Dive Brief:
- The approaching June 3 primary vote for California's ed chief highlights the two sides of the national education debate.
- Incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson views his main challenger Marshall Tuck as someone who will strip away organizing and bargaining rights, push for charter school expansions, and give power to wealthy philanthropists and advocacy groups.
- Opponents of Torlakson view him as entrenched in the old, ineffective ways of education that they say give too much power to unions, tenured teachers, and neighborhood schools.
Dive Insight:
The California race highlights many of the bigger themes playing out in education right now and the winner will indicate where citizens are leaning. Often with education, the big players — lawmakers, philanthropists and advocacy groups — and their views on education take center state. Gaging where the everyday people stand can, understandably, become difficult. This upcoming vote, however, will give the rest of the nation a better idea on what the general public actually wants from its schools.