States

Meg Whitman Uses Education to Court Latino Vote in Calif.

July 21, 2010 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Education issues haven’t exactly risen to the top of the agenda in the battle to become California’s next chief executive.

But Meg Whitman, the former eBay executive and billionaire who is the Republican candidate for governor, has launched an education-themed television ad on Spanish-language stations around the state.

The education content in the ad is pretty thin, and it’s standard fare for campaign spots. It shows Whitman in a classroom as she utters platitudes about Latino youth being the state’s future doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs. She also offers a pledge to support “school reform” that will make California’s education system No. 1 again.

Nothing too Earth-shattering, but the ad has provoked interesting reaction from some Latino officials. Mónica García, the president of the Los Angeles Unified school board, issued a blistering statement yesterday accusing Whitman of being disingenuous. García cites Whitman’s close allegiance with former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson (he’s her campaign chairman), who supported Proposition 187, the 1994 voter-backed initiative that sought to block undocumented immigrants from receiving state services, including public education. Wilson, out of office for 12 years, has remained a polarizing figure among many Latinos in the state.

The ad is one in a series that Whitman has been airing to court the state’s coveted Latino vote. The candidate is also running ads that highlight her opposition to Arizona’s controversial immigration law. According to Field Poll results released last month, Whitman’s support among Latinos has picked up since she began her Spanish advertising blitz. It also has prompted her opponent, Democratic state Attorney General Jerry Brown, to start his own Latino outreach campaign. Some Democrats have been frustrated by Brown’s slow start to courting Latino voters.

But Brown certainly has a history of bonafides he can draw on when it comes to his support for Latinos. As governor in the 1970s, Brown supported Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers’ movement and signed the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which gave the state’s farmworkers the right to organize.

For a more thorough look at Whitman’s positions on education, look at her campaign website. Among the highlights: directing more money into classrooms, raising the cap on charter schools, and, borrowing an idea from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, issuing annual report cards on schools.

Curiously, Brown, who started two charter schools during his years as mayor of the city of Oakland and at one time supported the idea of a school board comprised of mayoral appointees, doesn’t appear to even have an education platform on his campaign website. Or if he does, it’s sure not easy to find.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the State EdWatch blog.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

States What's on the K-12 Agenda for States This Year? 4 Takeaways
Reading instruction, private school choice, and teacher pay are among the issues leading governors' K-12 education agendas.
6 min read
Gov. Brad Little provides his vision for the 2024 Idaho Legislative session during his State of the State address on Jan. 8, 2024, at the Statehouse in Boise.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little outlines his priorities during his State of the State address before lawmakers on Jan. 8, 2024, at the capitol in Boise.
Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman via AP
States Q&A How Districts Can Navigate Tricky Questions Raised by Parents' Rights Laws
Where does a parent's authority stop and a school's authority begin? A constitutional law scholar weighs in.
6 min read
Illustration of dice with arrows and court/law building icons: conceptual idea of laws and authority.
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock/Getty
States What 2024 Will Bring for K-12 Policy: 5 Issues to Watch
School choice, teacher pay, and AI will likely dominate education policy debates.
7 min read
The U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. President Joe Biden on Tuesday night will stand before a joint session of Congress for the first time since voters in the midterm elections handed control of the House to Republicans.
The rising role of artificial intelligence in education and other sectors will likely be a hot topic in 2024 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, as well as in state legislatures across the country.
Mariam Zuhaib/AP
States How a Parents' Rights Law Halted a Child Abuse Prevention Program
State laws that have passed as part of the parents' rights movement have caused confusion and uncertainty over what schools can teach.
7 min read
People hold signs during a protest at the state house in Trenton, N.J., Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. New Jersey lawmakers are set to vote Monday on legislation to eliminate most religious exemptions for vaccines for schoolchildren, as opponents crowd the statehouse grounds with flags and banners, including some reading "My Child, My Choice."
People hold signs during a protest at the state house in Trenton, N.J., on Jan. 13, 2020, opposing legislation to eliminate most religious exemptions for vaccines for schoolchildren. In North Carolina, a bill passed to protect parents' rights in schools caused uncertainty that led two districts to pause a child sex abuse prevention program out of fear it would violate the new law.
Seth Wenig/AP