The Missouri State Board of Education rehired the State Commissioner ousted last year by disgraced ex-Governor Eric Greitens.
Margie Vandeven will resume the position from which she was unceremoniously dumped last year.
Archives for category: Administrators, superintendents
No one worked harder for the election of Tony Thurmond as State Superintendent of Public Instruction Than the California Teachers Association. The teachers knew what was at stake. In their view, Tony’s opponent, Marshall Tuck, promised to manage the decline of the state’s public schools, whereas Tony promised to fight for them.
Here is the CTA statement:
NEWS RELEASE
November 17, 2018
California Teachers Association
1705 Murchison Drive
Burlingame, CA 94010
http://www.cta.org
(650) 697-1400
Contacts at CTA: Mike Myslinski at 408-921-5769 or Claudia Briggs at 916-296-4087.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tony Thurmond Wins Historic State Superintendent Race — All Students Gain with His Victory
Despite Billionaires Bankrolling His Opponent, Thurmond Takes Tight Race at Last, Vows to Fight for All Students
BURLINGAME – Asssemblymember and former social worker Tony Thurmond will be California’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction. In an historic victory for the millions of public school students across California, Marshall Tuck called Tony Thurmond 11 days after Election Day to concede in a race where every vote mattered.
The most recent results from the Secretary of State are available here.
Despite being outspent by more than 2-to-1 by billionaires backing former Wall Street banker Tuck and his scheme to privative our public schools, Thurmond prevailed in what was the most expensive race for a state schools chief in U.S. history thanks to the work of thousands of educators, parents and public education supporters.
“Congratulations to Tony Thurmond, California’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction. Tony has always been a winner in the eyes of educators who were inspired by his character and genuine support for all the students of our state,” said Eric C, Heins, president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association. “It’s clear that educators played a pivotal role in this election. We sent a loud message to the billionaires and corporate special interests who spent nearly $40 million trying to buy the state superintendent’s office: Our public schools are not for sale!”
“Never underestimate the power of public school educators, who stood together in unity to do what’s right for our students. We phone-banked, texted, canvassed and volunteered for candidates like Tony who want quality public schools and an equal opportunity to higher education for all children. I want to thank all CTA members for their hard work in this election. We look forward to working with Tony to ensure all students succeed.”
“Electing Tony Thurmond as state superintendent and Gavin Newsom as governor were our top priorities. Tony prevailed in the most expensive race for a statewide schools’ chief in the history of U.S. politics because California voters know he will advocate for all students. The misleading attack ads against Tony by the billionaire allies of Marshall Tuck backfired as voters rejected their agenda to take money from our neighborhood public schools to give to their corporate charter schools. Both Thurmond and Newsom will treat our schools as community centers, not profit centers.”
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The 325,000-member California Teachers Association is affiliated with the 3 million-member National Education Association.
Government Action
The vote totals have been growing.
The last report, published by the Secretary of State at 4:59 pm PST, shows a big increase for Tony Thurmond. His total is now nearly 160,000 more than Tuck’s.
https://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/superintendent-of-public-instruction
This is nearly a two-point lead.
The charter billionaires spent twice as much on Tuck’s campaign as Thurmond received, mostly from teachers and unions.
Passion beats money. Not always. But maybe in this race.
Wow!!
I have been watching the website of the California Secretary of State to follow the close contest between Tony Thurmond and Marshall Tuck. The polls and pundits predicted that Tuck would win.
When the polls first closed, Tuck had an early lead, but millions of votes had not been counted. In California, mail-in ballots postmarked on the day of the election must be counted, and they are still being counted.
After election day, Thurmond went into the lead, then Tuck came back, then Thurmond opened up a lead of 65,000-85,000 votes. That lead has held steady over the past couple of days as the vote total grows.
The vote is not final, and the numbers obviously could change in the days ahead.
Thurmond is winning heavily in Los Angeles (the city that should be Marshall Tuck’s base, where the most charters are located) and in San Francisco, which is Thurmond’s base.
On October 28, EdSource in California reported that at least $50 million had been raised for the race, and that Tuck had outraised Thurmond by 2-1.
When all the reports are in, the total amount of spending will surely be even more.
Thurmond was backed by the California Teachers Association and labor unions, meaning that his campaign was paid for by the dues of working people.
Here is a partial list of Tuck donors, a veritable Who’s Who of the school choice movement:
Bill Bloomfield: $6.761 million
Bloomfield is a billionaire Republican mega-donor who has become a charter school advocate.
