Delaine Eastin: a remembrance

Delaine Eastin, an impassioned and feisty advocate for public education and the first – and only — woman ever to serve as California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, has died at the age of 76.

Eastin, a former legislator, served during the administrations of Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis, from 1995 to 2003, but was blocked by term limits from seeking a third term. She ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018 to succeed Jerry Brown, and three years later launched an unsuccessful campaign to head the California Democratic Party, when she came in second behind Rusty Hicks.

Over the years she has been a corporate planner, a professor at Mills College, a community college teacher, a leader of the movement to improve academic standards and testing, an advocate for better student nutrition, and a passionate devotee of libraries. She was honorary chair of voter-approved Proposition 10 of 1998, which set aside a portion of tobacco tax money for early childhood development. Eastin graduated from UC Davis with a BA, and from UC Santa Barbara with a Master’s in political science in 1971.

Her vision for those pondering activism and politics? “I want them to roll up their sleeves and make tomorrow a better place,” she said in a 2021 Capitol Weekly podcast.

As state schools superintendent, an office in California government since 1851, Eastin was influential in advocating for policies affecting some 6 million students in primary and secondary schools. She personally visited some 600 schools in California’s 58 counties before she left office. Elected in a statewide vote, her authority really stemmed from her effectiveness in using the position as a bully pulpit; the state Board of Education made policy decisions.

She sought to improve digital awareness in schools and was credited with being the architect of the first “NetDay,” held on March 9, 1996, “where 20,000 volunteers joined Eastin, President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and much of the Clinton Cabinet in an electronic ‘barn raising,’” according to a Wikipedia account. “The event was such a success it was copied in 40 states and 40 countries.”

Earlier, she served a total of four terms in the state Assembly representing two districts, the 18^th and the 20^th in parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties. Her tenure from 1986 to 1994 straddled the decennial census-based redrawing of political boundaries. Her first elected post was to the Union City city council in 1980.

Eastin, a fierce advocate for universal pre-school, was quickly seen as a major player in Sacramento – the California Journal named her the legislative “Rookie of the Year” — and her top priority in the Legislature and as schools superintendent was reducing the numbers of children in California  classrooms. Then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, strongly favored the idea, as did Eastin, a life-long Democrat, and the two pushed hard for the program, which ultimately was approved in surprisingly short order.

“I recall her hilarious recounting of how she had to implement Pete Wilson’s class-size reduction plan with six weeks notice,” wrote Louis Freedberg of EdSource. “To get the extra portables needed by schools, she had to request a waiver from the California Highway Patrol to allow trucking companies to transport wide loads on state highways over Labor Day weekend. But somehow it all worked.”

Delaine Andree Eastin, who died on Tuesday at her home in Davis due to complications following a stroke, was born on Aug. 20, 1947, in San Diego. Her father, who moved the family to Northern California after completing his Navy service, had a profound influence on Delaine, who first went to elementary school in San Francisco and later in San Carlos.

“My dad. He was a rock star. He was accepted to college. Then the Depression came and his family’s house burned down and his father went bankrupt, “ she told the L.A. Times in a 2017 interview. “ So he went into the Navy. He was a great parent. He was strict. Thirty-five cents a week allowance, but only if we did our chores. Then it went to 50 cents a week. But we got a dollar for every poem we memorized.”

In a statement released after her death, Eastin was remembered not only as the state’s only female Superintendent of Public Instruction, but also only the fifth woman elected to statewide office in California.