State Education Chief Can’t Say She’s Teacher on Ballot, Judge Rules

State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin can’t call herself a teacher on the November ballot, a Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.

Eastin’s opponent on the Nov. 3 ballot, first-grade teacher Gloria Matta Tuchman of Santa Ana, contended in a suit that Eastin’s experience as a community college instructor in the 1970s doesn’t entitle her to call herself a teacher today.

Judge James T. Ford agreed with Tuchman, ordering the word “teacher” struck from Eastin’s proposed ballot designation of “teacher/state superintendent.”

Eastin’s ballot designation in 1994, when she was first elected as state superintendent, was “teacher-assemblywoman.” In the primary this year, she used the designation “superintendent of public instruction.”