County superintendents race to enlist lawmakers’ help in battle with Tony Thurmond

The California County Superintendents group is seeking emergency legislation to prevent State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and future state superintendents from unilaterally wresting control of county superintendents’ oversight of districts facing potential financial insolvency. 

They will have to act quickly; the legislative session ends on Aug. 31, and the deadline for filing a bill is Friday.  

The county superintendents’ organization, which represents the interests of the 58 county offices of education, is responding to Thurmond’s threatened escalation of a dispute with the Sacramento County Office of Education over how the county office is managing Sacramento City Unified’s financial crisis. 

Thurmond has warned he might invoke a previously unused law that allows the state superintendent to assume monitoring authority after determining that the county superintendent’s actions “are not effective in resolving the financial problems of the school district.”

The county superintendents argue that overriding their decisions would undermine the county-based oversight system that has helped keep school districts from becoming insolvent.  

“I think we can expect every district that has to make really difficult financial choices to consider using the exact same circumvention of the process,” said Derick Lennox, an attorney who is senior director of governmental relations and legal affairs with the county superintendents organization.

Thurmond’s office said he had no comment at this time.

The proposed legislative fix, in an as-yet unpublished bill, would tweak the current language. Instead of giving the state superintendent unilateral authority to act, the law — Education Code 421271.6 (see section k) — would require the consent of the State Board of Education president before acting, according to Lennox.

“We’re not defending ineffective oversight; if there were an egregious case, we’d be the first ones to raise our hands,” Lennox said. “We’re not trying to get rid of a backstop. We’re just saying you would need to convince two people at the state level” before intervening. 

Lennox said the amendment would be consistent with other sections of the law, which require joint agreement of the state superintendent and state board president, such as on appeals of county superintendents’ changes to district budgets.

Borrowing from retiree health trust at issue

At the center of the dispute is the Sacramento County Office’s rejection of Sacramento City Unified’s fiscal stabilization plan to reduce expenses. Without additional action, the district is projected to run out of cash by next spring, forcing it to seek a loan to meet payroll and other expenses. The plan would have produced $98 million in savings over three years. But the financial adviser for the county rejected it because more than two-thirds of the savings — $68 million — would come from siphoning the district’s retiree health trust fund to reimburse its general fund for retiree health costs.

County fiscal adviser Luz Cázares said tapping the trust fund would have delayed the district’s troubled finances, pushed additional costs into the future, and complicated long-term recovery. The district’s agreement, which the Sacramento teachers union endorsed, also would have extended the current pay contract through 2030.

Both Sacramento County Superintendent David Gordon and Michael Fine, chief executive officer of the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, supported Cázares’ decision to reject the agreement.

Los Angeles Unified also plans to take $173 million from its retiree health trust to help solve its budget shortfall. The Los Angeles County Office of Education has questioned the tactic but not opposed it.

On Aug. 5, the Sacramento City Unified School Board cited the takeover clause in the education code in a letter to Thurmond asking him to overturn the county’s denial of its financial plan and to take over the oversight of the district’s finances.

“We believe that the Fiscal Advisor’s action to rescind the agreement is improper, inconsistent with their authority, and demonstrative of their ineffectiveness in supporting the district in a meaningful way,” Sacramento City Unified Supt. Cancy McArn wrote.

Thurmond, after mediating two days of talks between the county office and the district, denied the appeal to overturn the county’s decision. But, in a separate Aug. 10 letter, he concluded that the county office “was not effective” in solving the district’s financial problem.  

“If I determine that (the county)is making decisions going forward that exacerbate fiscal problems or is failing to make appropriate decisions to correct them, I will exercise my authority … to assume (the county’s) authority and exert direct oversight,” Thurmond wrote.

The California Teachers Association has rallied behind the district and Sacramento City Unified teachers. In an Aug. 25 letter, CTA urged lawmakers to reject the county superintendents’ proposal. 

Requiring the State Board president’s consent to override a county superintendent would cause delays and “interfere with local collective bargaining” when county-level oversight fails to solve a financial crisis, the state teachers union said. CTA President David Goldberg also criticized the county superintendents’ effort to enact emergency legislation instead of introducing a bill in January permitting hearings and public comments.

The advocacy nonprofit Children Now and the Association of California School Administrators have also endorsed the call for legislation. Lennox said that two Sacramento-area legislators, Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove, and Sen. Angelique Ashby, D-Sacramento, are working with the county superintendents on the bill.

It’s unclear whether Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, and Senate President pro Tem Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, support the idea. At this point, one of them would have to consent to introduce an urgency bill.

One factor may be whether the Legislature should pass the bill now, with four months left in Thurmond’s second and final term. Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s restructuring plan for the Department of Education, which takes effect in January, a new education commissioner, appointed by the next governor, would replace the state superintendent in managing the department. Responsibilities would include supervising financially stressed districts governed by the law that would be amended.

Lennox, however, argued that the Legislature should act now, amid Thurmond’s interference with county oversight — if only a threat.

“I’m more worried about this being a slippery slope,” he said.

Related Reading

Sacramento City Unified remains on path to state takeover after Thurmond rejects appeal

August 11, 2026

Sacramento City Unified appeals county rejection of fiscal plan to state superintendent

August 5, 2026

This story was originally published by EdSource.