BY LISTENING TO and working alongside educators and prioritizing the needs of classroom teachers, and by listening to students and community, Richard Barrera has helped transform San Diego Unified School District into one of the highest-performing districts in the country.

Now running for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and endorsed by our union, Barrera’s vast experience as president and trustee on the SDUSD school board and as a labor and community organizer before that should serve him well on the statewide stage.

He views the SPI role as an organizer who builds coalitions between educators, parents and local school boards to create solutions. The local level, he says, is where the most impactful education decisions are made.

“Barrera’s solidarity and deep commitment to public schools have achieved lower class sizes, created opportunities for more bilingual instruction, and expanded science and career pathways. His leadership proves that when you partner with educators, students win.”
—CTA President David Goldberg

“The way that I would perform the role as state superintendent is to not be spending a lot of time in Sacramento,” he told one news outlet. “It’s to be out, building relationships with local communities, helping them imagine what’s possible and bringing together coalitions that can actually move things and make real progress.”

His work in San Diego and with the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) was key in our union’s decision to recommend him as SPI.

“His solidarity and deep commitment to public schools have achieved lower class sizes, created opportunities for more bilingual instruction, and expanded science and career pathways in San Diego and beyond,” said CTA President David Goldberg. “His leadership proves that when you partner with educators, students win.”

CTA Board Member Kisha Borden, former SDEA president, says that “Richard was a true partner and co-architect of the transformation of San Diego schools. Under his leadership,
rooted in the belief that educator working conditions are student learning conditions, we raised base pay by over 40% while protecting fully paid family health benefits. Together, we also transformed over 50 schools into community schools which depend on shared leadership that includes educators, families, administrators and the community.”

The statewide direct primary election, which includes the SPI, takes place on June 2.

Experience with community and union work

As the son of immigrants, Barrera grew up understanding that public schools are the great equalizer in American society. He also understood that unions provided work with dignity and were a pathway for many to achieve success in life.

In San Diego, he worked with residents of high-poverty neighborhoods to improve affordable housing, access to living-wage jobs and civic participation. He spent years organizing domestic workers, health care workers and nurses fighting for economic and social justice. As a leader of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, he led the effort to increase the minimum wage and provide paid sick days to over 200,000 San Diego workers.

In February, Barrera spoke at CTA’s Political Academy in Garden Grove.

After seeing firsthand how public schools shaped the futures of the communities he served, he ran for the San Diego Unified School Board in 2008 with a goal that every child would have access to the same opportunities he had. During his 18 years on the board, student test scores have risen, graduation rates have increased, and the achievement gap has narrowed.

Barrera has noted that this success is based on pulling together and listening to the right stakeholders. “What we’ve built has been a model of a district that listens to the people who are closest to our kids — our educators, our parents, our students — and we have made significant progress on issues that school districts should be working on,” he said in a news story.

His coalition-building skills have led to the successful passage of four school bonds totaling $11.5 billion —helping to ensure educators have the resources and support they need, create state-of-the-art campuses and make SDUSD the first district in the state to guarantee transitional kindergarten for every four-year-old. (See SDUSD budget priorities at the end of this story.)

Informed by his experience and what works, Barrera’s ambitions for SPI are centered on educator-led change, expanded funding and community based solutions.

A statewide vision for fully funded  schools
Since July 2024, Barrera has also served as a senior policy adviser to current State Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s Initiatives Office, which oversees the Whole Child Division, including school-based health programs and advisory councils for parents and students. This role has connected him with statewide education policy and work on issues like chronic absenteeism and affordable housing on school district land.

His platform for SPI reflects both his local track record and a broader statewide vision. He supports local control of school districts, the use of formative assessments throughout the academic year, and ethnic studies, among other issues.

As SPI, Barrera has stated he will “help local communities organize and pass their own school funding measures while leading a statewide effort to increase education funding and reinvest California’s wealth into its public schools.” He has also said that he will work with districts on strategic plans to improve student achievement, strengthen teacher support and expand access to critical resources.

“The solutions aren’t in Sacramento,” he said. “They’re in our classrooms, our communities, and the hands of the educators and families who know what our students need. I’m not here to push top-down mandates. I’m here to organize, build coalitions, and fight for the resources and support that schools across the state deserve.”

Richard Barrera
Age: 61
Residence:
A first-generation San Diegan whose father was born in Colombia and grandparents came through Ellis Island.
Education:
Attended San Diego public schools; bachelor’s degree in history from UC San Diego; master’s in public policy from Harvard University.
Family:
Married, two sons — both graduates of SDUSD schools
What friends say:
In a Voice of San Diego story in 2016,
colleagues said he possesses a near- photographic memory, famously rarely carrying a pencil or taking notes because he remembers everything.

District Invest in Educators, Students

San Diego Unified School District is California’s second-largest district, serving more than 121,000 K–12 students with a highly diverse population, including 60+ languages. Highlights: 90% graduation rate, 22:1 student-teacher ratio, and a 59.4% free or reduced meal eligibility rate.

SDUSD’s investment in educators and students, and corresponding rise in student outcomes that are among the best in the country, serves as a model nationwide. Its priorities are reflected in the budget: 86% of the 2024–25 budget went to salaries and benefits, vs. a growing increase in districts that spend far less on educators and far more on outside contractors and other services.
Source: CDE Standardized Accounting Code Structure Data