Arjun Jaikumar, an attorney who has litigated against the Trump administration on immigration, voting rights and attempts to overthrow the 2020 election, has put in his first bid for public office. He said a lack of transparency from the School Committee inspired his candidacy.
Jaikumar pointed to three events that he said lacked community engagement and focused his campaign around issues of transparency – the closing of the Kennedy Longfellow School in June, ouster of former superintendent Victoria Greer and this year’s search for a replacement.
“It was a real lack of transparency and responsiveness from the School Committee that I thought one or two new members could do a lot to ameliorate,” Jaikumar said. “All you have to do is listen and engage.”
Better communication from the committee would entail more responsiveness to calls and emails and open office hours where community members can ask questions, he said.
“If you want to do deep community engagement, it’s not enough to make yourself available,” he added. “I would visit every school in the district each term. I would sit in on classes, talk to educators … attend school council meetings.”
Jaikumar, who has worked in a private practice and as a law clerk for judges in the U.S. District Court and Court of Appeals, said that his legal experience gives him the collaboration skills needed to serve on the committee.
“To do anything on the School Committee, you need four votes,” he said. “My experience as an attorney puts me in a good position to [get those votes], because I know what it’s like to come into a dispute on polar opposite sides [and] reach some kind of agreement.”
Another priority for Jaikumar is narrowing gaps in academic achievement, a goal that is common among candidates in the election but requires “serious acknowledgement of where achievement gaps come from,” he said.
“The primary drivers of achievement gaps are economic inequality and systemic racism,” Jaikumar said. “Skills gaps, that later manifest as achievement gaps, are present from the time students arrive in our school buildings.”
Candidates also diverge on methods to narrow the gaps.
Jaikumar looks toward a multiple educator model, a collaborative model of co-teaching that places more than one educator in the same classroom. He wants to focus interventions on early education.
“I would ensure there are multiple educators and staff in pre-K, K, first grade and second grade classrooms to make sure that when kids come in that are behind, we can get them the coaching and interventions they need to get caught up by third or fourth grade,” Jaikumar said. Fourth grade represents a turning point in a student’s education, when they go from “learning to read to reading to learn.”
As a parent to a fourth grader at Graham & Parks School, Jaikumar is familiar with this transition period. “You can’t overstate the impact of having a child in the schools and being part of a school community,” he said.
Jaikumar added that we should “expand to other schools” the instructional model from the Tobin Montessori School, calling it “one of the most successful schools in the district,” with “an excellent reputation for both high-need learners and advanced learners.”
“Part of the reason” for its success is the inclusion of “multiple full-time educators in every classroom,” Jaikumar said.
Beyond his focus on early education, Jaikumar shared his desire to address racial disparities in discipline and provide better wraparound support for families and caregivers.
There are 18 candidates running for the Cambridge School Committee’s six seats, to be decided Tuesday. With one incumbent opting not to run, one new face is guaranteed when the committee sits in January.
This post was updated Nov. 3, 2025, to clarify that Victoria Greer was ousted as superintendent.
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