21Jan
In November, former state legislator and science teacher Tom Torlakson became the new state superintendent of public instruction. It is the chief education job in California and it promises to be a hard one as schools grapple with another threatened round of budget cuts.
As a legislator, Torlakson is known to educators for writing a law that afforded extra funding and smaller classes to troubled schools. As educator-in-chief, he kicked off his tenure by calling a state of financial emergency in California schools.