Thurmond promises to lift all state’s schools
Assemblymember Tony Thurmond is in a tight race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Photo courtesy Madeline Franklin On his first day as a board member of the West Contra Costa School District, Tony Thurmond was told he needed to close 10 schools. It was 2008, around the time Wall Street banker Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, the financial system plunged into crisis, and the budgets of government agencies around the country were pushed to the brink by shriveled tax bases. At the time Thurmond, who currently serves in the California State Assembly, was fresh from a stint as a city councilmember in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond. He knew council members in each of the five cities in the district, and he huddled them together to see what they could do. “We pulled it through, and got the money to keep almost half of those schools open,” Thurmond said in an interview. The story is a telling one for Thurmond in the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in this Tuesday’s election. It reveals his belief in the importance of keeping neighborhood schools open at a time when some segments of the nation’s education reform community are more willing…
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