Here’s our pick of recent news about the ongoing effort to privatize public education in California. Want these straight to your email inbox? Sign up here.

Millions of ballots are still uncounted in tight state superintendent race.As of yesterday, former charter school executive Marshall Tuck leads Richmond Assemblyman Tony Thurmond by about 69,000 votes. More money—over $50 million, much of which from the charter school industry—poured into the race than did in any U.S. House race this cycle. State officials are still counting an estimated 4.5 million vote-by-mail, provisional, and same-day ballots. In Los Angeles County, where Thurmond leads Tuck by 10.8 percentage points, officials estimated 984,000 ballots are still uncounted. EdSource

Here’s our pick of recent news about the ongoing effort to privatize public education in California. Not a subscriber? Sign up here.

Charter school market disruption is causing fiscal strain.Charter school closures, totaling about 600 in California since 1993, are putting a strain on the state’s public employee retirement system. “CalPERS has identified an estimated 140 charter schools that have stopped reporting payroll to us,” a California Public Employees Retirement System spokeswoman said. Cal Pensions

Conflict brewing in Antioch.Trustees of California’s Antioch Unified School District have unanimously voted to send a “notice of violation” to leaders of East Bay Tech Academy “alleging it concealed financial information and misled them about its connection with Clayton Valley Charter High School, whose management and spending practices are being investigated by the county.” The Mercury News

In her defense.The ACLU of Northern California is defending a public school board member who was threatened with a lawsuit by a private charter operator for asking questions about the operations of a private charter school that was up for renewal. Diane Ravitch’s Blog

ICYMI. Voters passed progressive ballot measures nationwide, including a ban on water privatization in Baltimore and a major expansion of voting rights in Florida. A massive increase of private school vouchers failed in Arizona. In the Public Interest