Earlier this month, Governor Newsom signed AB 181 into law. This legislation improves alignment, support, and oversight of California’s K-12 public education. The reform will unify the State Board of Education and the Department of Education under a governor-appointed Education Commissioner. It will also shift the role of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to be an independent advocate for students, families, and educators across California’s education system.
One of the most critical aspects of this reform is that it changes who is ultimately accountable and responsible for effective implementation of educational policies statewide. Starting January of 2027, the ultimate person responsible for public education implementation will be the state’s Governor. This reform follows several long-standing recommendations outlined in a PACE article and uplifted for years by many advocates. These recommendations argue that California’s prior governance structure ineffectively distributes authority across many entities, which leads to inconsistent implementation and accountability.
Innovate joined more than 950 organizations that supported this governance reform through a campaign led by Children Now through the Children’s Movement of California. We applaud the Governor, legislators, and other key education leaders and equity organizations for their time and effort to pass this reform.
Innovate stands in full support of the proposed governance reform. Across our active parent leader teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Redwood City, Ravenswood, and Half Moon Bay, far too many parents and families face barriers when it comes to meaningfully engaging in their child’s education. Too often, they feel a lack of transparency and accountability across our educational systems–particularly when it comes to ensuring students with IEPs, multilingual learners, and historically marginalized students like Black and Brown students receive the support they need to thrive. When the state educational agencies and decision-makers who are intended to provide much-needed guidance and support to districts are not in alignment and there is no clear decision-making process or accountability process, this not only creates confusion amongst local education leaders of districts, counties, and schools, it also perpetuates inequities in the quality of education students receive. We believe that by streamlining the structure of our state-level educational agencies and systems, students will have better access to high-quality education, regardless of where they attend school. This will also allow families to more effectively engage as partners in shaping the design of school systems and policies so they can best meet the needs of their children and our communities.
We look forward to working with other education equity organizations, legislators, and the Governor’s office to ensure that as this critical education reform goes into effect, families’ perspectives are at the center and can help guide its effective implementation.
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