By admin 
As an assemblymember running for state superintendent of schools in 2018, Tony Thurmond’s largest donor was the state teachers union, which contributed some $8 million to his campaign. Thurmond barely won. A bond was born.
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Now it is no secret that the teachers want a huge favor from the outgoing superintendent in perhaps his last big decision. On his desk is a request to step into the financial mess at the Sacramento City Unified School District and to reinstate a contract extension for the teachers that protects their salaries and benefits for four years.
David Gordon, superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education, quickly vetoed the extension, which the district’s board had unanimously approved in July, citing the need for “extraordinary fiscal discipline.”
Gordon has this authority because the district is on a financial path toward insolvency.
Yet an obscure section of the California Education Code allows Thurmond to pre-empt any county superintendent in this situation for being “not effective.” Sac City essentially wants Thurmond to declare that Gordon isn’t doing his job correctly and to appoint overseers of the county office.
The chutzpah is unbelievable. Here is a school district that has run itself into the ground by over-promising compensation to the teachers year after year. And it is Gordon and the county that is screwing up here?
This strategy of going after Gordon was first raised by the Sacramento Teachers Association after the county office’s rejection of the contract extension. The board quickly fell in line on Tuesday and appealed to Thurmond.
Now all eyes are on Thurmond. He would make the wrong kind of history if he wielded the outer limits of his power to second-guess a county superintendent who did the right thing.
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This fiasco began to unfold when the board in June decided to sweeten the contract for the teachers in exchange for the teachers’ blessing the use of a trust fund to pay for $68 million in pension obligations that otherwise would have eaten into the district’s general fund. Even in an unprecedented fiscal crisis, the teachers wanted more. And the board, whose political careers are all underwritten by the teachers’ association, said yes.
But this is more than a mere contract extension through mid-2030. It ties the hands of the board from asking the teachers to make any contract concession to help avoid insolvency. It guarantees them any new perk that another union may get. And it leaves the door open for higher salaries.
With 93% of the district’s budget consumed by compensation, how does it make sense to place any of this spending off limits?
Gordon estimates the structural deficit in the range of $220 million. The board’s recent actions were filled with temporary band-aids. “SCUSD cannot solve its fiscal crisis by merely delaying it,” Gordon said in rejecting the contract extension.
That Sac City would place this appeal before Thurmond is telling in itself. They want Thurmond to roll Gordon, one of the most respected county superintendents in California. The actions of SCTA put Thurmond in an unenviable position. If he goes along with them, at Gordon’s expense, he risks appearing as if he is answering to a teachers union that is part of a larger organization that donated millions to his election.
Sometimes a public servant has to say no, even to his biggest financial supporters. This is Tony Thurmond’s revealing moment.
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This story was originally published August 7, 2026 at 11:31 AM.