It’s time to help education Superintendent Tony Thurmond find another job

As a candidate for California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2018, Tony Thurmond campaigned on restricting parental control over K-12 education decisions.

So far, his administration has kept the promises of sidelining mothers and fathers during some of the most critical years of their children’s lives. And he did this without improving a single academic standard in his first term. Instead, public school children continue to suffer.

By nearly every metric, California schools are failing our students. Indeed, consider two stunning studies in just the last few months. One shows Californians ranking 50th in literacy among the states. Another demonstrates that our 8th-grade students are doing math at a 5th-grade level. These results should give every single voter who cares about our kids and their future, pause.

The kids have taken the brunt of his failed policies, how is it he thinks he’s entitled to another 4 years as the state’s top education official?

Allied with the California Teachers Association, Thurmond has prioritized and accelerated the union agenda to eliminate competition to the traditional public school model, no matter how perverse the negative effects are on children. Rather than facilitate innovation in education to produce intelligent and engaged citizens prepared for the 21st Century economy, he has doubled down on a social promotion conveyor belt leading to mediocrity, poverty and prison.

Thurmond says he plans on fixing 3rd-grade reading scores by 2026. He has also proposed a parent advisory council, for which he has yet to organize. Serious parents see these empty promises as unacceptable delays and will find a way to make that happen before their kids fall further behind.

And while there is plenty of blame to go around, the person at the top of the education infrastructure in California has neither taken responsibility nor shown leadership over the last 3 and a half years to actually right the ship. Throwing billions of tax dollars at problems is not leadership; it’s ineptitude.

Nevertheless, Thurmond will continue to send out numerous press releases breathlessly bragging about billions of tax dollars directed to schools to help his re-election bid. Millions of minority families, who are among those least positioned to escape in low performing schools, will see very little of these resources after a parade of middlemen take their cut.

What you won’t hear Thurmond talk about is his support of a host of legislation designed to dismantle charter schools since he took office. It’s a parade of horribles, such as AB 1508 (2019), SB 98 (2020), AB 130 (2021), AB 167 (2021), and AB 1316 (2021).

He probably won’t mention that 4-year graduation rates are declining. There is no way he’s going to admit to keeping billions of federal pandemic relief dollars out of the hands of parents who could have used the funds as an education savings account for tutoring, specialized curriculum or other supplies that otherwise came out of parents’ already tight budgets.

California’s parents applaud the hundreds of thousands of incredible, passionate and creative teachers who did their best through the pandemic despite the weight of undue mandates and mindless restrictions. Good teachers are easy to distinguish from the unscrupulous unions Thurmond continues to support.

Parents want a leader who removes stumbling blocks to a high quality education for their children. They want an advocate who will empower mothers and fathers to retake control of their children’s lives since they ultimately know what’s in their best interest. Voters would do well not to perpetuate a clunky education-industrial complex by supporting the incumbent.

California must have an educational executive at the top who demands excellence and accommodates a kids first agenda, who adds parents back into the education equation.

Without a record of improving California student outcomes and with apologies to Mark Twain, let’s not continue to allow the Superintendent of Public Instruction get in the way of our children’s education.

It’s time to help Tony Thurmond find another job.

Lance Christensen is the Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs for California Policy Center and a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.