May 22: Who’s Running For State Superintendent And Why It Matters
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Transcript
39 segmentsSupport for this podcast comes from the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, connecting communities with the resources, infrastructure, and networks to ensure a vibrant local free press. From KVPR in Fresno, this is Central Valley Daily. Happy Friday, it's May 22nd. I'm Sarith Hawke. California is less than two weeks away from the primary elections on June 2nd. And while the governor's race has taken up most of the headlines, one statewide office with major influence has gotten less attention. The state superintendent oversees the Department of Education and acts as sort of a policy champion, works with the legislature to push through bills, works with the governor. Today we learn about the people running for that office and more about what exactly the role entails. But first, these headlines. The Fresno City Council voted unanimously Thursday to move a new Costco commercial center to northwest Fresno. Costco will relocate from its current location on Shaw Avenue to a 22-acre lot of vacant land at Herndon Avenue and Riverside Drive. Mayor Jerry Dyer applauded the move. He said he anticipates the project will bring in $15 million in tax revenue. Critics say the proposal exempts Costco from paying millions more in city developer fees. A measure that seeks to replace Fresno County's transportation tax, also known as Measure C, may not have the signatures required to make it onto the November ballot. Fresno's elections clerk says a random sampling of signatures initially submitted by supporters does not meet a needed benchmark to qualify before having to validate each one. Our newsroom partner Fresno land reports, the county clerk cannot guarantee he can count tens of thousands of signatures by the July deadline. Data centers are expanding into water-stressed communities across California. At the same time, data center operators are using loopholes to hide how much water these facilities are using. These findings are from a new report backed by Santa Clara University and the think tank Next 10. CalMatters Molly Peterson has more. The report found data center projects can slip through with little environmental review if they stay under a certain size or water use threshold. Two bills in the state legislature could add oversight. Sam Mateo Assembly member Diane Papin is behind them. If a basin is already in crisis, we shouldn't add major new demand without a very careful review.
One bill would require operators to disclose water use when seeking or renewing a business license. The Advocacy Group Data Center Coalition claims such projects use less water than farming or other industries, but relies only on estimates to back that up. That was Molly Peterson with Cal Matters. Newly released security camera footage shows a suspect entering the backyard of the Fresno City Attorney this past Sunday. The footage was released after the public learned city attorney Andrew Jans and his family were the alleged victims of an assault at their home. KVPR previously cited initial news reports that said Jans was held at knife point. Those media reports have since been corrected. In the video reported by ABC 30, the suspect is seen entering Jans' backyard holding what appears to be a sharp object. He's later shown being taken into custody by police. The suspect pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday to attempted first-degree burglary and trespassing. This Memorial Day will have some of the highest gasoline prices the country has seen in years. AAA reports that the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline, as of Thursday, stands at $4.56. In California, that figure is above $6.10. Some good news for us here, though. The Central Valley remains one of the most affordable regions of the state to buy gas.
Explore the history of the people and places of our region with KVPR's Central Valley Roots. I'm the host, Joe Moore. Every new episode, I bring you little-known stories of our region. Find the latest episode of Central Valley Roots wherever you get your podcasts or visit kvpr.org slash roots. And now to our main story. It's one of the biggest races in California that no one is talking about, state superintendent of public instruction. The nonpartisan role oversees California's Department of Public Education and executes policies set by the State Board of Education. The state school's chief leads California's K-12 public education system, which serves nearly 6 million students. Current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, has been in the position for two consecutive terms and is now running for governor himself. That leaves open a wide field of candidates looking to replace him. But why isn't the race getting more attention and which candidates are gaining an edge? I spoke to Carolyn Jay Jones, education reporter with our news partner CalMatters. She lays out how the race is shaping up so far. Well, there's about 10 people running for state superintendent. There's a few legislative veterans. There are a few school board members. There's a teacher. There's a nonprofit leader. So it's a good group of people this term. And what are the challenges that they're facing in trying to differentiate themselves in this race or even get attention for it, which is the reason why you wrote this story? Yeah, it's a challenge because most of them agree on most of the issues. So that's the first thing. It's hard to differentiate themselves from each other. But then also, people aren't really paying too much attention to this race. The governor's race is generating far more attention. And then also what's happening in Washington, D.C., has kind of got people's attention as well, particularly those who are interested in education. So the candidates are really trying hard at this point to not make a lot of enemies, but yet still differentiate themselves from each other. Yeah, and we'll get to a little bit more about what's happening in Washington, D.C. But first, just to orient ourselves, if you're not exactly familiar with the state superintendent of public instruction, what does that role do here in California? The state superintendent oversees the Department of Education and acts as sort of a policy champion, works with the legislature to push through bills, works with the governor, works with the State Board of Education, and then local school districts and county offices of education. So sort of acts as... kind of a champion for public education in California and to provide a vision for what can happen in our schools and also at the state level. So my understanding is that the role of the state superintendent could actually be changing. Could you tell us more about what Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed for this position? Sure. Back in January, the governor proposed completely kind of rejiggering the entire job.
