Education In California Gubernatorial Campaign

, Malcolm A. Kline, Leave a comment

It barely comes up. “Parents of color want California’s next governor to place a higher priority on improving public schools, a new poll finds,” Laura Greanias writes in The LA School Report. “But as the two gubernatorial candidates held their first and perhaps only debate Monday, education barely came up.”

“Republican businessman John Cox three times mentioned that the state’s schools are failing children, but there was no follow-up discussion. Gavin Newsom, Democrat and lieutenant governor, brought up schools only as part of his defense of sanctuary cities, which he said offer protections that make parents ‘more likely to get their child an education and drop them off at school’ and to get immunizations such as for the flu.”

Ironically, Cox may be more in tune with concerns of the “Parents of color” Greanias references but will he follow up? Given the history of Republican campaigns, that might be a long shot bet.