Your guide to California’s state superintendent primary race
There are eight major candidates vying to become the next state Superintendent of Public Instruction, a nonpartisan office that oversees the Department of Education and executes the state Board of Education’s policies. The office does not have budget authority, but does shape instructional policies and standards like curricula and testing.
Whoever replaces outgoing state schools chief Tony Thurmond may inherit an office with diminished power after Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year proposed moving the Department of Education into the executive branch as part of his January budget proposal.
Under that proposal, the agency would, via statute, move into Newsom’s Cabinet, where he would appoint a Department of Education director with approval from the state Board of Education. The superintendent would act as an advocate of “state education policies from early childhood through college.” Thurmond, who is running to replace Newsom as governor, has come out in opposition to the plan.
Who is running?
Barrera is a San Diego Unified School District Trustee who has served in that position since his first election in 2008. The San Diego native helped push for a plan earlier this year to build over 2,000 units of housing for teachers as a solution to the state’s ongoing housing crisis. He has also served as a policy adviser to Thurmond, focusing on addressing chronic absenteeism and working with immigrant students and families.
On his campaign website, Barrera portrays himself as a political outsider who would improve wages for teachers, expand transitional kindergarten to cover 3-year-olds, increase oversight of statewide educational funding and track spending outcomes, and help build affordable housing for educators.
Henderson is a Fresno State faculty adviser and Los Angeles Community College District Trustee, which she first won election to in 2020, with a focus on expanding enrollment, securing funds for childcare and other student services, supporting homeless students and helping staff and faculty win pay increases. She is also an active member of the California Faculty Association union and past teacher in the Compton Unified School District.
If elected schools chief, Henderson has said she would prioritize making sure schools were fully staffed and stably funded, reform and deemphasize standardized testing over learning, expand mental health services for students, expand universal prekindergarten, and expand dual-enrollment programs for students wishing to attend institutions of higher learning or go into the workforce immediately after high school graduation.
Lara is the executive vice president of the United Educators of San Francisco and a teacher at Buena Vista Horace Mann School. In February, he helped lead San Francisco teachers as they went on strike over costly health care provisions and low wages. The union and school district reached an agreement four days later, ending the city’s first strike in nearly 50 years.
A self-described socialist, Lara has said if elected as superintendent he would ban police and federal immigration officials from school campuses; make childcare and prekindergarten free for all and increase child care workers’ wages; deemphasize standardized testing in favor of “quality, project-based formative and cumulative assessments”; and ban charter schools from being able to accept public funds, known as school vouchers.
Mattammal is the director of Advantage Testing of Silicon Valley, a private tutoring company based in the Bay Area, and unsuccessfully ran in 2022 to succeed retired Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough. He also serves as president of SHIFT-Bay Area, a transit and housing policy group, and sits on the community advisory committee for the San Mateo Transportation Authority.
If elected, Mattammal said in his candidate statement he would institute policies rewarding teachers based on performance reviews, create more opportunities at the CDE for parents to get involved with school policy, and reform school funding/ “California ranks near the bottom in the US in outcomes despite ranking top 20 in spending,” he said. “Year after year this injustice continues, and our kids pay the price. As Superintendent, I will change that.”
Muratsuchi is an Assemblymember who has represented the Torrance-area 66th District since 2012, with a brief interlude between 2014 and 2016. He won his seat back in 2016, and he has since supported or spearheaded ethnic studies requirements, increasing teacher pay, and advocating for bonds to fund school facilities and climate change initiatives.
“I’m running for Superintendent of Public Instruction because I want California’s public schools to be the best in the country. As the son of immigrants, product of public schools, and a frst generation college graduate from Berkeley and UCLA, I’m passionate about fghting for equal educational opportunities for all,” the Rolling Hills Democrat wrote in a campaign statement.
Newman is a former Democratic State Senator who represented the Fullerton-area 29th District from 2016 to 2018, and then from 2020 to 2024. An Army veteran and former business executive, Newman served as chair of the Senate Committee on Education, where he clashed with labor after he voted down legislation that would have enshrined UC workers’ bargaining rights within the California Constitution. He lost his seat to Republican Steve Choi in the last election cycle. Newman is now a senior fellow at UC Irvine’s School of Social Ecology.
