During the pandemic, public education became a highly contentious arena for vitriol around masking, vaccines and reopening schools. But those tensions did not culminate in a heated election for California’s top schools chief. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has raised more than 10 times as much money as all his other competitors combined, and he’s earned endorsements from powerful teachers unions and interest groups, making him likely to glide easily into a second four-year term. Because it’s a nonpartisan contest, unlike the other statewide offices on Tuesday’s primary ballot, if he or someone else wins a majority of the vote, they are immediately elected, without a November runoff. Thurmond’s smooth path is despite reports of a toxic management style, questionable hiring practices and a general lack of leadership in helping schools navigate the pandemic. Thurmond, a former state Assemblymember and social worker, says he stands by his accomplishments. The responsibilities of the state superintendent of public instruction are twofold. First, it’s to oversee the California Department of Education and its 1,500 employees. The agency largely helps local schools and districts implement the policies set by lawmakers in Sacramento. “You can pass a policy, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t implement it,” said Michael Kirst, former president of California’s state board of education. “The California Department of Education in my view is an administrative body that carries out policy.” Second, the state superintendent uses the office’s bully pulpit to bring attention to key issues in education, including literacy, the achievement gap or racial discrimination in schools. The superintendent can then influence bills in the Legislature or the state budget. Kirst—who served on the state school board from 1975 to 1982 and again from 2011 to 2019 when Jerry Brown was governor—said it’s crucial for the governor and the superintendent to see eye-to-eye. He said tension between the two offices has stalled education policy. “I’ve seen that movie, and it isn’t pretty,” he said. “You don’t see denunciations of [Gov. Gavin] Newsom by Tony Thurmond, and Newsom sees Thurmond as another respected elected official.” The office does not allow for any kind of direct control over California’s public schools, which largely operate under “local control.” While parents called for Thurmond to reopen schools during the pandemic, he said he wasn’t able to do that with “a push of a button.”