Governor Newsom signs legislation enacting long-recommended changes to improve TK-12 school governance in California

With new authority granted by AB 181, the Superintendent will now serve as a voting member on all three higher education governing bodies and the State Board of Education and will be able to foster needed alignment and coordination of education policies from early childhood through postsecondary education for the betterment of California’s students. The measure also adds two legislative appointees to the State Board and clarifies roles and responsibilities.

Before being adopted by the Assembly and Senate last week, the proposal was the subject of multiple hearings over several months in both houses of the Legislature. The informational, policy, and budget committee hearings included hours of questions and testimony from a wide range of experts, including elected state and local education leaders and representatives of nearly all statewide education associations and major education equity organizations.

“California has inherited one of the most fragmented education governance structures in the nation, which challenges our ability to implement efficiently the transformative initiatives that move our schools forward. Our work as education leaders requires that we adopt a continuous improvement approach to ensure that our system is coherent, effective, and responsive to the changing needs of our students and our society,” said State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond. “The signing of Assembly Bill 181 will help us build on the meaningful progress the state has made in recent years to support greater equity and excellence in our public schools.”

The presentations from the Legislative Analyst’s Office and others highlighted the many studies and reports over the years that have uniformly found that, in the words of the Legislature’s 2002 Master Plan for Education: “California’s K-12 education system is governed by a fragmented set of entities with overlapping roles that sometimes operate in conflict with one another, to the detriment of educational services offered to students.”

“This reform is long overdue. For nearly a century, independent reports have called for fixing our fragmented education governance system,” said Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-Chula Vista), Chair of California State Assembly Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance. “Past leaders failed to act, and our students have paid the price, as reflected in the persistent and unacceptable achievement gaps experienced by Black and Hispanic students. AB 181 is a call to action that begins by aligning authority, accountability, and resources. I thank Governor Newsom for his partnership and for recognizing that the status quo is not good enough. I am committed to ensuring this transition is transparent, accountable, and focused on the only thing that matters: improving student outcomes.”

“The current system has regularly prevented the state from aligning policy and administration of our public schools, and creates confusion for our local communities regarding the state’s goals,” said Dr. Darshana R. Patel (D-San Diego). “My own constituents have consistently asked for better implementation and oversight of state programs to ensure their children’s educational success. We can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different outcomes for our students, schools, and communities – the ones who have been the real victims of the misalignment of our systems and structures. This is why AB 181 is critical in this moment to ensure clear lines of communication to address student needs.”

“The California County Superintendents applaud this historic and long-overdue reform,” said Dr. Ed Manansala, El Dorado County Superintendent of Schools. “This change will advance the four things schools need most: coherence, priority-setting, capacity building, and accountability. It gives school districts the focus they need to support their communities. The next steps will be critical, as we collectively take these reforms from policy to practice.”

“AB 181 is a historic reform that will better align the governance of California’s public education system to serve the state’s 1,000 school districts more effectively and, most importantly, improve student outcomes,” said Marshall Tuck, CEO of EdVoice. “We are inspired by Governor Newsom’s leadership on this issue and are committed to working with state leaders to ensure the new governance structure delivers meaningful results for California’s students.”

“California has advanced some of the most ambitious education reforms in the country, but good policy is only as effective as its implementation,” said Tatia Davenport, CEO of the California Association of School Business Officials. “Too often, local educational agencies have been left to bridge the gap between state policy and execution. CASBO applauds Governor Newsom, Assemblymember Patel, and Assemblymember Alvarez for their leadership in advancing these long-needed governance reforms. By making authority and accountability more congruent, these reforms create clearer leadership and strengthen the state’s ability to provide timely, consistent support to local educational agencies. For school business leaders, that means fewer barriers to implementation and greater confidence that California’s historic investments in public education will translate into meaningful results for students, educators, and communities.”

In 1921, the Legislature created the State Department of Education and exercised its plenary authority to clarify the roles of the State Board of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. However, concerns regarding coherence and authority persisted.

