Newsom is using a new bill to strip California's superintendent of authority

Californians who work in the state's education sector are warning of what they describe as an “undemocratic power play” by Gov. Gavin Newsom to strip authority from the county Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Assembly Bill 181, which was passed as a trailer bill for the 2026–27 fiscal year budget, shifts day-to-day administrative authority from the state superintendent to a new position: the Commissioner of Education. Unlike the independently elected superintendent, the new commissioner will be appointed and report directly to the governor. The renovations to the building were finalized as part of budget negotiations between legislative leaders and Newsom.

“As a teacher and a voter, I am totally against this undemocratic power play,” Steve Campos, who taught for more than 30 years in California, told Fox News Digital.

Newsom on Thursday delivered remarks on the day of the signing of his public education budget bill, noting that organizations have been advocating for “change” for decades.

“Regarding changes in governance, change has its enemies. I am for change. I am not against the status quo,” said Newsom. “I couldn't be prouder that the legislature and the people of the state wanted a new way, and I was proud to affix my signature to the new way.”

Newsom proposed the changes earlier this year, saying in a statement, “California can no longer put off the reforms recommended every 100 years. So we're going to modernize the governance system by merging the State Board that makes policy with the Department of Education that implements those policies. And we're empowering the state Superintendent of Public Instruction to help align our college policies, greater accountability in early childhood and early childhood and how we serve our students.” and schools.”

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Campos, who currently serves as a member of the Perris Union High School District board of trustees and teaches physical education, expressed deep concern over the timing of the legislation.

“As a member of the school board, I am very disappointed that you are trying to take away millions of voters who support parental rights,” said Campos. “The people of California deserve the opportunity to elect someone who supports their principles at the state level, as the passage of AB 1955 took away their local control power. The governor also supported removing their local voice with AB 1955. I hope the governor's plan will be legally challenged and reversed.

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District school board, echoes that frustration. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Shaw accused Newsom of orchestrating “the most shameless power grab in California history, bypassing voters and using a budget bill to strip authority from an independently elected Superintendent and give it to a political appointee.”

Shaw is currently running to become the state's next superintendent. He won the first provincial primary in June and will face Richard Barrera in the November general election. The conservative firebrand has gained national attention for championing local parent notification policies, which require schools to disclose a transgender student's identity to their parents.

Shaw has vowed to challenge AB 181 in court, saying it violates the state constitution.

“The people of California have rejected this idea at the ballot box four separate times because they believe that the person who oversees our schools should be accountable to the voters, not to special political interests,” Shaw said. “The timing is not by mistake. They know that if I am elected, I will expose years of failure and mismanagement – so they are trying to change the rules before the election.”

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Chino Valley Unified School District board president Sonja Shaw accused Gov. Gavin Newsom on “the biggest power grab in California history.” (Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)

Campos believes that Newsom's intellectual pivot is aimed squarely at undermining Shaw's power if he wins office.

“This has been tried before and it's a tough move by the governor to not allow the people of California to elect Sonja Shaw as the next Superintendent of Public Instruction,” Campos told Fox News Digital. “The governor fears that he will spend millions in the November midterm elections and lose ground in the elected office, as well as the governorship. This desperate move is opposed by the California Teachers Association and current SPI, Tony Thurmond.”

While conservative advocates worry about the continued hold of the state's executive office, Thurmond himself will not be on the governor's November ballot; The current superintendent of schools ran an ongoing administration campaign but failed to advance in the June primary. The race to replace the term-limited Newsom will be decided between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton.

Laura Markin, a California high school English teacher with 20 years of experience in the classroom, called the policy formulation “wrong” and agreed that the legal oversight appears to be designed to stifle the conservative push.

“There are many positions that Tony does not like [Thurmond] supported it over the years, which led to Sonja's rise [Shaw]and now Gavin Newsom is responding to that. And I think it's shocking,” Markin told Fox News Digital, while also criticizing the lack of public transparency surrounding AB. [181].

“This was done by Gavin Newsom without input from his people,” Markin added, noting that the bill bypassed the normal public comment format. “He did this to take away his power. The position still exists as I understand it, and it will be a committee – which is a waste of taxpayers' money to get someone in a position to sit on committees.”

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Californians are warning of what they describe as an “undemocratic power play” by Gov. Gavin Newsom to dismiss the Superintendent of Public Instruction. (Getty Images)

Lance Christensen, a former district superintendent who now serves as VP of Government Affairs and Education Policy at the California Policy Center, describes himself as an “extreme localist” who favors empowering local school boards in addition to expanding Sacramento's reach.

“Let's be honest about what's really driving this: they're afraid of losing the superintendent's office to an honest parent's rights advocate in Sonja Shaw,” Christensen told Fox News Digital. “If the legislators want to make the Superintendent of Public Instruction powerless, the moral way is a constitutional amendment to abolish the office and put it before the voters. But that won't happen, because it's been tried before, and it always fails.”

The California Department of Education did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

However, in an interview with ABC10, current superintendent Thurmond admitted that he strongly disagrees with the way the changes were forced through the legislature.

“I don't think it's a bad thing, per se; any time you want a governor to get directly involved in education, that's a good thing, and a lot of districts work the same way,” he told the station.

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“Here's the concern: how it's done,” Thurmond continued. “The state superintendent's position was approved by the voters, and I think that's the way the position should have been changed. And without doing that, what happened was they created more of a government structure, so now you have an elected state superintendent who will have very little to do because of these changes. And now you're going to have this new position that's going to exist.”