we both have endorsed San Diego Unified School Board President Richard Barrera, who fits this description to a T). No longer an administrator, the next State Superintendent can dedicate all of

their time and attention to the big ideas. Despite the way they went about it, the Governor and the Legislature may have just opened the door to a bold new way of ensuring world class public schools for California’s students. It will matter.

Jack O’Connell (left) was California Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2003 to 2011. Tony Thurmond (right) has been California Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2019.

With your help, I will be elected to the newly strengthened role of State Superintendent in November. Please use the links below to support my campaign.

Richard

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