蜜桃影视

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President Joe Biden鈥檚 nomination of Miguel Cardona for education secretary has been largely well received. But his choice for the number two spot at the department is prompting some objections from education interest groups.

Charter school leaders and some members of the Black community have sounded alarms over the nomination of Cindy Marten, superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, to be the department鈥檚 deputy secretary 鈥� a post that traditionally has not attracted controversy.

While Marten has an enthusiastic support base, advocates for charter schools said she has embraced the unions鈥� hard line against charter growth. 鈥淐indy Marten is a curious pick for a deputy secretary of education nominee, given the Biden administration鈥檚 call for unity, racial equity and support for working families,鈥� said Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Like Cardona, she has K-12 classroom experience and has been hailed as a leader in closing achievement gaps. But while Cardona has expressed a more neutral position on charter schools, Marten hails from a state where charters and traditional schools frequently clash. She played a role in reaching a truce in that fight and has argued for judging charter schools based on their financial impact on traditional public schools. With confirmation proceedings for agency officials already underway, her views could lead to questions from Congress.

Charter advocates say they are most troubled by her alignment with the California Teachers Association. In 2018, she held a press conference to highlight from In the Public Interest, a think tank, which estimated that the San Diego district loses nearly $66 million a year when students enroll in charters. is part of the Partnership for Working Families, a union-funded coalition of progressive organizations.

Jed Wallace, a former CEO of the California Charter Schools Association who now authors the blog, said it was surprising that a superintendent would tout a report that he called 鈥渁 complete and utter hit job.鈥�

He respects Marten as an educator. When interacting with her, he said, 鈥淚t feels like she was in the classroom just yesterday.鈥� San Diego, he added, was among the first districts in the state to include charter schools in a facilities bond issue, which contributed to a good relationship between charters and the district.

For Ian Pumpian, CEO of Health Sciences High School and Middle College, that relationship started 14 years ago when he showed up at Central Elementary School, where Marten was principal, to discuss how they could work together.

鈥淪he was genuinely intrigued to hear my thoughts on how charters could serve as R&D [research and development] for school districts and traditional schools,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o this day, Cindy and I discuss continuing to reinvent the types of collaborations that are possible between charters and traditional schools.鈥�

But it was Marten鈥檚 participation on California Gov. Gavin Newsom鈥檚 charter school task force in 2019 that Wallace said gives him 鈥渁 deeper sense of concern than optimism.鈥�

She argued in favor of districts being the primary authorizers of charters, limiting the ability to appeal denials and giving districts the right to deny applications based on lost student funding 鈥� all positions espoused by California鈥檚 teachers unions.

鈥淎s someone who has had to balance a $1.3 billion budget every year, I can tell you this matters a lot,鈥� she said on a about the debate. She added that allowing county boards of education to overrule local school boards that deny a charter application 鈥渉urts students.鈥�

The Biden administration had 鈥渁 beautiful opportunity to not pick a fight,鈥� said Margaret Fortune, who leads a network of nine charter schools in California serving mostly Black students and worked on the task force with Marten. She added that the administration has undone 鈥渨hatever good will they accomplished through the Cardona nomination.鈥�

The district defended Marten鈥檚 record, noting that four of the 78 charter schools up for renewal over the past seven years were not approved, and this year, five of the six up for renewal have been renewed.

Mixed reviews

Charter advocates aren鈥檛 the only ones who object to Marten鈥檚 nomination. In a statement, the NAACP San Diego Branch called Marten an 鈥渋neffective leader when it comes to the academic advancement of African American children in San Diego public schools.鈥�

In the state, however, Marten is largely viewed as an effective superintendent, one who has made strides in addressing both achievement and discipline issues among Black students compared to similar large urban districts.

The Learning Policy Institute, for example, featured San Diego Unified in 2019 as one of seven districts in which black, Latino and white students are earning higher-than-predicted English and math scores on state assessments, after considering socioeconomic status. Linda Darling-Hammond, who heads up the institute, led Biden鈥檚 transition team for education and is a friend and colleague of Marten鈥檚.

On discipline, 2017 federal civil rights data showed that Black students accounted for over 20 percent of suspensions despite comprising only 8 percent of the district’s student population. But the suspension rate is the second lowest among large districts in the state, according to a from San Diego State University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

The San Diego school board amended Marten鈥檚 contract in 2019 and extended it through 2023, but one member voted no, citing persistent problems with safety and academics at a predominantly Black and Hispanic . The district also has 14 schools on the state鈥檚 .

Other members of the Black community spoke more positively about Marten鈥檚 nomination. Frank Jordan, a former NAACP leader in San Diego and at the state level said, 鈥淛ust think, we鈥檒l have someone from this area that knows the needs of a district.鈥�

Marten鈥檚 district is not among those that have reopened schools since the onset of the pandemic 鈥� a goal for the Biden administration鈥檚 first 100 days. Marten is one of to argue that Gov. Gavin Newsom鈥檚 plan to begin reopening schools by Feb. 15 is unrealistic and lacks the funding needed for COVID-19 testing.

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