The role and responsibilities of the state’s top elected education official will be changing as part of a dramatic overhaul of education governance in California.   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.”  SPI’s role to shift under governance overhaul July 13, 2026 Facebook_icon.png X_Logo.png LinkedIn_Icon.png Pinterest_icon.png Email_share_icon.png The role and responsibilities of the state’s top elected education official will be changing as part of a dramatic overhaul of education governance in California.   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.