Newsom Strips Elected Superintendent of School Authority in Historic California Governance Reform

SACRAMENTO, California — California’s elected superintendent of public instruction will no longer manage the state’s Department of Education under a sweeping governance reform negotiated between Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders and expected to pass as part of the 2026–27 state budget.

Saratoga, located in Silicon Valley approximately 50 miles south of San Francisco in Santa Clara County, has a population of about 31,000 and is situated in the heart of California’s technology economy, where many residents work at companies such as Apple, Netflix, and Google.

The change, detailed in Assembly Bill 181, creates a new director of education position appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. The director will assume all responsibilities and duties of the California Department of Education when the law takes effect on January 15, 2027. The elected superintendent will retain an independent oversight role, including a voting seat on the State Board of Education and membership on the Community College System Board of Governors.

“This represents one of the most significant education governance reforms in California’s history,” said Lupita Cortez Alcalá, executive director of PACE (Policy Analysis for California Education). “This law recognizes that improving education requires more than bold investments — it requires clear leadership, rigorous evaluation and a commitment to continuous learning.”

The reform ends a century-old split in authority between the governor and the independently elected superintendent that policy experts and advocacy groups have long argued creates inefficiency and confusion. Under the current system, governors and their appointed State Board of Education members create programs but cannot implement or monitor them — that responsibility belongs to the superintendent, who may have different priorities.

“California can no longer postpone reforms that have been recommended regularly for a century,” Newsom said. “So we are going to modernize the governance system by unifying the policy-making State Board with the Department of Education that implements those policies.”

Newsom made the TK–12 bureaucracy realignment a priority in his January state of the state address, acting on recommendations from a December 2025 PACE analysis. Dozens of education organizations endorsed the reform, which supporters say will bring accountability and coherence to a system that serves more than 5.8 million public school students.

The law also requires the new education director to develop recommendations by June 30, 2027, to clarify overlapping responsibilities among county offices of education, the state education department, and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence. A final report is due October 1, 2027. The two candidates for the November 2026 election for state superintendent — Sonja Shaw and Richard Barrera — have both opposed reducing the office’s authority, as has the California Teachers Association.

Source: https://edsource.org/2026/california-education-governance-reform-3/761057