Next year, Californians pick a successor to Gov. Jerry Brown, who generally has been favorable to charter schools. How will his successor treat these innovative schools that have given a hopeful future to millions of students, many from struggling backgrounds? How will the election affect strategic communications for charter schools? David Cantor of the LA School Report looked at the top Democratic candidates:
Gavin Newsom is the lieutenant governor and current favorite in the polls. He has been endorsed by the California Teachers Association, the state’s most powerful political force and an opponent of charter schools. “As a policymaker, despite CTA’s support, his education credentials are scant and appear more pragmatic than ideological,” Cantor writes. “He supports community schools, a union job-creator, but doesn’t reject charters…. Like the other candidates, he favors politically low-stakes proposals like expanded early education and reining in tuition costs for college students.”
Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor, follows in second place, but has risen recently in the polls. “He’ll run as a business-friendly moderate,” Cantor says. “Unlike his younger rival, the east L.A.-born Villaraigosa, 64, is known for his education record and ardent support in the school reform community, which believes he pushed for charters and more accountability in the nation’s second-largest school district with little political upside and clear risks.”
