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Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, talks with schools chief Tom Torlakson, during the Senate session in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. In the race for superintendent of education, an advocate of school reform including charters, local control and tempering union influence is squaring off against incumbent Torlakson, a former teacher.

Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

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A one-party state like California may be tailor made to highlight sharp policy differences within the party. In the race of superintendent of education, an advocate of school reform including charters, local control and tempering union influence is squaring off against a more traditional Democrat supported by teachers' unions.

The race pits two well-funded Democrats against each other, with former charter school executive Michael Tuck challenging incumbent Tom Torlakson, a former teacher.

Tuck said in an interview with Reuters that he supports teacher unions but thinks they have "too big a seat at the table."

"He opposes rules that require teachers with the least seniority to be the first fired during layoffs, and is against granting teachers tenure after just two years on the job," Reuters reported.

"Policy experts in California say that increasingly, Democrats are supporting elements of the reform agenda," Reuters noted. "At the national level, the call to tie teacher evaluations to students' performance on standardized tests has been championed by the Democratic Obama administration, as well as leading Republicans."

The battle in California thus reflects a larger national battle pitting the Obama administration as a strong supporter of both charter schools and rigorous testing, both positions that pit him against teachers' unions.

In "Dreams of My Father," Obama offered an early signal that he would be an iconoclast on education, when he wrote of "annual budget shortfalls in the hundreds of millions; shortages of textbooks and toilet paper; a teachers union that went on strike at least once every two years; a bloated bureaucracy and an indifferent state Legislature."

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Democrat vs. Democrat in the charter school debate in California