English-Only Backer to Run for State Post

Santa Ana teacher Gloria Matta Tuchman said Monday that she will challenge incumbent Delaine Eastin for the post of state superintendent of public instruction.

Matta Tuchman is co-chair of the “English for the Children” initiative, a measure on the June 2 ballot that would require all-English teaching in most classrooms with students who have limited English skills.

Jaime Escalante, honorary chairman of the ballot initiative, also will be honorary chairman in Matta Tuchman’s bid for state office, according to a news release Monday.

The overlap of the two campaigns is raising questions for one organizer of the ballot initiative. Alice Callaghan, who spearheaded a parent boycott of bilingual programs at a Los Angeles school two years ago, said Monday that she did not want Matta Tuchman’s new candidacy to drive pro-Eastin voters away from the measure.

“I’m concerned that [the initiative] might get dragged into a partisan fight, and I’m hoping those are not Gloria’s intentions,” Callaghan said.

Callaghan added that it would be “appropriate” for Matta Tuchman to leave her position as co-chair of the ballot initiative campaign if there is a conflict.

Matta Tuchman, 56, could not be reached for comment Monday. She said in the release that she would formally announce her candidacy today in Sacramento. A spokesman, Jon Fleischman, said she was out of town.

Ron K. Unz, the Silicon Valley businessman who is chairman of the initiative campaign, said he had no “strong feelings” about whether Matta Tuchman should sever formal connections with the measure.

“Clearly, we’re talking about two separate campaigns,” Unz said. “I think Gloria’s views on many areas of important educational policy are exactly correct--not only on bilingual education but also in regard to math curriculum issues that have come up in California and also on the science issues.”

Matta Tuchman is a Republican and Eastin a Democrat, but the office is nonpartisan. Eastin, seeking her second four-year term in the June 2 vote, opposes the ballot measure.

A campaign strategist for Eastin, political consultant Cliff Staton, said the superintendent would not be available to comment on Matta Tuchman’s candidacy.

Escalante is a Sacramento math teacher whose success with calculus students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles was chronicled in the film “Stand and Deliver,” starring Edward James Olmos. In September, Escalante declined an offer by Eastin foes to draft him as a challenger to the superintendent.

Spokeswoman Michelle Lee of the secretary of state’s office said four others have declared their intent to become candidates: Barbara Carpenter, Miles Everett, Mark Isler and Mark Wyland. No details about them were immediately available.

Matta Tuchman ran for state superintendent in 1994, finishing fifth in a field of 12. A Texas native, she has been a teacher since 1964 and is a former trustee of Tustin Unified. She has been a critic of bilingual education for years, saying her experience at Taft Elementary School in Santa Ana shows that English immersion is better.

In the news release, Matta Tuchman said she is a “strong advocate of phonics-based reading and traditional math.”

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* SURVEY: Latino parents have mixed views on “English for the Children” initiative. A25