Marshall Tuck, the Southern California reform-minded moderate Democrat, has announced his candidacy in the 2018 election for state superintendent of schools.
Tuck, 43, challenged and narrowly lost to incumbent Tom Torklakson in 2014. Tuck criticized teacher tenure laws and promised to reinvent the state superintendent’s office, turning it from a “mouthpiece for insiders” to a “voice for students and parents.”
Tuck, a native of Burlingame, led the charter organization Green Dot Public Schools, which opened 10 charter schools in poor Los Angeles neighborhoods. He became chief of the charter network Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. He is now educator-in-residence at the Santa Cruz-based New Teacher Center, a nonprofit that helps school districts develop and retain effective teachers and principals.
