7 Questions Journalists Should Be Asking about the Superintendent of Public Instruction Race

Every election cycle, there are a host of stories about the important races in the state, most of them focused on the highest offices of the land. This year is no different as we have an unpopular incumbent Governor trying to fend off several very active candidates. The Attorney General’s soft on crime approach makes him the target of a lot of victims rights groups. There’s the Controller’s race where a Republican candidate grabbed the rare endorsement of the Los Angeles Times. The recalls attempts of school board members — most recently in San Francisco — and a couple of District Attorneys have received a lot of ink this year. A few publications have detailed the corruption of the current Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Aside from a few high-level overviews of the race, relatively few of the established Sacramento political press corps seem to have any interest going beyond the superficial aspects of the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, for which I am a candidate, and digging deep to see what issues are driving the dissatisfaction for our education system. With all the scandals of the incumbent, his ineffectual leadership, the failings of our public school system and 43.3% of the state’s proposed general fund budget is focused on education expenditures, one would think that there would be a little more curiosity about the candidates.

I understand that most people have no idea what the state Superintendent does, why this race might be important or what chances a challenger with limited resources might have against an establishment incumbent who has the full support of the majority party, sympathies of the press, and unlimited resources of the teachers’ unions. Nonetheless, the families of 6.6 million K-12 aged children should know what their options are when voting for quite likely the most important race in terms of their children’s lives.

I also get the amount of pressure journalists are under to get breaking or controversial stories (“if it bleeds, it leads”) and meet deadlines on many different kinds of stories. It can be hard to get excited about races that aren’t topics of dinner parties (this race certainly isn’t) or doesn’t have millions of dollars pouring into it from special interests. I also know that editors make a lot of decisions that journalists have no control over, even if they want to write a story, resulting in a few one-time tweets and moving right along afterwards.

So, to help parents along in getting the most information about this race so they can make the best decision on casting their vote, here are 7 questions that they can suggest to reporters to follow up on in their due diligence efforts to accurately and fairly capture the race.

1. What has the current Superintendent of Public Instruction actually accomplished in the last 3 and a half years that has improved the education of our children?
2. Why have so many staffers left the Superintendent’s office in the last few years? Is there a lack of leadership, vision or management style? Could the culture of the office be improved and focused on the needs of the children, rather than the political future of its leader?
3. How do the various candidates stack up? Are there candidates that may have good and interesting ideas, but no real track record of advancing education policy change at the state level? Do any of the challengers offer regular and thoughtful critiques that get them statewide coverage in the press? Considering all the inputs, who is the most compelling of the challengers?
4. What are people saying about the state of education in California? Is there any vision for improving the state of our public schools or are the powers that be going to continue simply throwing money at the problem without any real and substantive improvements at the state and local level?How could a Superintendent of Public Instruction actually improve educational outcomes?
5. Why are certain groups highly involved in previous elections for Superintendent of Public Instruction virtually silent in this race? Is there a fear of being punished for going against the established candidate and the teachers’ unions? If they were to get involved, who would they support and why?
6. Who among the candidates is willing to ask the hard questions, fight for our kids and the rights of parents against an overwhelming influence of the educational industrial complex and lay out a clear vision for improving the system?
7. Why exactly is the press ignoring this race? Is any organization interested in hosting a forum or debate for the candidates?

Reach out to your favorite reporters and journalists, social media influencers, podcasters and analysts and ask them these questions. Let them know that you are interested in the answers and you want them before ballots go out on May 9th.