“As Superintendent, I’ll bring the alignment and collaboration our education system urgently needs, with a focus on expanding mental-health supports, strengthening partnerships with labor and industry, aligning the school day with the workday, and ensuring that our schools effectively prepare students for a rapidly changing economy and full participation in our democracy,” he wrote in a candidate statement.
Rendon is the longest-serving Assembly Speaker after Willie Brown who helped expand early childhood education and increased state education funding before now-Speaker Robert Rivas ousted him in January 2023. The power struggle came about after Rivas challenged Rendon, capitalizing on Democrats’ frustrations over changes in committee leadership and Rendon’s shelving of a single-payer health care bill. Before entering politics, Rendon ran preschool and early education programs that mostly served lower-earning families as executive director of Plaza de la Raza Child Development Services.
As superintendent, Rendon has said one of his priorities would be expanding policies curbing smartphone usage in classrooms, and
Shaw is the Chino Valley Unified School District board president and a Republican activist who emerged as a major player in the COVID-era parental rights movement as conservative families grew concerned that public schools were becoming hotbeds of leftist indoctrination. She championed a policy requiring Chino Valley schools to inform parents if their child went by a different name or gender pronouns at school.
If elected, Shaw said she would bring that same energy to Sacramento, calling herself an “independent advocate” who would “restore high academic standards in reading, writing, and math; protect Title IX, ensuring fairness and safety for girls; give parents a real seat at the table; support excellent teachers; and cut wasteful bureaucracy.”
Two other candidates, Dr. Wendy Castañeda-Leal, the superintendent of Semitropic Elementary School in Kern County, and Ainye Long, an 8th grade math teacher at Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School in San Francisco, did not report raising any money to the California Secretary of State, part of The Sacramento Bee’s threshold for coverage. Castañeda-Leal also did not have a functioning website.
Who is funding the candidates?
Rendon leads the pack when it comes to cash on hand, with his biggest donations coming from health care executive Albert Young, Los Angeles accountants Dulce Kapuno and Samuel Qiu, and the United Food and Commercial Workers union. According to the latest filings, he had almost $1 million on hand, followed by Muratsuchi at $409,047.69; Shaw at $162,838.80; Newman at $91,764.63; and Barrera at $28,083.44. Lara, Mattammal, and Henderson each had about $12,000 to $16,000 on hand.
Shaw’s biggest donors have been conservative developer Don Oliphant, Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, Riverside County sheriff and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco, and business processing company Global Processing Systems.
Muratsuchi’s biggest donations have come from educators’ union PACs like the California School Employees Association, California Federation of Teachers, and Association of California School Administrators and the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.
Barrera gave his own campaign $20,000, and his biggest donors include Manpower executive Mel Katz, the California Teachers Association, San Diego real estate owner Lawrence E. Hess, and Port of San Diego managing partner Yehudi “Gaf” Gaffen.
Newman’s biggest donations have come from conservative-leaning and trade unions like the Correctional Peace Officers Association, Southern California Pipe Trade union council, State Buildings and Construction Trade Council, and Associated General Contractors.
Mattammal has reported donations from family members, real estate investor Matthew Paige, and Google executive Thomas Oliveri.
Henderson and Lara have reported mostly small dollar donations from other educators across the state; Henderson reported one major donation of $5,800 from the Women In Power PAC, which has supported other female members of the California Legislature.
Who is endorsing the candidates?
Shaw won an endorsement in April from the state GOP, while the state Democratic Party failed to reach consensus for endorsing any superintendent candidate at its spring convention in February.
Muratsuchi has support from teachers’ unions like the CFT, CSEA, and California Labor Federation, and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, and Rivas, the Assembly Speaker who ousted Rendon. Newman has support from major trade unions like CCPOA, IBEW, and the State Building and Construction Trades Council, as well as Democratic Reps. Gil Cisneros, Lou Correa, and Derek Tran; former State Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, and current Senate Majority Leader Angelique Ashby.
Henderson has support from Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, and the California Legislative Black Caucus and California Democratic Legislative Women’s Caucus. Lara has been endorsed by his union, the United Educators of San Francisco, the Green Party, and the socialist Peace and Freedom Party.
Barrera has support from CTA, former Rep. Juan Vargas and former State Sen. Art Torres. Rendon has been endorsed by Lieutenant Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Reps. Judy Chu, Robert Garcia, Sam Liccardo, Laura Friedman, and Pete Aguilar.
Mattammal has not listed any endorsements.
