State of CaliforniaCandidate for Superintendent Of Public Instruction

Marco Amaral is the son of Yolanda Valencia and Miguel Amaral - two working-class immigrants from Mexico. 

Marco Amaral began his advocacy for public education during his time as a student at the University of California – Berkeley. During his time there he was part of several student and worker led movements towards making the University of California system more accessible and affordable for working families in California. Among other jobs, Marco worked as a maintenance and service worker at the Berkeley dining commons for 3 years; he was appointed to the Berkeley Police Review Commission by Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington for 2 years; and, worked at the Alameda County Courthouse as a Justice Corps Fellow. Marco was also elected as President of the Foothill dorms his freshman year. During his Sophomore year he became a Raza Caucus Facilitator and during his Junior year he became the Director of Community Outreach for the Chican@/Latin@ Student Development Center. However, Marco’s greatest love was always working with the Bay Area’s most disenfranchised communities and youth. Here, as a volunteer, is where he learned that he was destined to work within education as a teacher.

Marco began to work for Sweetwater Union High School District in 2015 as a Special Education Paraprofessional, while simultaneously working on his Masters Degree in Special Education at the University of San Diego. After being elected as the Classified Employee of the Year at Mar Vista High School, he moved on to work as a Special Education teacher at Castle Park High – where he currently resides. At Castle Park, Marco has taught mostly Math and Science. In 2020, Marco began his Doctoral Program in Social Justice Education at the University of San Diego. There he focused on researching the various ways that our current education system marginalizes students with disabilities.

In 2018, Marco became the only Independently elected candidate in San Diego County. Since 2018 he has served as a Trustee for the South Bay Union School District. Currently, Marco is the Board President for South Bay and has spearheaded various efforts, such as the implementation of Ethnic Studies, more equitable salaries for all workers, the educational rights of students with disabilities, and budget transparency. Marco is not registered with any political party, thus affording him the liberty to do what is right for kids without having to receive validation from a party apparatus.

Throughout the border region, Marco is known as an advocate for the most disenfranchised among us. He has participated in many organizing efforts to bring light to often unseen or forgotten social inequities. He believes that true change will not come from our political institutions. Rather, true change will come from a well-organized and mobilized mass of people.

In the Summer of 2021, Marco announced that he will be running for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction as the first working K-12 teacher to ever do so. The campaign is fundamentally grounded in the understanding that it is the people most engaged within education that must change education. Too often it is career politicians, disconnected millionaires and billionaires, or status-quo researchers that have the largest impact in public education, not those actually doing the day-to-day work within public education.

Marco Amaral’s political philosophy began in 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession. As an 18-year-old, Marco had enormous hope in the election of President Barack Obama. Marco’s parents, like millions of families throughout the country, lost their home due to the predatory lending practices of our financial system. However, it soon became clear that President Obama’s administration was more concerned with bailing out the big banks and the people that got us into a recession and less concerned with helping people like my parents. From that moment forward, Marco understood that neither the Republicans or Democrats actually cared about every day, working, people. Therefore, when it came to political parties, Marco has mainly been registered as a Non-Partisan since the age of 18.

Marco believes that true societal change always starts at the local community level. Yes, systemic change requires the involvement of whole systems. But that change must always be led by those at the grassroots level, not politicians and bureaucrats.