Richard R. Barrera is a San Diego native, community and labor organizer, and longtime public school board trustee who currently serves as President of the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Board of Education — California’s second largest school district, serving 103,000 students. He also serves as Deputy Superintendent and Senior Policy Adviser at the California Department of Education. He is running as a nonpartisan candidate — backed by the California Teachers Association — for California Superintendent of Public Instruction in the June 2, 2026 primary. No one has been elected state superintendent for the past 44 years without the CTA’s backing.
The son of a father who immigrated from Colombia and the grandson of Ellis Island immigrants, Barrera was born and raised in San Diego and attended public schools from kindergarten through college. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American History from the University of California, San Diego and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University. After graduation, he returned to San Diego and spent years as a community organizer working with residents of high-poverty neighborhoods on affordable housing, living-wage jobs, and civic participation. He then became a labor organizer, working with homecare workers, healthcare workers, nurses, teachers, and grocery store workers. He later served as Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, leading the successful effort to raise the minimum wage and provide paid sick days to over 200,000 San Diego workers.
Barrera was first elected to represent District D on the San Diego Unified School Board in 2008 and has been re-elected by overwhelming margins in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 — serving for 18 years, including five as board president. He has also served as a senior adviser at the California Department of Education under Superintendent Tony Thurmond. He announced his candidacy for state superintendent in late 2025.
Endorsements
California Teachers Association (310,000 educators), United Domestic Workers, Rep. Juan Vargas, and a broad coalition of labor and community organizations. The CTA endorsement is widely considered the most decisive endorsement in the superintendent’s race — no candidate has won the office without it in the past four decades. Also endorsed by the SF Chronicle and McClatchy papers such as the Sacramento Bee. A full list is available on his endorsements page.
Reputation/Scandals/Successes
Core Strengths and Positive Reputation
- The CTA Endorsement and Its Historical Weight: Barrera secured the endorsement of the California Teachers Association over better-known legislative candidates including former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi — a signal that the state’s most powerful education organization trusts his record and values above all others in the field. The CTA’s 310,000 members represent an enormous organizing and communications infrastructure that has historically proven decisive in this race.
- Measurable District Outcomes at SDUSD: Over Barrera’s time on the board, students in San Diego Unified have achieved record-high graduation and college eligibility rates, record-low dropout, suspension, and expulsion rates, and today rank at or near the top of large California districts in reading, math, science, and social science proficiency. He points to this track record as a model for what he would pursue statewide — investing in teachers, expanding community schools, and making college-prep coursework available to all students regardless of neighborhood.
- Community Schools Pioneer: Barrera steered SDUSD’s early adoption of community schools, adding college prep courses in low-income high schools and negotiating above-average pay for teachers. The community schools model — wrapping wraparound social services around school sites — has gained significant national momentum, and his early championing of it in San Diego gives him credibility as an innovator rather than a follower.
- Deep Labor and Equity Roots: Unlike most candidates in the race, Barrera comes directly out of the community and labor organizing world — not from elected politics or academia. His years working alongside homecare workers, nurses, and grocery workers give him an authentically working-class perspective on public education’s role in economic mobility that resonates strongly with union households and communities of color.
- Financial Independence From Special Interests: Barrera’s campaign has raised $225,938 and is not funded by fossil fuel, real estate, law enforcement, or corporate donors — a clean-money profile that aligns with his progressive coalition and insulates him from certain lines of attack.
Criticisms and Controversies
- Recurring Budget Deficits Under His Leadership: Every pay raise in SDUSD (with the exception of 2020) has been followed by large budget deficits and the subsequent elimination of student programs and services. The SDUSD Board — with Barrera as President — recently voted to eliminate 200 positions to help defray projected deficits of $48 million in 2026–27 and another $113 million in 2027–28, while simultaneously negotiating employee raises that will add tens of millions more to those deficits. Critics argue this pattern — approving labor contracts that trigger predictable future cuts to students — reflects a structural prioritization of employee compensation over program continuity.
- Mickey Kasparian Sexual Harassment Scandal: In February 2026, UFCW Local 135 — the largest private-sector union in San Diego — sent a formal letter to the CTA requesting that it withdraw its endorsement of Barrera, citing his failure to speak out or take meaningful action during a serious sexual harassment scandal involving Mickey Kasparian, then the head of both UFCW Local 135 and the San Diego-Imperial Labor Council. Beginning in 2016, multiple women credibly accused Kasparian of sexual harassment; he clung to leadership of both organizations for more than a year before ultimately resigning in disgrace. UFCW Local 135 argued that Barrera’s silence during the scandal represented a failure of leadership at a moment when it was most needed. The CTA did not withdraw its endorsement.
- Sacramento Outsider in a Year of Legislative Transition: With a new governor taking office in January 2027 and major education budget decisions looming, some education policy analysts have argued that the superintendent’s most important skill will be navigating Sacramento’s legislative and budget process — an arena where Barrera has no direct experience, unlike candidates such as Rendon, Muratsuchi, or Newman who served in the legislature.
- Questions About Cherry-Picked Achievement Data: Barrera’s campaign prominently cites SDUSD’s improved test scores and graduation rates. Critics — including the watchdog blog District Deeds and commentators at Voice of San Diego — have argued that his achievement claims rely on selectively presented data that obscures persistent achievement gaps, particularly for low-income students and students of color, and that the district’s overall performance picture is more mixed than his campaign messaging suggests.
Campaign Contributors
Has raised approximately $225,938. Campaign does not accept contributions from fossil fuel, real estate, law enforcement, or corporate donors. Major contributors include labor unions and individual donors. Full contributor details are available at Transparency USA.
Media Coverage
EdSource: Meet the State Superintendent Candidates — Richard Barrera
CalMatters Voter Guide – Superintendent of Public Instruction
Voice of San Diego: CTA’s Barrera Endorsement — San Diego Unified as a Model
OB Rag: San Diego Labor Union Calls on Teachers to Withdraw Barrera Recommendation
EdSource: How Much Money Have California Superintendent Candidates Raised?
