Lance Christensen
Superintendent of Public Instruction - Candidate
Adding Parents into the Education Equation!
California is my home.
I’ve raised my family here and I know first-hand how challenging it is to navigate the state’s public education system. My wife and I are proud parents of five school aged children, with our oldest recently graduating high school and our youngest entering first grade.
Our mission is simple: We want future generations to have the same opportunities that we have.
California’s public education is broken and continues to get worse. However, there is hope. I believe that we can restore our schools and get this state back on track.
What Lance Believes Schools Need
We Need Change!
Parents in Education
Empower parents to make consequential decisions for their children’s education.
Hold Schools Accountable
Hold K-12 schools accountable in their responsibility to provide a constitutionally protected, high-quality public education.
Greater Education Opportunities
Allow a wide-range of options for educational opportunities where the money follows the student.
Lance’s Solutions
The Superintendent of Public Instruction is a constitutional office and California’s top education official. The Superintendent is an important leader on broad and specific policy and budget issues for the over 6 million Kindergarten through 12th-grade school-aged children in the state.
While the Superintendent does not write the laws on education policy, he can advocate for wise policymaking and implement regulations judiciously. He also oversees a multi-billion-dollar administration that can either help or frustrate the needs of local school districts.
Ultimately, the Superintendent needs to balance the needs of the state with the desires and passions of parents, who are ultimately responsible for the education of their children.
Upon assuming office as California State’s Superintendent of Public Instruction I will:
Solution #1
Immediately suspend any curriculum frameworks currently in the process of being reviewed. Upon the advice of legal counsel, I will re-open the public review and comment period for any curriculum framework not fully adopted and ask for a broader cross-section of parents to offer feedback on the proposals.
Solution #2
Direct staff to perform a “Kids First” audit of the California Department of Education (CDE) and its $100 million-plus budget appropriations and expenditures. Any positions or programming not explicitly authorized in statute or the 2022-23 budget’s legal citations and authorities will be reallocated or eliminated. I will propose any program that does not prioritize children’s education at the local education authority be omitted in future budget proposals. I will regularly be asking the legislature to have the funds follow the children with as little bureaucratic bloat as possible.
Solution #3
Reclassify an existing executive advisor within the Superintendent’s office as the Chief Parent Advocate and charge them with being the principal liaison on all issues and concerns brought to the office by parents.
Solution #4
Invite every school board trustee and district superintendent in the state to a town hall in Sacramento within the first month of my administration to discuss our respective constitutional authorities and responsibilities and where the State Superintendent’s office can appropriately defer or relinquish authority to local education officials under current law. We will find ways to simplify various educational processes to allow greater participation by local school districts and parents. Any agreements will be submitted to the legislature to change state law accordingly.
Solution #5
Assemble a Red Team Task Force to recommend a complete overhaul of the archaic and clunky Education Code through a publicly accessible, open-platform process. Once there is general agreement, any changes would either be ratified legislatively or through a ballot initiative by the voter.