The Walton Family: $5.138 million
Walmart billionaires
Eli Broad: $3.2 million
The Los Angeles billionaire who believes in closing public schools and privatizing them into charters.
Arthur Rock: $3.2 million
A California venture capitalist and billionaire who gives millions to Teach for America
Doris Fisher: $3.1 million
A billionaire, thanks to The Gap and Old Navy; the family gives heavily to KIPP
Richard Riordan: $2 million
The former Mayor of Los Angeles
These were the totals as of October 28. We will have to wait a few weeks for a complete accounting.
Undoubtedly these donors could have given twice or three times as much, but must have decided that it might embarrass Tuck to have three times as much money as Thurmond. Twice as much should have been enough.
One thing is certain. This is the most expensive contest in history for the job of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a job that pays $175,000 and has limited authority.
The symbolic importance of this race, however, cannot be overstated. If the charter lobby prevails in a deep blue state, it can prevail in every state. It already owns Governor Cuomo in New York (but lost control of the State Legislature, when progressive candidates ousted fake Democrats in the State Senate). It tried and failed to lift the charter cap in Massachusetts in 2016, routed in a public referendum, even though the Governor and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is in the hands of the charter industry.
So, we will continue to keep a close watch on California, where the teachers and the charter billionaires are in a face-off.
Last post on this race until there is a clear trend.
There was an update later than the one I just posted, which showed Tony Thurmond with a substantial lead.
Tuck is now ahead by about 13,000 votes.
Los Angeles County is supposed to report late tomorrow.
You can check too.
Fingers crossed.
In Arizona, educator Kathy Hoffman has declared victory in her race for State Superintendent, defeating Republican Frank Riggs.
Hoffman is a Democrat who was inspired to run by the #RedforEd movement. Riggs is a Republican.
Riggs, a former charter leader and ex-Congressman from California, held a small lead on election night, but as the count continued, Hoffman pulled ahead.
She is currently leading Riggs by 43,000 votes. There has been no official announcement and some votes remain uncounted..
Hoffman, a former teacher, was trailing by 8,000 at the end of election night with nearly 500,000 votes remaining. She took the lead by 20,000 after the Thursday count reveal, added another 10,000 vote advantage on Friday and added another 13,000 vote advantage on Saturday.
Arizona Democratic Party Chair Felecia Rotellini offered this statement congratulating Hoffman.
Congratulations to Kathy Hoffman on becoming Arizona’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction. Arizona’s students need a dedicated educator to turn our state’s public schools around and to hold Republican politicians accountable for providing our teachers with much needed and much deserved pay increases. Kathy is the embodiment of the #RedforEd movement, and she’ll direct that activist spirit into serving Arizona’s students.
There are now approximately 162,00 votes remaining to be counted in Maricopa County and several thousands in other counties.
On election night, the pollsters and pundits predicted that charter champion Marshall Tuck would beat teachers’ choice Tony Thurmond in the race for State Superintendent of Instruction in California.
Tuck’s campaign raised twice as much as Thurmond. The charter billionaires gave Tuck’s campaign at least $30 million.
On election night, Tuck had a sizable lead: 82,000 votes.
But millions of votes had not been counted.
As the counting continues, the gap between them continues to narrow.
In the count reported tonight, the difference between them was only 0.2%.
Of 7 million votes counted, the difference between them was fewer than 21,000 votes.
The counting is not finished.
This race is not over.
James Harvey, executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable, reports on the implications of the recent elections for education in many states. That organization is the opposite of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, in that its members are certified superintendents, mostly from mid-size school districts.
Lost in the partisan noise around Tuesday’s midterm elections was a lot of school news. A former superintendent is ready to move into the Wisconsin governor’s mansion, initiatives in states across the nation will shape education moving forward, and the changing of the guard in the U.S. House of Representatives portends changes in committee makeup, leadership, and legislative emphases. Thanks to Politico, Education Week, and the Committee for Education Funding, we have early intelligence on some of these developments.
State-by-State News
Arizona: Voters refused to expand the state’s education savings account program, a voucher program that allows families to draw public funds to pay for private school tuition and other education-related expenses.
Alabama: Voters backed a referendum allowing the Ten Commandments to be displayed in schools and other public buildings.
Colorado: Voters refused to generate an additional $1.6 billion for K-12 education by raising corporate taxes and state income taxes for people earning $150,000 or more annually.
Connecticut: Jahana Hayes, 2016 National Teacher of the Year, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Oklahoma: Voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have allowed school leaders to tap into funding typically reserved for school construction and use it in other ways such as for teacher salaries. Meanwhile, Melissa Provenzano, assistant principal at Bixby High School, and John Waldron, a social studies teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, won seats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives .
