Newsom signs controversial bill overhauling state superintendent’s office
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation to overhaul the office of the state’s top education official, which has sparked criticism from incumbent State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and others running to succeed him.
Newsom’s office said on Friday that he had signed Assembly Bill 181, which will create a new educational commissioner position who will report directly to the governor and oversee the state’s public school system starting next January. The current superintendent, an elected position, will be relegated to serving on the state Board of Education, which will expand from 11 to 13 members, and evaluate educational policies and programs.
He first floated the proposal in January as part of his initial budget proposal, arguing that the superintendent’s office had been weakened by having too many competing duties and obstacles for carrying out policies to serve the state’s 6 million students.
“AB 181 creates a more effective system that will help us deliver better results for students while ensuring greater accountability for the investments Californians make in public education,” Newsom said in a signing statement.
Thurmond, who is termed out of office this year, said he heard few details until the Legislature passed AB 181, which was sponsored by Assemblymembers David Alvarez, D-San Diego, and Darshana Patel, D-San Diego, as part of a budget package late last month.
He told The Sacramento Bee last week that while he thought it would be a good idea to overhaul the office, he preferred voters approved it, instead of Newsom doing an “end run on the Constitution.”
“What they’ve proposed as the alternative duties for the state superintendent are a complete weakening of what’s already a very weakened position,” he said.
Richard Barrera and Sonja Shaw, the top two candidates running to succeed Thurmond in November, have also slammed the plan.
Shaw, a conservative activist who is president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, pointed out in an X post that voters had previously rejected four attempts to reshape the superintendent’s office.
“He (Newsom) snuck in a backdoor budget bill to gut the elected State Superintendent and hand its responsibilities to a governor’s appointee,” she wrote.
Barrera, the San Diego Unified school board president, previously criticized the bill’s sponsors for not including teachers and other educators in the legislative process.
“I call on those who pushed this legislation to bring those representing classroom educators into the process for implementing this bill,” he said.
