In less than a month, the 2026 election will deliver the highest level of guaranteed gubernatorial turnover in at least a decade. That change comes as the federal government pushes more responsibility for education to the states, giving the people elected this November a larger role in deciding what comes next for schools and colleges.
Who Voters Will Put in Charge
Thirty-six states are electing governors this year, and in 21 states and territories the seat will change hands no matter who wins, because of term limits or an incumbent stepping aside, according to the Education Commission of the States. Most of those governors will appoint at least one state board member, and 15 will pick their state’s education chief. Eight of the new or returning governors will have the authority to appoint their state higher education executive officer. Eight states elect their K-12 chief directly, and four of them (Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) will get a new one no matter what. Add elections in 88 of the nation’s 99 legislative chambers, and the people who will write 2027 education budgets are largely on the ballot this fall.
What Voters Will Decide Directly
Voters will also decide policy themselves. Education Week counts 34 education-related ballot measures in 17 states. Eighteen deal with school funding, and two-thirds of those would limit the taxes schools rely on, whether by repealing them, capping rates, or expanding exemptions. Alabama’s slate is the outlier: a constitutional amendment requiring public schools to broadcast or perform the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner” once a week, alongside amendments on county school board mergers and a daily Pledge of Allegiance, as the Alabama Reflector’s Anna Barrett reports.
School Choice Is on the Ballot
School choice is on the ballot in a way it couldn’t have been four years ago, before any state had a universal program. Arizona’s superintendent candidates, Republican Kimberly Yee and Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz, agree the state’s education savings accounts need more accountability and split over whether to cap family income, the Arizona Capitol Times’ Rachel Ohm reports. In Iowa’s governor’s race, Democrat Rob Sand wants income limits on ESAs and a 5% increase in public school funding. Republican Zach Lahn defends the program and argues public schools need flexibility more than money. Both back spending audits, according to Iowa Public Radio’s Sheila Brummer.
What a Democratic Congress Would Mean
Then there’s Congress. Education Week’s Alyson Klein reports that a Democratic majority in either chamber would bring oversight hearings on the Education Department’s dismantling and a push to repeal the federal tax-credit scholarship before it launches in January. President Trump keeps his veto, so the real fights move to must-pass spending bills. Klein also finds room for bipartisan work on student data and safeguards for AI in schools.
The Tech Backlash and Higher Education
AEI’s Rick Hess, writing in Education Next, expects a blue wave to speed up the tech backlash, since hearings on Big Tech’s ties to the White House would embolden skeptics in blue states and districts, and to give higher education a reprieve, though a modest one. The lending limits and accountability system Congress passed last year are law, and they have supporters on the left.
Join Us on Nov. 12
Election Night will tell us who won. Turning those results into education policy takes longer.
Join us on Nov. 12, nine days after the election, at Gallup headquarters in Washington for AI Nation at Risk, Whiteboard Advisors’ post-election policy summit. We’re bringing together education and policy leaders to work through what the results mean for federal and state policy, school funding, the technology backlash, and higher education accountability.