It had been something that had been talked about for a long time, probably even 100 years, to be honest. And because there's been a lot of research showing that the way California governs schools is a little, I think someone called it a crazy quilt. We have the State Board of Education, the governor's office, the legislature, the state superintendent, local, you know, there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. And so the governor and then a lot of... researchers had suggested streamlining the whole process to make it a little bit more clear who's in, you know, where the power lies and who's accountable for what and who should answer for things. And so he proposed simplifying the job somewhat and spinning off most of the superintendent's duties to the state board of education, which is appointed by the governor and making the state superintendent more of a, of a, A figurehead, someone who can still champion for policy, but doesn't actually have a lot of day-to-day power. I see. So it's essentially taking something that is an elected role and turning it over into something that's more of an appointed overseeing role. Correct. The job would still be elected as it is now. That would require, you know, the voters to kind of change the state constitution to change that. So he's just changing the job duties. And it's something that he's proposed through his budget trailer bill. So we'll see it goes. And there's another bill in the legislature right now that would make a few changes to that. And has the current superintendent been able to comment about these proposed changes? Has Tony Thurman been able to clarify how that would affect the successor's role? Yeah, he's come out against it, and so have most of the people who are running for state superintendent now. They say that this is an elected position. It's the public's opportunity to elect a school leader, a statewide school leader, and that that would be taken away from the public. So that's, yeah, most of them are against it. So getting back to the current race to replace Tony Thurmond, what are some of the issues that are really dominating the focus of the candidates running? Well, there's everyone, there's a real consensus that literacy and math in California really needs to improve that students really need to do better in those two arenas. And it's a question of how we get there, but that's something, you know, the real basics like student achievement is the one thing that everyone seems to agree on. They also talk about student engagement, how to improve student attendance and, you know, the graduation rate and just other measurements about how happy kids are in school. And then the other bigger issues as well are declining enrollment, which is happening in most places in California and is forcing some really difficult decisions about school closures, staffing, and funding, and then of course also state funding and prop 98 and kind of tweaking that to make sure it's equitable for all schools and that the state is living up to its end of the obligation.
Yeah, just real big ticket issues, I guess, that everyone is talking about. You also reported that campaign spending in this race is really much more down this year compared to previous state superintendent elections. Can you talk about why that's the case? Is there anything in particular that's causing that? Sure. I mean, it's still early. I mean, this is just the primary coming up, and I'm sure things will heat up once we get closer to November and more donations will come in. But so far, yeah, the spending is relatively low. I think so far there's only been, you know, less than $3 million has been raised among all the candidates, which is very low. In the past, the state superintendent's rates has really generated a lot of interest and a lot of donations, a lot of rancor, mostly over charter schools. Charter schools don't seem to be such a big issue this go-round. Some people say that's because declining, because of declining enrollment, charter schools aren't really expanding like they used to. And maybe there's an acknowledgement, too, that charter schools have to deal with the same issues that traditional public schools do. And so these things, you know, they're all kind of equal. So that's something, the charter school issue has not been such a big one this year. And in fact, the Teachers Union and the Charter Association ended up endorsing the same candidate. Yeah, and what are some of the candidates that have sort of stood out so far in this race? Are there any names that have kind of bubbled up in the election? Sure. Well, the three legislative veterans are Anthony Rendon, who used to be the speaker, Al Murat Suchi, who used to be, well, he's currently an assembly member and formerly was chair of the Assembly Education Committee. Josh Newman was head of the State Senate Education Committee. And then there's Richard Barrera, who's a San Diego school board member, San Diego Unified, and he was endorsed by the Teachers Union and by the Charter Schools Association. And then there's some other candidates. as well. Sonia Shaw has gotten a lot of traction. She is a Chino Valley Unified School Board member who's kind of made a name for herself about the rights of transgender students in school. And so she's also raised quite a bit of money as well and is actually polling right up there with some of the other candidates, some of the leading candidates. So before I let you go, Carolyn, I thought we could go back to what's happening in Washington, D.C., and discuss what's happening with President Trump and the administration. They've made a lot of changes, trying to shudder the U.S. Department of Education, most notably. Could these actions really diminish or bolster the role of California State Superintendent, you think? Well, it kind of depends how you look at it. It could mean more power for the states by getting rid of this U.S. Department of Education. It means a lot of responsibilities might be spun off for the states to handle themselves, which would mean...
that California, whoever leads California schools, would have a lot more power over some of these programs that used to be federal. The money situation's a little bit different. It's kind of unclear right now. Will the federal funding go away? Will it just come in a different form? Will it come from a different source? So that remains to be seen right now. Carolyn Jay Jones, education reporter with our news partner, CalMatters. Thanks so much for breaking down this race for us. Sure. Thank you. And that's today's show. Today's episode was produced by Jonathan Linden and KVPR with support from the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. I'm Sarith Hawke. Find the latest local news anytime at kvpr.org. You know, every day on Up First, NPR's Golden Globe nominated morning news podcast, we bring you three essential stories. At the heart of each story are questions. What really happened? What really mattered? What happens next? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious and to follow the facts. Follow up first wherever you get your podcasts and start your day knowing what matters and why.