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Gavin Newsom broke the glass to stop parents from fixing our schools

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Earlier this year, Gavin Newsom talked about a “break the glass” plan to protect Democrats if things didn’t go their way in the California election.

He didn’t have to wait long.

King Gavin rushed into action when I finished first in the primary for state superintendent of instruction, becoming the only Republican running for California statewide office to do so.

Newsom and his allies had a plan in place: In case of emergency, strip power from the very office I was running to lead –– an office written into the California Constitution.

Not through the normal legislative process. Not after months of hearings and public debate.

Not by asking California voters.

Instead, Newsom & Co. slipped it into a budget trailer bill, Sacramento’s favorite back-door maneuver, avoiding the normal legislative process and meaningful public scrutiny.

That wasn’t education reform.

It was political self-interest.

Come January, day-to-day control of the California Department of Education, its budget, its curriculum frameworks, and its enforcement of state policy will shift from the independently elected superintendent to an unaccountable bureaucrat appointed by the governor.

The shift comes even after California voters rejected the idea. Four separate times, voters were asked whether the state superintendent should lose independence and answer more directly to the governor. Four separate times, voters said no.

Newsom couldn’t convince voters, so he found another way.

The timing wasn’t subtle. Just weeks after parents delivered a political shock by putting me at the top of the primary results, Sacramento moved to weaken the office before the........

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