{"id":1002,"date":"2026-06-05T19:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2026-06-05T19:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:30:07","slug":"shaw-and-barrera-advance-to-run-off-for-state-schools-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1002","title":{"rendered":"Shaw and Barrera advance to run-off for state schools superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The November runoff for state schools superintendent will pit two school board presidents \u2014 one a union-friendly liberal and the other a Trump-aligned conservative \u2014 against each other.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1000\">Feds pursuing \u2018multiple\u2019 election fraud investigations, top prosecutor says<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Republican, Sonja Shaw finished in first place in this week\u2019s primary with 24.5% of votes counted through June 4. Democrat Richard Barrera had19.3%.<\/p>\n<p>Shaw\u2019s margin seems comfortable even with more ballots to be counted, with Barrera firmly in the runoff. The third-leading vote-getter, Wendy Castaneda Leal, was about 10 percentage points behind him. <\/p>\n<p>The race creates a clear contrast between candidates and their vision for California\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n<p>While Shaw, 43, has not typically spoken to Trump\u2019s immigration policies in relation to schooling, she is in accord with the Trump administration education agenda, including banning trans-athletes from women\u2019s and girls\u2019 sports and notifying parents when a child expresses gender-identity issues at school. <\/p>\n<p>Under Shaw\u2019s leadership, the school board in Chino Valley Unified, located in San Bernardino County, also approved a policy that permits parents to challenge books in school libraries. <\/p>\n<p>Barrera, 59, is the board president of San Diego Unified, the second-largest school system in the state. He is a former union official who has developed strong bonds with the teachers union during his long board tenure.<\/p>\n<p>That history helped him win the endorsement of the California Teachers Assn., which poured about $5 million into an independent campaign on his behalf. <\/p>\n<p>Barrera acknowledges that this support made the difference in his leap ahead of other strong Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n<p>Shaw has framed her campaign as a populist effort against a failed and self-interested status quo establishment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t get into this race because I was a politician,\u201d Shaw said in a statement. \u201cI got into it because I was a mom who saw too many families being ignored, too many classrooms falling behind, and too many elected officials unwilling to stand up for our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barrera said he is ready to focus on the job of helping students learn more effectively. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see examples of schools that are delivering,\u201d Barrera said. \u201cThe answers are all around us. The challenge for us as a state is to learn from educators in the local community about what is beating the odds and then take those practices to scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=998\">Can California boost wildfire prevention with less cash? A new plan proposes to do just that<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Barrera speaks of an \u201cassault\u201d by the Trump administration on immigrant families: \u201cI\u2019m going to stand up to that assault.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barrera, who is a senior adviser to outgoing state Superintendent Tony Thurmond, praises the record of his boss.<\/p>\n<p>Shaw, in contrast, once threw Thurmond out of her local school board meeting. <\/p>\n<p>Lance Christensen, a conservative education analyst who ran unsuccessfully for the office four years ago against Thurmond, is ready for a spirited campaign that \u201cis about to go nuclear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSonja Shaw pulled out an impressive primary win as an unabashed parental rights advocate while successfully running her local school district,\u201d Christensen said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShould Shaw weather the political maelstrom that is about to hit her with tens of millions of dollars from the entrenched left,\u201d he added, \u201cshe will have a bigger bully pulpit to shame the people in power who have made California\u2019s education system the laughing-stock of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Veteran Democratic political consultant Larry Levine predicted that, in November, Democrats will consolidate around Barrera just like Republicans did around Shaw in the primary \u2014 likely leading to a different order of finish in November.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe consolidated the Republican vote and the Democrats spread like butter on warm bread,\u201d Levine said. \u201cIt will be a far different story in the general. CTA will step up with the money to make sure their candidate wins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the trailing Democrats \u2014 former state Legislative leader Anthony Rendon \u2014has already endorsed Barrera.<\/p>\n<p>Rendon said that Barrera \u201cis qualified, shares my values, and has spent his career fighting for public education. He is the candidate who will stand up to and defeat the dangerous, extremist ideology of Sonja Shaw.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The state superintendent has limited authority over school districts, which are locally managed. The officeholder instead manages the California Department of Education. This agency guides local school districts and also provides partial oversight. The state superintendent also typically takes advantage of the bully pulpit on education issues.<\/p>\n<p>The office has an uncertain future because Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing a proposal to reimagine the office and redistribute some of its duties.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=996\">We barely know what\u2019s been lost from the fire on Santa Rosa Island<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two school board presidents,  one conservative and one liberal,  will face each other in California&#8217;s November runoff for state schools superintendent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shaw and Barrera advance to run-off for state schools superintendent - California Relocation Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1002\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shaw and Barrera advance to run-off for state schools superintendent - California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two school board presidents, one conservative and one liberal, will face each other in California&#039;s November runoff for state schools superintendent.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1002\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-05T19:30:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=1002#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=1002\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b85b48ca4c2015dd056e0e9c18912121\"},\"headline\":\"Shaw and Barrera advance to run-off for state schools superintendent\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-05T19:30:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=1002\"},\"wordCount\":774,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=1002#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/97b2443bf4b03d9e63a7e33eb11b22cc.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=1002#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=1002\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=1002\",\"name\":\"Shaw and Barrera advance to run-off for state schools superintendent - 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SEPTEMBER 26: Sonja Shaw, Chino Valley Unified School District Board President, speaks at the California Policy Center and PERK (Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids) event, \\\"A Line in the Sand - A Rally for Parental Rights\\\" at Rancho Madera Communty Park in Simi Valley, CA on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. (Myung J. Chun \\\/ Los Angeles Times) and Richard Barrera speaks at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. 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(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times) and Richard Barrera speaks at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. 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