In January, we published our predictions for the education themes that governors would touch on during this year’s “State of the State” addresses. Shortly after 30 governors took to the podium, we identified early patterns: a merging of education and workforce conversations, a tone of cementing prior work over new initiatives, and governors reasserting state leadership in a period of federal uncertainty.
Now that governor’s addresses have wrapped up and state legislatures are well into session, it’s time to close the loop.
We tracked 5,000+ education-related bills moving across state legislatures this cycle alongside every address to see where gubernatorial rhetoric is actually translating into law. The short version: We got a lot of it right, and there are a few surprises worth noting.
The map below shows how governors framed education across all 50 states, with the ability to filter by topic. What follows is our read of where those priorities are actually moving.
The Scorecard
As we expected, CTE and workforce, school choice, digital privacy and cell phone policy, and AI all featured prominently across party lines and regions. The accountability and assessment prediction was directionally right, but this work takes time to develop.
States also continued the steady work of codifying and funding literacy efforts already well underway. From Alaska to West Virginia, governors pointed to Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training, phonics-based curriculum adoptions, and early-grade proficiency gains as evidence of staying power—less a new initiative than a sign of durability. Our analysis of literacy bills this cycle shows 43 bills have already been enacted and 40 more are in the pipeline.
CTE and Workforce: Universal and Structural
If there was one theme no governor skipped, it was CTE. Across addresses from governors as politically different as Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL), the message was consistent: High school must connect to the workforce.
This reflects the broader normalization of framing education as economic infrastructure, cutting across party and region. 321 CTE and workforce-related bills have already been enacted and nearly 500 more are in active movement through committees and chambers.
School Choice and ECCA
School choice was already a major theme in Republican-led states. What changed in 2026 is the federal context. The Educational Choice for Children Act (part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) created the first federal K-12 tax-credit scholarship program, and governors had to respond. Iowa, Indiana, Alabama, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming all announced opt-in decisions. Tennessee called for doubling its Education Freedom Scholarships to meet a surge of 54,000 applicants. Missouri announced universal open enrollment. Oklahoma proposed eliminating the cap on its Parental Choice Tax Credit.
Even Democratic governors engaged the issue on their own terms: Arizona’s Katie Hobbs called for accountability and fraud prevention in ESAs, and Connecticut’s Ned Lamont addressed childcare financing, reflecting the range of how “choice” is being defined across the political spectrum.
Our legislative analysis shows 55 school choice and ESA-related bills have been enacted and 123 more are in the pipeline. As we observed in the mid-session piece, choice has shifted from aspiration to baseline in many states and governors are now navigating implementation, not debating whether to participate.
Cellphone Bans: The Fastest-Moving Theme
School cellphone policies featured prominently in governors’ State of the State addresses. More than a dozen governors explicitly called for bell-to-bell bans: Connecticut, Maine, Utah, Kansas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Mexico, Michigan, and more. Several governors noted the bans were unpopular when first introduced and are now broadly supported.
The legislation is moving to match. Of the 34 cellphone–related bills we tracked, 14 are already enacted. Most converted in a single session. As our recent white paper with Learning.com found, Cellphone Bans are Outpacing the Strategy to Back Them Up — the policy is moving faster than the implementation infrastructure around digital literacy and student wellbeing. That gap is worth watching.
AI in Education: More Legislative Activity Than Expected
Maryland announced a $4 million AI workforce training investment. Pennsylvania called for chatbot age verification and parental consent. California advanced an AI safety initiative developed with Common Sense Media. Ohio and others framed the conversation in terms of workforce preparation and student guardrails simultaneously.
What we underestimated was the volume of legislative response. Based on our analysis of bills regarding AI in education, 35 have been enacted and 93 more are still in the pipeline. The bills are splitting along two tracks: AI as workforce preparation and AI as student safety risk. Both are real and accelerating.
Learn more: Check out our analysis of youth tech policy and the three distinct policy tracks taking shape in legislatures in 2026.
Accountability: State Leadership Meets Federal Preparation
ESSA accountability is here to stay, but evolving. Some governors built new state-defined systems: Missouri created an A-F school grading framework by executive order, Ohio launched a Statewide Attendance Dashboard, and Massachusetts raised high school graduation standards. Others were more explicitly positioning for federal conversations: States like Iowa and Louisiana framed their accountability moves in the context of securing flexibility over federal dollars and demonstrating results to Washington, not just their own legislatures.
In a year when the federal role in education is genuinely unsettled, state accountability moves are doing double duty: building state proof points while also preparing the groundwork for waiver requests, block grant negotiations, or ESSA flexibility requests.
What Comes Next
Dozens of state legislative sessions remain active, and more than 2,600 of the bills we are tracking are still in committee or moving through chambers.
For deeper dives on how these themes played out in specific policy areas, see our companion analyses on early childhood, workforce and CTE, and special education.
