Candidates for the California superintendent of public instruction, the head of California’s education department, could officially declare their intention to run Tuesday, as November’s general elections slowly approach.
After the recent disagreement between students and the University of California system in the aftermath of the student fee increases, candidates for the position are urging UC students to understand the importance of the upcoming election.
The election is a race for the person who not only decides policy for K-12 education but also serves as a trustee on the state school board of trustees and a governor for the governing board of community colleges.
But most importantly to UC students, the superintendent is a regent on the UC Board of Regents, said Rebecca Barret, a third-year political science student at UCLA and an intern for State Assemblymember and superintendent candidate Tom Torlakson.
As an elected member, the new superintendent would become one of the few non-appointed voting members of the UC Board of Regents, the governing body for the University of California, and the group who approved the controversial tuition increase late last year.
“In this sense, students should be very interested in the voices that are on the Board of Regents,” said State Senator Gloria Romero, who is also running for the superintendent position.
Of the 26 voting members of the Board of Regents, 18 are appointed by the governor, one is a student appointed by the regents, and seven are ex officio members, or members who are part of the board because of their outside position; positions such as governor, speaker of the assembly and superintendent of public instruction.
“It’s important to elect someone into office who will take students’ input on our issues of high education because they are a voting regent,” Barret said.
But apart from membership into the Board of Regents, the California superintendent of public instruction holds much power over the education system as a whole, influencing not only higher education in California but also controlling the K-12 education throughout the state.
“(The superintendent creates policies), making sure that when one enters the university system, that one is ready to do the college-level work and to have the skills prepared to be able to be both college-ready and workforce-prepared,” Romero said.
But for current UC students, the importance of this election may still be with the position’s voting power over the UC system.
“We should really be trying to get the few regents that are elected in offices to understand what we are going through,” Barret said.