UC Berkeley professor Satish Rao is trading computer science for politics as he officially launches his bid for governor of California.<\/p>\n
Rao, who teaches discrete mathematics, probability and pedagogy in the electrical engineering and computer sciences department, said his decision to run stems from growing frustration working in public education and public service.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy research is optimization, to work on these problems, but those problems are really how the systems work to serve the people they’re supposed to serve,\u201d Rao said.<\/p>\n
Rao\u2019s platform mainly centers on education reform and administrative efficiency.<\/p>\n
He is bringing his internal fight with the UC Berkeley administration to the state level. He claims that administrative costs have ballooned while academic spending remains flat in his 10 years analyzing university spending.<\/p>\n
According to Rao\u2019s analysis, UC Berkeley\u2019s administrative spending increased by $50 million between 2021 and 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a professor, I don\u2019t think he is best equipped to understand, even from an educational perspective, how UC Berkeley administration works,\u201d said Arnav Gupta, Rao\u2019s former student who is a senior majoring in computer science.<\/p>\n
Addressing the controversy surrounding People\u2019s Park, Rao expressed skepticism regarding the costs associated with the project. He argued that the \u201cnoisy environment\u201d of a student-heavy area may not be the most effective location for supportive housing for the \u201cmentally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rao\u2019s platforms also focus significantly on K-12 education. Drawing from his four years researching Berkeley High School, Rao criticized the state\u2019s current curriculum, such as the 1,000-page California math framework.<\/p>\n
Rao argues that the state\u2019s focus on \u201cmagical\u201d pedagogical theories has led to poor outcomes, noting that even students in states with fewer resources are currently outperforming California\u2019s disadvantaged youth in reading.<\/p>\n
For Rao, the campaign is less about political ambition and more about injecting \u201cthe truth\u201d into public dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because you\u2019re an expert in one domain doesn\u2019t mean you could be an expert in another,\u201d said Michael Ofengenden, a fifth-year undergraduate student studying computer science and applied mathematics who took Rao\u2019s CS70 course.<\/p>\n
Rao is currently on sabbatical, allowing him to work on his gubernatorial campaign. The primary election will be held June 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley professor Satish Rao is trading computer science for politics as he officially launches his bid for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7,143,145,144,122148,149],"class_list":["post-284877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-california","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-satish-rao","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}