Why Is Public Education so Important?

by Maryanne Colvey

This was the overarching question the Education Interest Group addressed in May’s Somewhere on Saturday meeting. If you, your children, or your grandchildren attended or are attending public schools or colleges, you are well aware of the benefits of a public education to yourself, your family, and your community, but those benefits are beginning to erode and change—across the United States, in California, and in Orange County. To highlight those changes we invited two speakers: Lisa Lewis, a “transfer” LWV from San Luis Obispo to LWVOC and Andy Thornburn, founder and CEO of the Contemporary Policy Institute. 

One of the big issues in education today is charter schools. Lisa Lewis has first-hand knowledge of what should go into and the process of setting up a successful charter school as she spearheaded the creation of a charter school in San Luis Obispo. Her list of must haves? Credentialed teachers, low class size, and documented, verifiable progress toward student achievement. She also discussed the history of charter schools in the United States which began in the 1970s as a way for teachers to pioneer innovative instruction that could eventually benefit all public schools. 

Since the 1970’s charter schools have gone through many iterations, as pointed out by Andy Thornburn, who first focused on the increase in charter school approvals in Orange County. In California, if a charter school application is rejected by a city, it can then apply to the county board of education where it can be approved. Because of the increase in the number of charters approved by the Orange County Board of Education, a state audit was called for in April 2026. Andy explained that part of the audit (where he testified) will examine the authorization process of charter schools in Orange County and their overall fiscal transparency. To California’s credit, it has addressed misuse of funds by charters through creating laws to require more oversight and accountability of existing charters; as Andy also pointed out, the problem in California is not the laws surrounding charter schools, it the lack of sufficient means to enforce those laws. 

Of course Mr. Thornburn also discussed the importance and the duties of our state superintendent overseeing public schools and that the position may change because Gavin Newsom has proposed that the 

position be appointed rather than elected. He gave an overview of all of the (10!) candidates running for California superintendent of public instruction, noting that Richard Barrera is endorsed by California Teachers Association (CTA) and Al Muratsuchi is endorsed by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT); this was not posed as any kind of endorsement by Mr. Thornburn, simply an observation. 

How to make sense of all of the candidates? Early in the program, I asked everyone to take our their smart phones and accessing vote411.org and I strongly urge all of you who have not to do so. There is a plethora of information there about candidates, endorsements, contributions, polling places—I could go on and on; suffice to say, I had several people come up to me after the meeting thanking me for taking the time to do that. Try it!! 

Link to Vote411 above

Education Interest Group