Get to know San Diego County Board of Education Trustee Alicia Muñoz, challenger Eric Lund

The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board posed questions on key issues to the two candidates for the San Diego County Board of Education’s District 3 seat.

The district includes El Cajon, La Mesa, Spring Valley and parts of the county and city of San Diego. Eric Lund is challenging incumbent Alicia Muñoz .

The questions are below; to read their answers, click on their respective link.

• The San Diego County County Office of Education went through an upheaval two years ago with the departure of Superintendent Randy Ward. Do you think the office is functioning well now? What can it do better? What does it do well?
• The “dashboard” standards the State Board of Education have adopted to judge the performance of students, schools, and districts have been criticized by some reformers as too vague and criticized by some opinion writers as intended to make it difficult to assess performance. What is your view?
• The Local Control Funding Formula, adopted by the state in 2013, was supposed to provide more funds to help English-language learners, students from poor families and foster children. But an investigation last year by the CALmatters journalism website found no evidence these groups of students were benefiting from the LCFF. The state has approved the use of LCFF dollars for teacher raises. Do you think the law has worked as intended? Should it be amended in any way?
• The County Office of Education has been caught up in disputes over charter school authorizations, with some arguing that it has been hostile to applications at the behest of teachers unions which oppose charters. How do you think the county office has handled this issue?
• The Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team warns that many school districts are in a perilous place with their finances because of soaring pension costs as the CalSTRS bailout is phased in through the 2020-21 school year. Do you think the county office in its watchdog role is doing enough to get districts to prepare for this fiscal stress?

Here are the candidates’ responses.

Candidate questionnaires

San Diego County Board of Education candidate Eric Lund on the issues

San Diego County Board of Education Trustee Alicia Muñoz on the issues