Today, over 100 years later, and after countless calls to address the persistent structural tension, California is taking the long-overdue next step to accelerate support for local educational agencies, and better position California to advance student achievement and educational opportunity.

“The approval of education governance reform, over a century in the making, is a monumental victory for California students that finally establishes a sensible system of state-level accountability to best support them,” said Ted Lempert, President of Children Now. “More than 950 diverse organizations across the state called for this reform, and we commend Governor Newsom and Assembly members Alvarez and Patel for their leadership in making this much needed change a reality.”

“This represents one of the most significant education governance reforms in California’s history,” said PACE Executive Director Lupita Cortez Alcalá. “This law recognizes that improving education requires more than bold investments—it requires clear leadership, rigorous evaluation, and a commitment to continuous learning. By modernizing governance and strengthening California’s capacity for independent evaluation as part of a more coherent education governance system, California is building a stronger foundation for better policy, better implementation, and better outcomes for students.”

California has made and continues to make historic investments in public education — including expanding Universal Transitional Kindergarten, increasing literacy and mathematics supports, strengthening community schools, and improving student mental health services. AB 181 builds on those investments by ensuring the state’s governance structure is better equipped to implement statewide priorities and support continuous improvement.

“Good policy is only as strong as its execution,” said Christopher J. Nellum, Ph.D., Executive Director of EdTrust-West. “We applaud Governor Newsom and legislative leaders for taking a bold, long-overdue step to fix a governance system that has too often put bureaucracy ahead of student outcomes. By better aligning leadership, accountability, and implementation, this reform will help turn ambitious policies and equity investments into real results for students – especially students of color, multilingual learners, and students from low-income backgrounds.”

“California’s students deserve an education system where leadership is aligned in support of the educators who serve them every day,” said Edgar Zazueta, Ed.D, Executive Director of the Association of California School Administrators. “The state education governance reforms put forward by the Governor and approved by the Legislature create a more coordinated approach to educational leadership that will help state agencies work more effectively with educators in support of schools. School leaders across this state are proud to support this important step toward strengthening public education and improving outcomes for California’s nearly six million students.”

The legislation takes effect January 2027 when the new Governor and SPI take office and includes additional planning and reporting requirements to ensure a thoughtful transition to the new governance model and possible further education governance consolidation and streamlining.

All statewide school management associations, leading superintendents and education professors, major education equity organizations, and over 950 organizations overall expressed their strong support for this reform.

Governor Newsom’s commitment to TK-12 education

Under the Newsom administration, California has dramatically increased investments in TK-12 public education, with a focus on accelerating learning and prioritizing equity, and has fundamentally transformed the promise of public education in the state. The 2026 Budget Act provided $151.4 billion in total TK-12 education funding – the highest funding ever for California students.

California has expanded access to universal education beginning at age four through transitional kindergarten; broadened access to free before- and after-school, and summer programs to more than 1 million elementary school students, providing nine hours of developmentally appropriate academic and enrichment activities each school day and six weeks each summer. The state has placed literacy coaches in the highest-need schools as part of the comprehensive Golden State Literacy Plan, which includes ensuring that all California students in grades K-2 are screened for reading difficulties to better assess the need for supports for long-term success. California also became the first state in the nation to guarantee universal free school meals so that every child receives breakfast and lunch, regardless of family income.

The state’s $4.1 billion Community Schools Initiative that has reached one of every four schools is another cornerstone of this transformation. Rigorous recent research shows that schools participating in this initiative—those that provide comprehensive supports for students and families—demonstrate significantly greater gains in English language arts and mathematics achievement, along with lower chronic absenteeism and suspension rates, compared to similar schools without such supports. The 2026 Budget Act includes $1 billion in ongoing funding for existing community schools and expands the model to 3,700 additional school sites that have large concentrations of students from low-income families, English learners, and youth in foster care.

These transformative investments and initiatives are preparing California’s students for success. As demonstrated by the latest statewide testing results, even as the share of socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the tested population has risen, California’s students continue to rebound from the pandemic, with measurable gains in every subject tested, at every grade level, and for every student group.