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It’s Election Day across the country, so we’re sending What We’re Reading before the polls close. We’ll be watching the results closely and will have more later this week as those races are decided.

We put together an election-night education timeline, organized by poll closing time, so you can follow along. Eight states elect a K-12 chief tonight, and four — Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and Wyoming — get a new one no matter who wins.

A few other education contests to keep an eye on:

In Chicago, voters are choosing the city’s first fully elected school board, completing a shift away from mayoral control that began with the first board elections in 2024. More than $10 million has flowed into campaigns that will determine who takes responsibility for the district’s finances, enrollment challenges and school closure debates. In Detroit, five of seven board seats are on the ballot. The incoming board will face decisions about small, costly schools and how to sustain literacy work as lawsuit settlement funding runs out. Some candidates also want a new superintendent.

The governor’s races will help determine what happens next for school choice. In Iowa, Democrat Rob Sand wants income limits on education savings accounts, while Republican Zach Lahn supports the program. In Arizona, voters are choosing both a governor and a state superintendent, with oversight of the state’s universal ESA program among the dividing lines. As we wrote last month, governors also appoint many of the people who run state education agencies and boards. Their influence over schools extends well beyond the budgets they sign.

Voters are making some of those budget decisions themselves. California’s Proposition 3 would make a high-income tax permanent, preserving a revenue source that has generated between $5 billion and $15 billion annually and otherwise expires in 2031. In Arizona, Proposition 320 would require affected districts to spend at least 60% of operating budgets on direct instruction. As my colleague Hillary Rinaldi explains, that requirement comes with no new money, and the definition of “direct instruction” will determine which student supports count toward the target. Tonight’s vote is the beginning of that story.

Here in Washington, we’re arguing about a foie gras ban. The campaign has a duck mascot named Olivia, who has appeared at a George Washington University law school panel but lives in Maryland. Even the duck is an outside interest.

— Thomas

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