Special Education: Race for California Schools Post Getting Extra Attention

"The politics and the symbolism are tremendous, both for the [unions and] the reformers," said Dan Schnur, executive director of USC's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. "Whichever side wins this relatively low-profile office gets a huge leg up in the broader debate over education policy." 

Torlakson, a former teacher and state legislator, was elected to the nonpartisan superintendent post in 2010. Seeking a second term, he points to his work helping schools weather the recession, pushing the state's high school graduation rate to a record high and pressing for historic funding increases and more local control of the money.
"I'm a teacher, I have that in my genes," the silver-haired incumbent said in a recent interview. "I love the work I'm doing. It's the toughest work I've ever done. We're going to work hard to keep improving things. We know there's a lot of work to do and we know that it's not a time to take a risk on the unknown." 

Torlakson questions Tuck's motives, calling him an investment banker with no classroom experience who is backed by wealthy donors, including some who favor vouchers and for-profit charter schools. 

Tuck counters that he worked in banking for two years after college before turning to education. The fast-talking 41-year-old, who looks younger than his years, spent the bulk of his career leading charter schools and traditional public schools in Los Angeles that were taken over by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. 

Those experiences showed him how shackled schools are by state bureaucracy, he said, and how to improve the lowest-performing, most violent schools in the city. 

"If you're happy with California public schools, vote for the incumbent and vote for the status quo," Tuck said in an interview. "If you think our kids can do better and we need major change in our schools, vote for someone who's actually delivered that." 

Tuck was not expected to have a chance in the race. The last incumbent state superintendent who sought a second term — Jack O'Connell in 2006 — received more than 50% of the vote in the primary, winning reelection and avoiding a runoff. 

A recent survey by the Field Poll showed the race between Torlakson and Tuck was a statistical tie — the closest statewide contest this fall.

More @ LA Times

In a filing this week covering the period of Oct. 1-18, Torlakson reported $212,315 in contributions and $658,552 in expenditures, and had $162,371 for the last three weeks of the campaign. Tuck reported $301,418 in contributions and $873,865 in expenditures, leaving with him with $125,778. 

The real money in the race, however, is coming from independent committees. Groups supporting Tuck and Torlakson have now spent just over $10 million, mostly on radio and television ads, and all but a few thousand of that in the last three weeks. 

A committee backing Tuck, a former schools executive from Los Angeles who promised to overhaul California’s public education system, makes up more than $7.5 million of that total. It has been funded primarily by major figures from California’s business and technology sectors, including Los Angeles businessmen Bill Bloomfield and Eli Broad, Silicon Valley philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and The Gap founder Doris Fisher.
More than a million dollars in contributions is from outside the state, including $450,000 from Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton and $250,000 from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

At a voter information event on Monday, Tuck said the huge outside spending represents “a broken part of the system” in elections.

“Trust me, it’s quite frustrating as somebody who likes to be in control of his own destiny,” he said. “You hope that the messaging is where it needs to be.” 

But Tuck wasn’t surprised that “people who are really committed to improving schools, outside of this state,” had engaged in the race.

More @ Sacramento Bee