Rivals Vie for Job of California Schools Chief

National Education Issues, Statewide Budget Worries Echoed in Rivals' Positions

Three Democrats—state Sen. Gloria Romero, assemblyman Tom Torlakson, and retired superintendent Larry Aceves—are emerging as the front-runners in a field of 12 candidates vying to become the next schools chief in California.

But the campaign for state superintendent of public instruction, officially a nonpartisan office, is just as much a three-way fight entangling the teachers’ unions, an education reform group backed by billionaires, and the organization that represents school administrators.

Each group has a stake in a contest that showcases contentious issues such as how the state will fix hundreds of chronically underperforming school; how—or if— California will move to tie teachers’ evaluations, pay, and job security to how well their students perform; and whether the state will free up, or restrict, charter schools and other...