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After a quiet primary season, Sonja Shaw pulled ahead from a crowded field of candidates for state superintendent of public instruction on Wednesday. It's still unclear who she will face off in November.
In late returns for California's top schools job, Shaw had nearly 25% of votes, followed by Richard Barrera at almost 20%.
In a statement to CalMatters, Shaw said the results "send a clear message: Families want accountability, academic excellence, and schools that put students first."
"Despite millions of dollars spent by special interests and the education establishment to protect the status quo, voters chose a different path," she said. "This campaign has always been about giving parents a voice and delivering a better future for our children."
Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified school board, made headlines in 2023 when she took on the current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, over the privacy rights of transgender students, and has made anti-LGBTQ policies the focus of her campaign. In the April poll, she was tied with Barrera, a San Diego Unified school board member little known outside San Diego until this year.
"We're the wealthiest state in the country, we're the fourth largest economy in the world and we shouldn't have public schools where our students are getting shortchanged," said Barrera in an interview with CalMatters. "We can do better."
He said Shaw has spent her time, energy and platform to divide people and bully vulnerable students.
"Californians see right through that," he said. "What California voters want is a clear vision for how we can actually make our schools better."
Shaw and Barrera were among 10 candidates — including several legislative veterans — who vied for the opportunity to oversee the state's 10,000 public K-12 schools during a tumultuous time. Schools are grappling with AI in the classroom, budget uncertainty, declining enrollment, lackluster test scores and other challenges.
The job itself is also up in the air. Gov. Gavin Newsom in January proposed an overhaul of California's school governance structure, with far fewer duties for the superintendent. Instead, the State Board of Education, an 11-member body appointed by the governor, and a newly appointed education commissioner would hold most of the decision-making power. The superintendent would act as more of a policy advocate.
The shift would streamline a cumbersome and often opaque bureaucracy, adding transparency and accountability, Newsom said. It would also align California with most other states. Candidates for the superintendent position blasted the proposal, saying it takes away power from voters and concentrates too much control with the governor's office.
Newsom and Thurmond are both termed out this year.
Charter schools are no longer a divisive issue
The race for superintendent — at times, in previous election cycles, one of the most expensive and contentious races on the ballot — has been unusually quiet this year. In the most recent poll, conducted in April, no candidate garnered more than 10% of voters' support, and 32% of voters were undecided. As of last week, no candidate had raised more than a few hundred thousand dollars. That's in contrast to the 2018 superintendent race between Thurmond and Marshall Tuck, a former charter school executive, which generated more than $50 million in donations.
But there were a few surprises in the race, including that the California Teachers Association and its historic nemesis, the California Charter Schools Association, endorsed the same candidate: Barrera. Both groups cited his accomplishments on the school board and his commitment to public education.
The dual endorsement shows how much has changed in education debates. For the past two decades, charter schools have been the No. 1 division in the superintendent's race, generating millions in campaign donations from both sides. This year the subject has barely been mentioned, probably because charter school enrollment appears to have plateaued and both types of schools are now dealing with the same issues.
Other top candidates included: Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, former head of the Assembly education committee; Josh Newman, former head of the Senate education committee; Anthony Rendon, former speaker of the Assembly and a longtime early education program administrator; Nichelle Henderson, a Los Angeles Community College District board member, and Ainye Long, a teacher in San Francisco Unified.
The nonpartisan position pays $210,460 a year.
Rendon on Wednesday morning conceded and endorsed Barrera. In a statement, he said Barrera "has spent his career fighting for public education."
"He is the candidate who will stand up to and defeat the dangerous, extremist ideology of Sonja Shaw," he said. "The stakes in November could not be higher, and I will work hard to make sure Richard has the support he needs to win."
Cayla Mihalovich contributed to this story.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
