Unpacking SB 907: Is Senator Newman's Legislation Partisan Political Maneuvering?

By Tom Sheehy

Senator Josh Newman has introduced SB 907, which is a piece of legislation that focuses on one specific county in the state, Orange County.

There are 58 counties in the State of California, and 53 of those 58 counties have a county Board of Education. These are important boards that oversee spending in schools. They oversee charter schools. They oversee school district reorganizations and other matters.

Senator Newman's bill, SB 907, would add 2 additional trustees to the Orange County Board of Education, increasing it from 5 to 7, and it would move the election of those trustees from the primary every 2 years to the General Election.

But Senator Newman's bill only targets one county, and that's Orange County.

And the opponents of this bill have been asking Senator Newman repeatedly — why don't the provisions of SB 907 apply to every county in the state?

Opponents of this bill believe that Senator Newman doesn't like that Board because it's been pro-charter school and pro-parental rights.

Senator Newman working with the Orange County Democrat Party and the California Teachers Association is trying to change the conservative makeup of that Board which has consistently supported charter schools of parental rights.

SB 907 would appear to be a partisan attack on that board by adding additional trustees and changing the way in which they're elected. It appears to be an attempt to re-engineer the conservative majority on that board.

Again, the opponents of this bill have asked Senator Newman repeatedly, why don't you amend your bill to make it apply to every county in the State of California?

In response, Senator Newman has said that his bill is about democracy, that adding two additional trustees, increasing the board from 5 to 7, would give the voters in Orange County greater democracy, and, he says, moving the election from the spring primary to the fall general election, there's a higher voter turnout, and then we'll have better democracy.

Well, if we give him the benefit of the doubt, and we say, Okay, Senator, that's going to give better democracy in Orange County, then the question is again, why don't we do that everywhere?

If Senator Newman's bill, SB. 907, applied to every county in the State of California, equally, it would be clear that he believes in good public policy.

But since he's singling out just one county and one county alone, that just happens to have a Board of Education with a different party majority, a different party than his own party, since he's a Democrat, it clearly looks like he's trying to engineer a different majority on that board for different policy outcomes.

It looks like he's doing this for purely partisan political reasons.

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