Lance Ray Christensen
- Office: Superintendent of Public Instruction
- Election Date: November 8, 2022
- Candidate: Lance Ray Christensen
- Due Date: Monday, August 22, 2022
- Printable Version
Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the November 8, 2022 general election! GrowSF believes in a growing, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city via common sense solutions and effective government.
The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco and have the expertise to enact meaningful policy changes.
We ask that you please complete this questionnaire by Monday, August 22, 2022 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.
Vision
GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous San Francisco. And we believe that great public schools are necessary for a great and prosperous society.
This section of our questionnaire seeks to help us gain an understanding of your alignment with our vision for San Francisco.
Short-form questions
Please mark the box that best aligns with your position. You may explain any position if you so desire, but this section is designed to be a quick overview of your governing philosophy and view of the city's problems.
Education
| In general, is it too hard, just right, or too easy to… | Too hard | Just right | Too easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attend a school of your choosing | X | ||
| Transport children to school | X | ||
| Hire good teachers | X | ||
| Fire bad teachers | X | ||
| Set public education curriculum | X | ||
| Access special needs instruction | X | ||
| Access advanced instruction | X | ||
| Adequately fund public instruction | X | ||
| Ensure adequate instruction is available to all students | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Parents have very few choices with their public schools and often have to accept what's given to them in their community. It may be good; it may not be good. Unless parents have the resources or are willing to sacrifice to send their kids to private schools or homeschool themselves, there are not a lot of options.
Tell us one thing you think needs to change about education in California that the average voter wouldn't know about.
Teacher tenure is much too short to evaluate new teachers and once they are in the system, it's nearly impossible to get rid of bad teachers.
Long-form questions
Education
In light of the successful San Francisco School Board recall, how should the state's Boards of Education be reformed to ensure accountability and better performance?
Parents should be given more choices for their children's education where the resources can follow the child.
Should the State intervene in San Francisco's ban on middle school algebra in public schools?
No, we need less state interference in our schools, not more. Frankly, the state is arbitrary and capricious in its enforcement of a whole host of education law. If the community elects representatives to adjust the standards, they should live with those consequences or make changes to improve the standards. We saw what a recall can do to improve things.
Should charter schools be allowed to operate in San Francisco and California?
Yes. They are public schools that cater to the individual needs of their students. When charter school fails, it shuts down. When a district public school fails, it gets more money and the failure intensifies because there is no risk.
In what ways are we succeeding in public education?
We aren't. It's time to take a big step back as Californians and see what changes need to be made for a 21^st Century education that is not happening in our public schools.
In what ways are we failing in public education?
We are failing in nearly every measurable metric. And instead of improving in discipline, literacy, math, history and the sciences, our educational leaders have doubled down on mission creep. We focus more on feeding children's stomachs (a worthy goal for a charity, not school) rather than feeding their minds (the core reason for public education).
Are merit-based magnet schools desirable?
Yes. Give parents choice and schools compete to improve their product.
Taxes
Do you think Prop 13 is affecting education funding in California? If so, how?
Proposition 13 has stabilized and improved the funding of education in California over the 40 years it's been the law. At $128.6 billion in K-12 funding this year, $22,893 per pupil, we have more than enough funds to take care of our students. The administrative costs are significant and need to be re-evaluated commensurate with the number of mandates produced by the state and federal government each year.
One key example came only months ago when the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) hosted a virtual event - Targeted K-12 Funding and Student Outcomes - and it provided some stunning information around the persistent questions on marginal costs for high-impacted students. What they found is that there is little correlation between spending and improvement for many subclasses of students. It would take over 14 years to close the gap for highest need students with significant funding increases; any improvements are to be found at the district level, not at the student level.
Proposition 13 has nothing to do with these issues. However, more local control over Proposition 98 funding decisions would dramatically improve spending outcomes.
Housing & Homelessness
Should the state encourage, and provide funding for, school districts in high-cost areas to build teacher housing?
No. What I am in favor of is paying good teachers more money so they can afford to live in more expensive areas and teach in their communities.
Should teacher housing be exempt from CEQA, Discretionary Review, and zoning?
Yes.
According to the California Department of Education, nearly 4% of students experienced homelessness in the 2020-21 school year. What do you think about what the state is currently doing to help these students, and what else should we do?
