Sonja Shaw and Richard Barrera spent an hour going after each other Wednesday night in the only debate of California's state superintendent race, EdSource's Thomas Peele reports. They clashed over testing, parental rights, and whether the UC system should bring back the SAT. Shaw, who chairs the Chino Valley Unified board, said more than half of California's kids can't read, write, or do math and called that priority one. Barrera, who chairs San Diego Unified's board, described the job as "an organizer" building coalitions around goals the state doesn't currently have.

Neither spent much time on the fact that the office is about to change. Under a law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in June, a governor-appointed education commissioner will run the California Department of Education starting in January. The elected superintendent gets a seat on the State Board of Education, a seat on the community college board, a staff of about a dozen, and the first six months of 2027 to negotiate a job description with the new commissioner, EdSource's John Fensterwald and Emma Gallegos report via The 74. Shaw calls the law unconstitutional and says she'll sue. Barrera says he'll work with the commissioner but "you, the Legislature and you, the governor, you don't get to define my job." USC's Morgan Polikoff doubts voters are tracking any of it: "I think the average parent or voter has absolutely no idea."

In Arizona, the ESA program is at the center of the race. Enrollment has gone from roughly 12,000 students in 2022 to more than 105,000 this fall, and the Arizona Luminaria's Shannon Conner finds the candidates agree on one fix: ending automatic approval of expenses under $2,000. Republican Kimberly Yee, who sponsored the original ESA law as a legislator, wants a better financial platform that flags ineligible purchases at the point of sale and wants the program to stay universal. Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz wants an income cap at $150,000, a spending dashboard, and an audit. The job pays about $85,000, the lowest in the country.

Alabama voters will decide whether county school boards can merge. Amendment 2 passed the House 96-2 and the Senate unanimously, and its sponsor, Rep. Terri Collins, told the Alabama Reflector's Ralph Chapoco it's aimed at counties with fewer than 1,000 students. The teachers' union and the school boards association are neutral; the League of Women Voters opposes it because forcing a referendum would take written protests from 25% of registered voters. It's one of 34 education-related measures on ballots in 17 states, by Education Week's Matthew Stone's count, and 12 of the 18 that deal with school funding would limit the taxes schools rely on.

Then there's Congress. Education Week's Alyson Klein reports that a Democratic majority in either chamber would bring oversight hearings on the interagency agreements that moved Education Department programs to Labor, HHS, and Justice, plus a push by Reps. Bobby Scott and Suzanne Bonamici to repeal the federal tax-credit scholarship before it launches in January. The president keeps his veto, so the leverage would come through must-pass spending bills. Lindsay Fryer, a former aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander, sees room for deals: "Divided government can be very productive."

I wrote up the full map for Whiteboard Notes this week. Thirty-six states are electing governors, and in 21 states and territories the seat changes hands no matter who wins. Fifteen of those governors will appoint their state's education chief. Four states get a new elected chief regardless. Add 88 of 99 legislative chambers, and the elections will determine who writes education budgets and sets policy across much of the country.

Nine days after the election, on November 12, we're convening education and policy leaders at Gallup headquarters in Washington to work through what the results mean. Request an invitation here.

— Thomas

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