Delaine Eastin

Delaine Eastin
25th State Superintendent of Public Instruction of California
In office January 2, 1995 – January 5, 2003
Governor	Pete Wilson Gray Davis
Preceded by	Bill Honig
Succeeded by	Jack O'Connell
Member of the California State Assembly from the 20th district
In office 1992–1994
Preceded by	Ted Lempert
Succeeded by	Liz Figueroa
Member of the California State Assembly from the 18th district
In office 1986–1992
Preceded by	Alister McAlister
Succeeded by	Johan Klehs
Personal details
Born	(1947-08-20) August 20, 1947 San Diego, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic

Delaine Eastin (born August 20, 1947) is an American politician and the former 25th California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. She was the first woman to be elected State Superintendent.

Eastin represented parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties in the California State Assembly between 1986 and 1994. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life

Eastin was born in San Diego, California, where her father served in the U.S. Navy. After her father completed his career in the Navy, the family moved to San Francisco where her mother had been born and raised. Delaine enrolled in elementary school in San Francisco, where she was one of 44 children in the second grade classroom. While the teacher was effective, it was impossible for her to attend to the needs of every child in the class. The family moved to San Carlos shortly thereafter, where Delaine enrolled in a school where she was one of 20 children. This was a life-changing experience, and Delaine was able to get the attention she needed to thrive academically. As she says, "I came by my interest in class size reduction from personal experience". A native Californian, Eastin received her bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis, and her master's degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Teaching and business career

After graduation, Eastin taught women's studies and political science at several California community colleges including Ventura College, DeAnza College and Canada College. After seven years of teaching, she joined Pacific Telephone in 1979 as an accounting manager and then, as a corporate strategic planner, where she worked for the company that became Pacific Telesis Group and sought to recreate itself in response to the breakup of AT&T. As a corporate planner, she served on the team that advocated expansion into a new technology area, known as cellular phone service. PacTel Mobile grew and was spun off into Airtouch and subsequently became part of Vodaphone, the world's largest cellular provider.

Early political career

Eastin began her political career in 1980 as a Member of the Union City Council. As a council member she represented the city on a variety of boards including as a Member of the Alameda County Library Commission, which she chaired for 5 of the 6 years she served on it. She also represented the city on the Solid Waster Management Authority, where she successfully advocated for a Recycling Subcommittee. She chaired the SWMA and she represented Union City on the Association of Bay Area Governments. In 1986, communities stretching from San Jose to Union City elected her to the Legislature, after her service on the Union City Council. When she joined the Assembly, she authored innovative bills to improve schools, increase use of recycled materials, improve transportation systems, and crack down on unlicensed contractors.

Eastin's leadership garnered the "Rookie of the Year" acknowlegment from the California Journal, a non-partisan analytical journal that reported on the State Legislature.

Eastin served four terms in the State Assembly, representing parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties. She chaired the Assembly Education Committee, where she authored and shaped legislation to reform California's public schools in order to make the state economically competitive. Her legislation included bills creating charter schools, promoting parental involvement, and enhancing school safety. Her other legislation reduced the bureaucratic hurdles for approval of new school construction and placed the largest school bond in history on the ballot, which voters approved in 1992. She also fought successfully to increase financial accountability of school districts—to prevent bankruptcies like the one in Richmond.

Eastin also received "Legislator of the Year" awards from the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, the California School Boards Association (multiple times) and the California Media Library Educators Association. The California Congress of the PTA, and the American Electronics Association also have recognized Eastin for her efforts on behalf of children. She received the prestigious Crystal Apple Award from the American Library Association. She was given the Inspirational Leader Award from Kidango. She received alumni awards from both UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

On November 8, 1994, Eastin was elected to her first four year term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Eastin was the highest ranking official in California's elementary and secondary public school system and the first (and as of this writing, only) woman to be elected State Superintendent. As State Superintendent, Eastin served as the Executive Officer and Secretary of the State Board of Education and was the Director of the California Department of Education. In addition, the State Superintendent is a member of various boards and commissions that make education policy in the state. The most notable of these are the Regents of the University of California and the Trustees of the California State University system.

