SPECIAL REPORT / ELECTION PREVIEW : DECISION ’94 / A Voter’s Guide to State and Local Elections : Statewide Offices : A look at the major candidates in contested races. : SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

It is the only nonpartisan statewide race on the ballot, and could be decided in the primary if there is a majority vote-getter, although the large field of 12 candidates makes that unlikely. As top executive of the Department of Education, the officeholder oversees operations of the department, shares with the appointed State Board of Education policy-making decisions affecting the state’s $29-billion-a-year, 5.2-million-student system of public schools, and acts as ex-officio member of the governing boards of the UC and Cal State systems. Salary: $102,000 a year.

MAJOR CANDIDATES

Joseph Carrabino, former president of the State Board of Education; Maureen DiMarco, Gov. Pete Wilson’s secretary of child development and education; Delaine Eastin, an assemblywoman from Fremont; Wilbert Smith, a Pasadena businessman, and Gloria Matta Tuchman, an Orange County teacher and school board member.

ISSUES

Campus violence, poor academic performance, the state’s new testing system and school finance and spending are some of the campaign themes. Carrabino wants to cut administrative costs and reduce the authority of the state Department of Education. DiMarco calls for building broad coalitions to depoliticize the education system. Eastin proposes reforms that include allowing teachers more say in ways to raise academic performance. Matta Tuchman calls for ending bilingual education. Smith supports providing parents with tax vouchers for private school tuition and opposes the state’s new testing system.

HISTORY

Bill Honig was forced to resign the post upon his February, 1993, conviction on felony conflict-of-interest charges. The governor was unable to win legislative support for a replacement to complete Honig’s term, so there is no incumbent. The office has not provided much of a contest since 1982, when a well-financed, high-profile Honig defeated three-term incumbent Wilson Riles. Riles had won the post in 1970 after a bruising battle with conservative incumbent Max Rafferty.

PROFILES

JOSEPH D. CARRABINO

* Age: 68

* Residence: Los Angeles

* Current position: Retired UCLA professor of management

* Education: Bachelor’s degree from Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute in mechanical engineering, a master’s degree in industrial management from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in engineering from UCLA.

* Career highlights: As president of the governor-appointed State Board of Education, he often clashed with Honig. Facing likely rejection by the Senate to reappointment, Carrabino quit the board in 1991 after six years. While at UCLA, he taught business management for 32 years, becoming a tenured professor in 1957.

* Family: Married, six grown children

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MAUREEN DIMARCO

* Age: 45

* Residence: Cypress

* Current position: Gov. Pete Wilson’s secretary for child development and education

* Education: Attended Glendale Community College and USC and is on leave from seeking a law degree at Western State University Law School

* Career highlights: A Democrat, she has served at her education post for Republican Wilson since 1991. She is a former school board member, past president of the California School Boards Assn. and onetime consultant to Honig.

* Family: Married, two daughters

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DELAINE EASTIN

* Age: 46

* Residence: Fremont

* Current position: California Assembly member

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, UC Davis; master’s degree in political science from UC Santa Barbara

* Career highlights: A Democrat elected to the Assembly in 1986, she has chaired its Education Committee for three years. A former community college instructor and corporate planner who is closely allied with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, Eastin has the endorsement of the influential California Teachers Assn. and other school employee unions.

* Family: Married, no children

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WILBERT SMITH

* Age: 43

* Residence: Pasadena

* Current position: Businessman

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, Cal State Dominguez Hills; master’s degree in special education from the University of San Francisco

* Career highlights: His support of last fall’s school voucher initiative led to his defeat for reelection to the Pasadena school board. Smith, a Republican, is a former Bank of America vice president who has been a reserve sheriff’s deputy for 15 years.

* Family: Married, three children

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GLORIA MATTA TUCHMAN

* Age: 52

* Residence: Tustin

* Current position: Elementary schoolteacher

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, Arizona State University

* Career highlights: A longtime teacher in Orange County schools, she is president of the Tustin school board. She has long been active in pushing for changes in ways to teach children who do not speak English and was appointed by the George Bush Administration in 1987 to the National Advisory and Coordinating Council for Bilingual Education. She claims no party affiliation.

* Family: Married, two grown sons