The state government only makes homelessness worse. We need better mental health laws that deal with our gravely disabled parents better. Our foster system is a mess and needs to be overhauled. How to reduce chronic homelessness is a long and complicated discussion that needs to happen, but is not the primary objective of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Policy
Now that we know where you align and differ from our vision for San Francisco, we'd like to get some details about how you intend to use your elected office to achieve your goals.
Why are you running for Superintendent of Public Instruction?
To add parents back into the education equation. California has centralized and bureaucratized education that it no longer accommodates the needs of students, but is more of a conveyor belt in an education warehouse on which we place our tender 5 year olds hoping that they turn out alright when they are 18.
What is your #1 policy goal?
Everything that is done under the purview of the Superintendent with go through a Kids First audit. If the program or policy doesn't improve educational outcomes for the kids, then we dump it. I will be a vigorous advocate for parents and children in the legislature to improve laws to this effect.
How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal?
I will go to the people every day and push back against the powers of school unions that don't advocate for children. I will work with any school board trustee, superintendent, local government official or legislator who wants to improve educational outcomes for our students. For those who want to continue on with the failing status quo, I will regularly expose and challenge them in public. We need to make sure our systems are transparent and hold our educational establishment accountable.
Will the power of the office of Superintendent be enough to achieve this goal?
The constitution (since 1849), hundreds of state laws, a regulatory regime, the authority of being the Executive Director of the Department of Education, the role as a voting ex officio member of the Board of Education, the seat on the Commission for Teacher Credentialing, an office membership on all the higher education boards give plenty of power to make deep and lasting improvements in education. And what I can't achieve with those legal authorities I will do by the power of the bully pulpit.
What are your #2 and #3 policy goals?
We need a top to bottom review of the education code to remove the outdated, unworkable and faddish education policy that continues to fail our children while protecting charter, home and private school flexibility and options for parents.
We also need to transfer as much authority from the state to the local level as possible. There is no reason that we have 944 independent school boards and 58 county boards of education and continue to run a Department of Education with 2,400 bureaucrats and a $175 million annual budget. I would like to encourage local superintendents and trustees own their decisions with budgets, curriculum, school safety and discipline without always blaming the state powers that be. Plus, local board members have to face their community at the ballot box regularly, where most state election officials do not.
Will the power of the office of Superintendent be enough to achieve these goals?
Yes, with the right person in charge.
What is an existing policy you would like to reform?
I would advocate for extending teacher tenure to 3 or 5 years and eliminating last-in-first-out requirements that get rid of some of our most innovative and ambitious teachers simply because they have not been in the system as long as others. I would sponsor legislation to revise the teacher credentialing process, streamline it for professionals in the field and accept credentials of any other state.
What is an "out there" change that you would make to state/local government policy, if you could? (For example: changing how elections work, creating a Bay Area regional government, etc.)
I would sponsor legislation that allows for city councils and mayors or local chambers of commerce to charter a school; makes it illegal for teachers' unions to organize in charter schools and prohibits any teachers bargaining unit from striking during the academic school year.
Personal
Tell us a bit about yourself!
How long have you lived in California? What brought you here and what keeps you here?
I have been in California for 20 years moving to Los Angeles to pursue a Master of Public Policy degree from Pepperdine University and to be closer to my wife's family in Bakersfield. Upon graduating, my wife and I moved to Sacramento with our newborn and spent the better part of the last couple decades working in the legislature and various policy and educational nonprofits. We stay because our kids are 7^th generation Californians and the state has great promise despite its poor governance. I want to make California the place where people want to stay and raise their families.
What do you love most about California and/or your hometown?
We recently moved to Wheatland to be closer to our roots where we could raise our children in the ethics of hard work and in a community that values family, faith and freedom.
What do you dislike the most about California and/or your hometown?
California has become a dystopia. Most of its elected leaders don't understand economics, natural law or the value of America's founding. The further they stray from those issues, the more difficult it is to have a prosperous society. California leads either like a zeppelin or crashes like the Hindenburg and its impacts are all consuming.
Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)
You can read in detail about my extensive civic involvement at my LinkedIn page. In short, I am active in my local Latter-day Saint congregation serving in various lay leadership positions; I've coached all my children in some capacity in soccer and baseball leagues, I was the VP of the El Camino High School Booster Club (San Juan Unified School District) for the last 3 years; I have been a graduate school mentor for Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy; I work with various parent advocacy groups across the state.
Thank you
Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!
If you see any errors on this page, please let us know at contact@growsf.org.