Pennsylvania: Mary Gay Scanlon, who served on the Wallingford-Swarthmore school board in suburban Philadelphia from 2007-2015, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
South Carolina: Voters shot down a proposal to allow the governor to appoint the state superintendent of education. The position remains an elected office.
Wisconsin: Tony Evers, a former school superintendent in Oakfield, Verona, and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, went on to be elected state superintendent of public instruction. On Tuesday, he beat incumbent Governor Scott Walker and is set to move into the governor’s mansion in January.
Teachers Seeking Office: Nationwide, NEA identified 1,800 teachers, retired teachers, and academics running for state legislative seats. There is, as yet, no comprehensive count of their success or failure.
Changing of the Guard in the House of Representatives
Insider’s Baseball: The new Congressional makeup means that ratios of CEF Logo Democrats and Republicans on committees in the House and Senate must be revised for the 116th Congress, which convenes in January. House committees will add Democratic slots (and staff) and lose Republican slots (and staff). The reverse will be true in the Senate. Precise ratios await final vote results.
Likely Key New House Committee Leaders:
Rep. Bobby Scott (Va) — Committee on Education and the Workforce, which will probably reclaim its traditional title of Committee on Education and Labor
Rep. Nita Lowey (NY) — Committee on Appropriations (jurisdiction over tax treatment of private school tuition)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT) — Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education
New Legislative Emphases
Analysts downplay the chances of major new legislation. House Democrats, however, have outlined their legislative priorities. These include a number of education initiatives to be paid for by revising the tax cuts enacted in the 115th Congress:
Making good on the pledge the Federal government first made in 1975 to pay for 40 percent of the excess costs of educating students with disabilities
$50 billion for K-12 school infrastructure and resources
$50 billion over ten years to increase teacher compensation and to recruit and retain a diverse workforce
$107 billion in combined federal, state, and local resources to invest in physical and digital school infrastructure, creating 1.9 million jobs.
Increasing support for Title I schools
Reauthorizing IDEA and the Higher Education Act
More vigorous oversight of the Department of Education and its regulatory actions.
I have been watching the returns in California to see what happened in the race between Tony Thurmond and Marshall Tuck. As of early this morning, Tuck had a small lead. But a notice sent from the Thurmond campaign says it is “too close to call.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Madeline Franklin
209-210-8950
HISTORIC STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION RACE TOO CLOSE TO CALL
With nearly 4 million ballots left to be counted, Assemblymember Tony Thurmond thanked his supporters and the voters of California.
California – Wednesday, November 7, 2018 – Assemblymember Tony Thurmond is thanking his supporters and the voters of California as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction election remains too close to call with an estimated 4 million ballots left to be counted. The race was the most expensive education election in American history, with total spending topping $60 million. Thurmond was outspent two-to-one.
“With millions of ballots left to come in, we are digging in and waiting for every vote to be counted,” said Thurmond. “The kids of California are in it for the long haul and we are too. I’m so proud of the broad coalition we built, and I thank the thousands of educators, students, and public education advocates who communicated directly with voters until the polls closed yesterday.”
Thurmond was supported by Senator Kamala Harris, the California Democratic Party, and California’s teachers.
“I ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction because I want to deliver to all Californians the promise that public education delivered to me – that all students, no matter their background and no matter their obstacles, can succeed with a great public education,” Thurmond vowed.
“We talked to voters across the state, and told them what this election means for each of us: It means giving every kid the opportunity to succeed in the 21st century, not just the ones that show the most potential. It means funding our public schools at the levels they deserve, not pouring money into our jails and prisons. It means providing mental health treatment for kids, not arming them with guns. It means supporting our teachers, not demonizing them. And it means stopping Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos’s anti-education agenda from coming anywhere near California’s public schools.”
Just a few hours ago, John H. Cox, the Republican businessman running for Governor of California, endorsed Marshall Tuck for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
He tweeted @TheRealJohnHCox
Governor candidate, CA
People have asked my recommendations on a lot of races & ballot measures – two easy ones are @StevePoizner for IC and @MarshallTuck for #SPI – they will both be great for CA! #Midterms #California
That clarifies matters. Tuck said that Tony Thurmond by associating him with Betsy DeVos. But Thurmond was endorsed by the State Democratic Party, and Tuck was endorsed by the Republican standard bearer John H. Cox.
Tuck should own his allies. He supports school choice, like Betsy DeVos and John Cox.
The Democratic Party supports public schools, not charter schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 