By Kayla Jimenez
In a race that will determine the future for public schools in the Golden State following two years of pandemic closures, student learning loss, crippling enrollment declines and rising chronic absenteeism rates, California voters this fall will choose between very different candidates: incumbent and longtime politician Tony Thurmond and challenger and parent choice advocate Lance Christensen.
Thurmond received 45.9% of the vote in the June primary — short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff, as voters, upset about the ways schools were handled during the pandemic, split their choices among six other candidates. Christensen took second place with 11.9% of the votes, and will go head to head with Thurmond in the Nov. 8 election to decide who will become the next State Superintendent of Public Instruction.