Senate committee advances Cindy Marten’s nomination for national post

San Diego Superintendent Cindy Marten is one step closer to taking the second-highest education job in the country.

The U.S. Senate committee that focuses on education voted 14-8 on Wednesday to forward Marten’s nomination as deputy education secretary to the full U.S. Senate. The Senate will have the final say in whether to confirm her nomination.

Every Democrat in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted to advance Marten’s nomination. In addition, Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted to advance Marten.

If confirmed, Marten would go from being the leader of California’s second-largest school district with 97,000 students and a $1.5 billion budget to being the chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Education, which has a $73.5 billion budget and serves about 50 million K-12 students and 12 million postsecondary students.

Several government, civil and education leaders and groups including California’s state superintendent, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the Council of Great City Schools and the national NAACP have said Marten will make a fine deputy secretary. When President Joe Biden’s team announced Marten as its pick, the team cited the initiatives she led as a principal in City Heights and San Diego Unified’s national test scores, which surpass those of other large urban districts.

“She knows how important it is for every student to be able to get a high-quality public education, and she has worked throughout her career to try to make this vision a reality,” said Committee Chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, during a hearing last month.

But Marten’s nomination has also drawn controversy and concerns from U.S. senators and San Diego parents and community members.

Among their concerns are San Diego Unified’s failure during Marten’s term to close achievement gaps and discipline disparities for Black students, allegations of mishandling of school sexual abuse cases, allegations of failing to provide proper special education services, the fact that the district regularly takes months or more than a year to fulfill public information requests, and the fact that the district is the subject of more than half a dozen pending investigations in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

During a committee hearing last month, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, grilled Marten on her decision to keep most students out of San Diego Unified schools for more than a year when evidence has shown that schools can reopen safely.

When members of the Senate committee asked Marten what she would do as deputy education secretary to help students across the country, she answered by describing what San Diego Unified has done under her leadership. In some answers, she said individual school district leaders will have to decide how to support students.

Despite their concerns about Marten, some senators said they hope Marten will fix her deficiencies once she takes over the deputy secretary position, rather than saying that Marten shouldn’t be confirmed at all.

Senators Romney; Rand Paul, R-Kentucky; Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana; Mike Braun, R-Indiana; Roger Marshall, R-Kansas; Tim Scott, R-South Carolina; Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama; and Jerry Moran, R-Kansas voted against advancing Marten’s nomination.

If Marten is confirmed by the Senate, San Diego Unified Area Superintendent Lamont Jackson will serve as the interim superintendent while the school board conducts a search for a permanent successor, who likely won’t be chosen until late this calendar year.