Tuchman opposes bilingual education

Government: Tustin school-board member, supported by Conroy and Umberg, wants non-political decision on state schools post.

It’s been two weeks since teacher and school-board member Gloria Matta Tuchman got a message on her answering machine from Assemblyman Mickey Conroy, R-Orange.

The message: Send a resume because he was going to begin promoting her as a candidate for state superintendent of schools.

On Friday, Conroy and Assemblyman Tom Umberg, D-Garden Grove, presented a bipartisan front in support of Tuchman, a member of the Tustin Unified School District board of education and a classroom teacher for 30 years.

A registered independent, Tuchman said she wants to see politics removed from the decision of who should lead California’s schools.

State Sen. Marian Bergeson, R-Newport Beach, failed to win appointment to the job last month after a protracted battle that pitted Democratic leaders against Republicans.

A member of three national education-reform boards, Tuchman said her priority for California school reform would be ending bilingual education. As someone who has taught Head Start and English-proficiency classes, Tuchman said she can speak from experience that bilingual education has failed.

Instead she supports English immersion to better prepare the 3.5 million California students by 2000 who will be limited-English speakers _ half the school population.

On other issues, Tuchman said she opposes efforts to cut statewide education spending and supports Prop. 98, passed in 1990 to guarantee state money for schools. She declined to give an opinion on vouchers for parents to use toward education costs, saying the matter is headed for a vote and she would abide by the outcome.



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