STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS RACE PITS TEACHER WHO BACKS STRONG PUBLIC SCHOOLS VS. PRIVATIZATION ADVOCATE BACKED BY OPPONENTS OF PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING

By Miriam Raftery

November 2, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) - One of the closest election contests statewide is shaping up in the California Superintendent of Education race.

The race pits incumbent Tom Torlakson, a former teacher who is backed by the American Federation of Teachers and the California Teachers Association, against Marshall Tuck, a charter school administrator , Harvard Business School graduate and former Wall Street banker who wants to weaken teacher tenure protections and supports school vouchers among other “reforms.” A Field Poll shows the two candidates in a virtual dead heat.

Torlakson states, “my opponent is bankrolled by people who want to cut education funding, shut down public pensions and privatize our public schools.”  His funders include Carrie Walton Penner, daughter of Walmart’s chairman, who previously spent large sums in an effort to defeat Prop 30, a  measure that provided more money to public schools in California. Torlakson supported Prop 30. He also worked to boost funds to school districts to implement new Common Core standards and fund programs for new career and college readiness programs and internships.

Tuck claims reforms are needed because California’s schools have ranked low nationally on test scores for math and reading.  He claims to have turned around low-performing schools for needy kids in Los Angeles.  But a study by UC Berkeley found a 50% turnaround rate among charter school middle and high school teachers, including a high turnover rate in Green Dot Charter schools overseen by Tuck.

A Los Angeles Times article reported that two years into Tuck’s leadership, low-performing schools at other LA Unified schools had greater achievement gains than the schools under Tuck’s charters, despite more money spent at the schools Tuck oversaw .  Out of 16 schools that Tuck oversaw as CEO of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, 15 of them posted English/language arts scores below the state average in the 2012-13 school year and 11 of the 16 failed to meet the state average for math.

Tuck contends, “We need major changes in public education and in a system with 6 million students, change can’t happen overnight.” 

But Torlakson points to improvements on his watch as California’s Superintendent   of schools, including an increase high school graduation rates to an all-time high of 80%, as well as increases in eighth grade reading levels and improved funding for public education statewide.  He concludes, “This is not the time to put progress at risk.”