The State Superintendent of Public Instruction will no longer oversee the California Department of Education under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom July 9. Starting Jan. 15, the CDE will be led by a Education Commissioner, a newly created position that would be appointed by the governor with confirmation by the Senate.

The changes are part of state budget negotiations between the Legislature and Newsom, which are detailed in Assembly Bill 181, authored by Assemblymembers Dr. Darshana Patel and David Alvarez.

Proponents say the restructuring is long overdue. The bill language cites a century of critiques of California’s “irrational” education governance structure. Most recently, a December 2025 report from Policy Analysis for California Education concluded that, “We must take on the challenge of modernizing our governance system now.”

California’s “double-headed” education governance structure — dividing authority between the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction and the governor-appointed State Board of Education — has contributed to overlapping responsibilities and unclear lines of accountability, according to the PACE report.

ACSA also supported the restructuring proposal, which was discussed on a recent episode of the ACSA Legislative Lunch Break.

“We think overall this is a great step forward. It not only creates this new position as Education Commissioner but it also retains the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, making sure that they continue to oversee education across the state,” said ACSA Legislative Advocate Kordell Hampton in the July 1 episode. “Although their role is changing, [they are] still playing a role in the system.”

Hampton said the SPI would continue to be an advocate for education by calling attention to educational opportunities and challenges, such as performance gaps and attendance recovery efforts. The bill describes the superintendent’s new role as an “independently elected nonpartisan voice for the public interest.”

ACSA made several recommendations on the reorganization proposal, including to create stronger checks and balances. In March, then ACSA President Dr. Daryl Camp participated in an Assembly Education Committee informational hearing about the restructuring, where he provided a critical lens for what LEAs need from state educational leadership.

Hampton said schools and districts would not see immediate changes as a result of the bill.

“I think it’s going to be a very slow, but a transformative thing for the education field,” he said, adding that more unity between CDE and SBE would make things easier for administrators.

The bill also tasks the new Education Commissioner with developing recommendations for a second phase of education governance consolidation, which will be in an interim report submitted by June 30, 2027. A final report with findings and recommendations will be presented to the governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature by Oct. 1, 2027.

Some have criticized the timing of the changes, right after voters in the June primary put their support behind two State Superintendent for Public Instructions candidates — Sonja Shaw and Richard Barrera — with the assumption that their role would be the same.

Both candidates have criticized the process leading to the bill, with Shaw calling it an “unconstitutional power grab,” although the provisions in the bill have broad support from numerous educational organizations, including the California School Boards Association and Children Now.

Other components of the bill include:

• Expanding the composition of the 11-member State Board of Education to 13 members by adding one member appointed by the President pro Tempore of the Senate and one member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly. One expiring nonstudent member would also be replaced by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
• Creating a new Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and authorizing additional staffing and transfer of existing CDE employees.
• Replacing the SPI with the Education Commissioner on specified bodies, including the California School Finance Authority, the Healthy Start Support Services for Children Program Council, the K–12 High-Speed Network advisory board, the School/Law Enforcement Partnership, the California Broadband Council, the State Allocation Board, the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship, and the State Council on Developmental Disabilities.
• Adding the Education Commissioner to the California Academic Partnership Program, the California Education Interagency Council, and the governing board of the California Cradle-to-Career Data System.
• Adding the SPI to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges as a 19th voting member.