Report: 2 California Education Officials Living in TX and PA Resign for Violating State Policy

Two high-ranking California Department of Education (CDE) officials resigned this month because they do not actually live in California, according to reports.

Politico reported that Pamela Kadakia recently resigned from her position as CDE equity project manager. Public records and her LinkedIn profile indicate that she actually resides in Texas, one of 17 states where California has banned state-funded travel for its state employees because California views the states’ laws as discriminatory to the LGBTQ community, according to the outlet.

Moreover, California state policy decrees that all state employees must reside in California except when specific cases call for an employee to live elsewhere, as in when employees are sent to Washington to lobby federal officials, Politico reported.

Politico received confirmation of Kadakia’s resignation from the CDE on Thursday.

“We sought to ensure that all our personnel were in line with the new guidance,” the department explained in a statement. “In doing so, we accepted Ms. Kadakia’s resignation.”

The outlet reports:

Kadakia’s LinkedIn profile shows she pursued her doctorate in education at Texas A&M University from 2019 to 2021. Prior to joining CDE, she taught for more than four years at Richland College in Dallas, Texas.

Records show Kadakia, 34, lives in the Dallas area, where she and her husband purchased a home in 2019. She appears to have worked in Texas since 2016, according to LinkedIn, but originally hails from California, graduating from Walnut High School in east Los Angeles County and earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cal State Fullerton.

Kadakia’s resignation comes on the heels of Daniel Lee’s resignation. Lee, 51, stepped down from his post as the CDE’s first superintendent of equity in the wake of a previous Politico report that revealed he actually lives in Philadelphia and works as a psychologist.

Politico reported:

California’s first superintendent of equity lives in Philadelphia and has a separate job there, more than 2,500 miles away from the schools he advises as one of the highest paid officials in the state Department of Education, according to records and interviews.

Daniel Lee, a psychologist, life coach and self-help author, owns a Pennsylvania-based psychology firm and is the president of the New Jersey Psychological Association’s executive board. He has also been serving as a deputy superintendent for the California Department of Education since July 2020, a role dedicated to the success of children of color that was originally backed by a foundation grant but is now funded by state taxpayers.

After his hiring “in 2020 by the California Department of Education’s nonprofit affiliate,” he was “moved into a department position this summer with a salary range between $161,400 and $179,832,” Politico reports.

Tony Thurmond, who serves as California’s superintendent of public Instruction, was “instrumental” in Lee’s hiring, according to Politico. The pair have a history that spans 20 years when they worked as social workers in Philadelphia and Lee was even a part of Thurmond’s wedding party, Politico reported.

Lee’s 18-page resume does not illustrate work experience in California nor does it reveal any relationships with the state’s school districts, Politico reported.