State candidate visits Del Norte

Gutierrez running for state supt. of public instruction

GUTIERREZ

Gutierrez stressed the importance of vocational education for students, parents’ rights and local control over schools at a Del Norte Republican Women’s Federation meeting Thursday.

The state superintendent is a non-partisan elected official who oversees the public school system.

Currently seven people are running for the position in the June primary.

Gutierrez is a first-grade teacher and elected board member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council.

Her competition includes John Burton, a former state senator and assemblyman who is the chair of the California Democratic Party; Betty Karnette, an assemblywoman and former senator; Gloria Romero, a state senator; Tom Torkelson, an assemblyman and former senator; Diane Lenning, an educator; and Larry Aceves, an educator and former superintendent.

Gutierrez told the crowd that as state superintendent, she will be a “cheerleader.”

“I will fight for children,” she said.

As state superintendent, Gutierrez said she will be in charge of students’ curriculum and oversee school district’s finances.

She said she would hold failing school districts accountable for financial mismanagement by visiting each one and asking to see the books.

Gutierrez said school board members, who were elected by the voters, should have control over local schools.

State mandates, such as that all students should go to college, she said, don’t always work for each school district.

The state has made vocational training less of a priority in schools, she said, but the majority of jobs are trades, Gutierrez said.

The dropout rate at school districts across California range from 30-50 percent, she said.

She believes this stems from pushing all students to go to college and not providing any or enough vocational training to those who are not college-bound.

“It’s vital for our youth,” she said about vocational education.

Only 35 percent of jobs are “college oriented,” she said.

“If they can get a job when they leave school, they can provide for their families,” she said.

Children will be more successful at school if their parents have a job, but parents also have to spend time with their children, she said.

“People are losing their jobs,” Gutierrez said about California’s fiscal crisis. “The most important thing to a child’s education is that mom and dad have a job.”

While at school, parents have a right to know what’s happening to their children, she said. Gutierrez also supports charter schools and parents’ right to send their children to one.

Gutierrez said she didn’t agree with several laws currently on the books concerning schools and students.

She gave an example of a state law that allows school authorities to release students for confidential medical services without first notifying the parents. Gutierrez also cited a law that protects gay and transgender students from discrimination, which she said encourages alternative lifestyles.

She didn’t make it clear how she would change the California education code, but said that certain “laws need to be repealed or reinterpreted” and that she would make parents more aware about they might adversely affect their kids while at school.