Candidates exchange ideas on education

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Steve Poizner has told debate listeners how he got in ‘the trenches’ – ‘I fix things’ – to work at a public school and was shocked that the roof leaked. (He hasn’t mentioned yet that this happened after he sold his Silicon Valley company for $1 billion.)

‘Not everyone is destined for UC Berkeley,’ he said, citing gang members at the San Jose school where he taught. ‘What happened to vocational education? Not everyone is going to end up in or even needs to go to college.’

Whitman too says she would try to bolster vocational education and charter schools.

‘We’ve got to make it easier for parents to start charter schools.… You have to turn yourself into a pretzel.’

She also would like to create incentives for the best teachers.

--Michael Rothfeld in Costa Mesa