David Long appointed state secretary of education
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday appointed David Long, Riverside County’s superintendent of schools since 1999, as the new state secretary of education.
Long, a 67-year-old Republican who lives in Canyon Lake, will be paid $175,000.
Schwarzenegger said Wednesday, “David shares my values when it comes to education: improving student achievement, bringing up low-performing schools, hiring quality teachers, building new facilities.”
In Riverside, Long oversaw 23 school districts and more than 400,000 students. He came to that elected position, where he was in his third term, from the Lake Elsinore Unified School District.
He has also served as chairman of the U.S. Education Department’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Advisory Committee, which reports to President Bush’s secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings.
Long endorsed Schwarzenegger’s first gubernatorial bid in 2003, as well as his successful opposition in 2004 to a ballot initiative that would have expanded tribal gambling. In 2005, Long was president of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Assn., part of the education coalition that fought Schwarzenegger’s ballot measures to limit teacher tenure.
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