Legislation approved along party lines in the state Senate last week would unravel one of the state’s most vexing and long-standing political snarls – leadership over California’s education policy and regulatory bureaucracy.

A century-long rivalry has festered between the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, elected by popular vote; and the California State Board of Education, appointed by the governor.

While Superintendent Tom Torlakson and Gov. Jerry Brown are still sailing on a political honeymoon and appear reluctant to support any changes that could rupture that relationship – there remains ample evidence and with decades of conflict to suggest that centralizing authority would be a good idea.

“We should be administering the public’s policies with old fashioned, competent leadership and good administrative bureaucratic structure, and right now it isn’t set up that way,” said Delaine Eastin, whose years as state superintendent were marked for her rocky relationship with then-governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis.

Under the state’s existing structure, the governor through his appointments of the state board controls education policy. Meanwhile, the superintendent oversees the bureaucracy at the California Department of Education and thus, in many ways, also has great influence over policy.

SB 204 by state Sen. Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, would make the board of education an advisor to the governor and state superintendent. Board members would be divided by geographical areas of the