Upon taking office, Eastin made class size reduction her top priority. Her advocacy persuaded the Governor and the legislature to invest $2.3 billion in cutting class sizes. K-3 class sizes have been cut from 30 to 20 students in over 86,000 classrooms, in 98% of all school districts.

In response to declining student performance, State Superintendent Eastin led the adoption of high statewide academic standards in English language arts, math, science and social studies were adopted. Subsequently standards in the arts were adopted. Eastin also implemented a new statewide test and established a new system to increase the accountability of every school and district in the state.

In the fall of 1995, Superintendent Eastin launched the "Challenge Initiative," a groundbreaking reform effort to raise standards and accountability. Fifty-six school districts, covering nearly 500,000 students, embraced the Challenge and agreed to set high standards for every subject area in all grade levels.

During her first term, Eastin cut administrative waste by streamlining and modernizing contracting procedures in the Department of Education and by standardizing accounting procedures. On her watch the California Department of Education, did its first ever Strategic Plan. She also established the California Education Technology Task Force to craft a statewide plan to increase student access to technology in the classroom. Eastin was the architect of the first Net Day, where 30,000 volunteers joined Eastin, President Clinton, Vice President Gore and much of the Clinton Cabinet in an electronic "barn raising". The event was such a success it was copied in 40 states and 40 countries. Later, Vice President Gore said his experience that day was what motivated him to suggest an e-rate tax to help schools across the nation to enter the digital era with proper wiring and technology.

Eastin called for a Garden In Every School in 1995. With the help of people like restaurateur Alice Waters, she was able to establish gardens in over 3000 schools. She also enlisted California as the first state to join the Clinton Team Nutrition effort for improved nutrition in schools. She oversaw a series of curriculum guides on how to teach the academic content standards in the context of nutrition, gardening and cooking.

Eastin visited schools in all 58 counties, keeping her commitment to visit a school a week on average. She visited more than 600 schools across California.

Eastin championed Universal Preschool and had a Preschool Task Force made up of educators, business leaders, civil rights advocates and children's advocates. They called for Universal Preschool In California within 10 years. Subsequently, she was the Honorary Chair of the successful Proposition 10, written to support the health, welfare and education of children from 0-5 through a tax on tobacco products.

There was legal action taken against Eastin and her department from several employees. In the early 1990s California's Department of Education gave millions of dollars in federal funds to some community groups; it was subsequently alleged by departmental civil servants that "much of the money was siphoned off by executives of the supposedly non-profit groups for purposes such as their own salaries and expensive cars", and that this was due to their political connections with Eastin and members of the California State Legislature. Eventually, a federal lawsuit was filed against the department, leading to the eventual refund of $3.3 million from the state to the federal government and the prosecution of some of the community group leaders involved. James Lindberg, one of the state employees who publicized the discrepancies, later sued Eastin, Joan Polster and the Department of Education alleging that he was constructively discharged. A Sacramento County Superior Court jury awarded $4.5 million in compensatory damages. A separate punitive damage award against Eastin was thrown out by the trial judge, and the compensatory damage award was reversed by the court of appeal. A second jury trial increased the compensatory damage award to $7.6 million. However, while the appeal from that award was pending, the parties reached a settlement in which the Department of Education paid $4.25 million in exchange for a full release of all claims. The Department was criticized for spending state funds on fighting these lawsuits.

Eastin was unable to run for a third term in 2002 due to term limits and was succeeded by former State Senator Jack O'Connell.

References

^1^http://www.smartvoter.org/1998nov/ca/state/vote/eastin_d/bio.html ^2^http://www.newsreview.com/chico/is-that-all-there-is/content?oid=5679 ^3^http://www.smartvoter.org/1998nov/ca/state/race/suppi/ ^4^http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_6268831?source=infinite

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Alister McAlister	California State Assemblywoman, 18th District 1986–1992	Succeeded by Johan Klehs
Preceded by Ted Lempert	California State Assemblywoman, 20th District 1992–1994	Succeeded by Liz Figueroa
Preceded by Bill Honig	California State Superintendent of Public Instruction January 2, 1995 – January 5, 2003	Succeeded by Jack O'Connell