Credit: Tuck for Superintendent entrada

Tuck speaks with students at the Alliance Patti & Peter Neuwirth Leadership Academy, a charter schoolhouse in Los Angeles, in 2014.

In the hours since Marshall Tuck's daunting but failed try to unseat incumbent State Superintendent of Public Education Tom Torlakson, instruction and political observers have reached different conclusions most the election and its significance.

One said Tuck's defeat would have no bear on. Some other said it would further deepen the rift between the 2 main factions that squared off in the tape-spending $xxx one thousand thousand-plus race: teachers unions on behalf of Torlakson and well-heeled benefactors who agreed with Tuck's vision of education reform.

A tertiary observer said the closeness of the results should be a wake-up call to both sides to de-escalate. And Constrict himself said Wednesday he was disappointed by the result but inspired by the entrada and the coalition he built – and that he volition continue working on behalf of California's kids in ways he has yet to decide.

Torlakson defeated Tuck 52.1 per centum to 47.9 pct. The gap was less than 2 percent in Tuck'southward abode turf, Los Angeles, where he ran the Dark-green Dot lease school network before managing the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, the nonprofit charged with turning around depression-performing schools in Los Angeles Unified. The entrada was a bruising battle fought through independent expenditure committees, in which the California Teachers Association anted upward $eleven 1000000 and i Tuck capitalist, William Bloomfield, lone donated $3.5 million. The race became the latest front in an ongoing state of war between teachers unions and those advocating a make of reform that calls for weakening spousal relationship ability and injecting competition through charter schools and parental choice. Constrict made challenging the California Teachers Association's influence in Sacramento a entrada theme and said Torlakson represented the status quo.

But in the end, the race won't make much difference, said David Plank, the executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education, an independent research center based at Stanford Academy, UC Berkeley and the University of Southern California.

Had he won, Dan Schnur said, "Constrict would have been a very visible and influential voice in Sacramento. That's not going to happen."

"The election was a defeat for 'reformers' and a successful defense for the teachers unions but it won't put them in a stronger position; they successfully dedicated their turf," Plank said. A win past Tuck would have given the coalition of reformers in his campsite a "public triumph," but Tuck made empty promises, he said, because the country superintendent has little authority to determine education policy. That power rests with Gov. Jerry Brown and Michael Kirst, an emeritus professor at Stanford who Brown appointed as president of the State Board of Instruction.

Tuck'southward vow to withdraw the entreatment of the determination in the Vergara five. Land of California lawsuit was an example of his express authority, Plank said. In that instance a land Superior Court judge overturned five workplace protection laws for teachers, including tenure subsequently ii years, dismissal procedures and layoffs past seniority. Torlakson, a defendant in the suit, has appealed the determination. Constrict agreed with the judge'south ruling and said he would drib the entreatment if elected.

"Marshall Constrict could take stood naked on the grounds of the Capitol and torn up the Vergara entreatment, and information technology wouldn't have mattered," Plank said, because Dark-brown has filed an appeal.

Plank said Constrict'south defeat showed how difficult it would be for those who back Tuck's vision of reform to win that office.

"They had a very potent, articulate, well-funded candidate. Incredible assets: a good bio, an result (the Vergara case) distinguishing him from the incumbent, the endorsement of all of the state's major papers," he said. "Yet he could not overcome the institutional advantages of the unions: motivated teachers and an ability to spend on their behalf."

Tuck also had what proved to be another disadvantage – unfamiliarity. For near voters, he was a blank sheet that Torlakson and his allies painted darkly. In ads, they attacked him as a Wall Street banker – a reference to a banking chore he had right out of college – working with billionaires to privatize and dismantle public schools.

"My approximate is that voters decided less on policy – teacher tenure or testing – than on biography," said Dan Schnur, executive director of the Jesse Chiliad. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. The unions characterized Constrict equally "someone without schools' best interest at heart," he said.

Had he won, Schnur said, "Tuck would accept been a very visible and influential voice in Sacramento. That's not going to happen." Simply his loss has importance, he said, though not in the way Tuck's allies would like.

"The message the teachers unions will take away is that they can dig deep and beat the other guy, so in the short run, they volition exist less likely to compromise," he said. "They tin can go to a legislator considering tenure reform and say, 'The same thing volition happen to you lot that we did to Marshall Tuck, and you won't be as well funded equally Constrict.'"

A selection to rearm or de-escalate

That take-abroad would exist unfortunate, because "neither side is going abroad," said Steve Barr, the founder of Greenish Dot charters, who hired Tuck for his first job in education and calls him "a rising star" who "rose out of nowhere and did everything right in the campaign" even if he didn't win.

Barr is the new chairman of the California affiliate of Democrats for Teaching Reform, which has clashed with unions and other Democrats on charters and standardized testing. The bulletin of the ballot to both sides should be to de-escalate, not rearm, Barr said.

"Is this a day to conclude, 'We have to spend more money and work harder next time' or is it an opportunity to reach out and piece of work on mutual issues?" he said, similar how to attract and retain great teachers. There might even exist room for compromise on Vergara, such as requiring tenure after 3 years, instead of 2, though Barr best-selling he wouldn't put it at the top of his calendar.

"Dialogue is a skilful thing," said Eric Heins, vice president of the California Teachers Association. "We have built coalitions for a long fourth dimension. But we're just non set up to back up bad reform, and many of the other and then-called reforms have nada to do with improving student learning. There appears to be another calendar."

"Maybe there are some intersections where (reform groups and teachers unions) can piece of work together, to avoid the zero-sum game," retiring Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said.

Barr said ane just has to look at Gov. Brown for someone who "has figured out a way of cohabitating with both sides." Dark-brown works closely with unions, however started two charter schools in Oakland with not-unionized teachers and has become "a master of reform," pushing through a tax increase, a new funding formula and a shift of ability from Sacramento to local schools.

"What tin can nosotros learn from that?" he asked.

Looking for mutual ground

A lot, says retiring Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. Steinberg worked closely with Torlakson, who he said he admires "for focusing on tangible things," like expanding preschool and the $250 million career partnerships program that Steinberg championed. Yet a few years ago, Steinberg also authored a neb that would have eliminated laying off teachers in low-performing schools based on seniority – one of the issues raised in the Vergara lawsuit. The neb, faced with opposition from the California Teachers Association, went nowhere.

Like Barr, Steinberg also has concluded the election presents a chance to "expand the definition" of reform. "Teacher tenure, the challenges in firing teachers who aren't doing a good job and seniority-based layoffs are important issues, but they suck all of the oxygen out of the room," he said, crowding out critical bug similar expanding preschool, examining the quality of schools of education and creating incentives to become into educational activity.

"Maybe there are some intersections where (reform groups and teachers unions) can work together, to avoid the zero-sum game," he said.

There are, Tuck agreed in an interview Midweek, and many of the issues he raised during the campaign were drowned out past negative ads against him.

But he also expressed no second thoughts on the theme of his campaign: At that place must be new leaders in Sacramento, a shift in power and a new coalition of parents and teachers in order "to brand meaningful changes so that we can educate all kids in California."

Before the election, many people didn't know there was a state superintendent. At present, through his campaign, there is "a base of hundreds of thousands of passionate people to help move forward," Tuck said. He said he will take time to decide what his role will be, whether he will be an advocate or a manager of schools, only he will remain involved. "I was inspired by how many people got backside this campaign," he said.

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