{"id":406500,"date":"2026-07-21T12:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406500\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T12:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:22:07","slug":"the-status-quo-is-not-working-behind-two-san-diego-lawmakers-overhaul-of-how-education-in-california-is-run-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406500\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The status quo is not working\u2019: Behind two San Diego lawmakers\u2019 overhaul of how education in California is run \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a jumble of candidates launched their campaigns last year for California superintendent of public instruction, they were competing for a position<\/a> that would have given them control over the California Department of Education.<\/p>\n

Now, following a long-attempted overhaul signed into law this month, the job will become more advocate than policy leader, and the governor will consolidate control of education policy \u2014 thanks to two San Diego County lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Assemblymembers David Alvarez and Darshana Patel, both Democrats, crafted and ultimately saw through the legislation, after Gov. Gavin Newsom had pushed for it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the pair brainstormed about how to improve public education. Both are former school board members. She chairs the Assembly Education Committee; he chairs the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. And they sit by each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speaker sat us as seatmates on the Assembly floor,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we get many opportunities, flying up on flights, or in conversations on the floor or in conversations in committee. I sit on his committee, he sits on my committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their legislation, signed into law this month, creates a new position of education commissioner, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, that will oversee the state Department of Education. The directly elected state superintendent will be relegated to what Patel calls a \u201cvisionary\u201d role.<\/p>\n

The effort follows a number of attempts to accomplish something similar, beginning more than a century ago and including failed ballot measures in 1928, 1934, 1958 and 1968, according to the legislative analyst.<\/p>\n

Both Patel and Alvarez see their overhaul as a way to improve education in the state \u2014 while opponents view the process that created it as undemocratic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe status quo is not working for students, and the data speaks for itself,\u201d said Alvarez. \u201cWe had superintendent after superintendent after superintendent to talk about putting students first, and student progress \u2014 and with all that said, we haven\u2019t seen the progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvarez said timing was a big part of the reason this year was the year to make the changes: Both the current governor and state superintendent face term limits \u2014 so both races are open.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny other time, there could be this assumption that could be made that, well, one is trying to take away from the other, and it could be personality-driven,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The effort that culminated this month began in earnest last year, and the think tank Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) released a report in December advocating for a restructuring of the state\u2019s education system.<\/p>\n

Newsom began pushing for more control of the state Department of Education, too.<\/p>\n

After Patel became chair of the education policy committee in February, she says one of the first things she did was put the governor\u2019s proposal through a \u201cpolicy pathway\u201d that invited input.<\/p>\n

That input, she said, helped lead to elements of the final legislation \u2014 including Senate confirmation of the new appointed commissioner, and legislative appointments to the state Board of Education.<\/p>\n

Under the new law, the state superintendent will also serve on the state Board of Education and on the board of the state\u2019s community college system, in addition to its university systems.<\/p>\n

Like previous attempts to overhaul state education leadership, this one faced fierce opposition.<\/p>\n

It has been openly opposed by California\u2019s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Association, which has enjoyed unmatched influence in the state\u2019s education system and whose endorsed candidate historically is elected superintendent.<\/p>\n

The overhaul effort \u201cdidn\u2019t have teacher and educator voices, or parent voices, or student voices,\u201d said its president David Goldberg.<\/p>\n

He believes the commissioner\u2019s first year on the job will be bogged down by bureaucratic work. That\u2019s because under the bill, they are supposed to \u201cdevelop findings and recommendations for a second phase of education governance consolidation and streamlining\u201d by October 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it just becomes an absolute waste of time, rather than really focusing on what\u2019s needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also among the opposition are the two candidates for superintendent<\/a>, Richard Barrera, who now leads the board of the San Diego Unified School District, and Sonja Shaw, who leads the board of a Riverside County district.<\/p>\n

The pair agree on very little else<\/a> \u2014 other than that they would still be running for superintendent even if they had known from the beginning what the job would entail.<\/p>\n

Barrera took issue, like Goldberg, with the lack of transparency. \u201cI don\u2019t think that the process was done well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he said he believes the job\u2019s primary role is that of an organizer and advocate, and that change in schools doesn\u2019t happen from the top down anyway.<\/p>\n

Shaw called the changes an assault on the state constitution and on the will of voters, pointing out that voters have rejected the changes. She criticized Newsom for going through a \u201cback-door budget trailer bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the changes to the job risked confusing voters in the middle of an election with the job on the ballot, Alvarez said, \u201cI always feel strongly that the voters are not given enough credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationwide, states have mixed methods of anointing their top schools chiefs. Some leaders are elected. Some are gubernatorial appointments. Some are selected by a state board of education, whose members may or may not be appointed or elected themselves.<\/p>\n

California is one of a dwindling number of states that directly elect theirs \u2014 and because the job is enshrined in the state constitution, the superintendent will continue to be an elected position, even if it lacks all of the previous responsibilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a jumble of candidates launched their campaigns last year for California superintendent of public instruction, they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[8,15,181,23,100,13,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-406500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california-news","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406500","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=406500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}