2024 State Education Races Yield Little Change

Alexandria, VA – While U.S. voters delivered a significant change in the 2024 federal elections, they opted for steady leadership at the state level, with no state board shifting in partisan control, according to a postelection report from NASBE.

“While partisan control of state education leadership saw minimal changes, state education leadership will continue to face stiff scrutiny, judging by past trends,” write NASBE’s Abigail Potts, Joseph Hedger, and Naomi Porter. “Politics rather than partisanship may be a larger influence on the 2025 education policy landscape, as elected leaders shift from campaigning to governing.”

The analysis summarizes the outcomes and important takeaways from state elections that decided who would fill 64 seats on state boards of education across nine states, three territories, and the District of Columbia:

• Of the 40 incumbent state board members on the ballot, 30 were reelected to their state boards, and there are 34 newcomers.
• In states with partisan elections, no state board shifted in partisan control, and only five individual board seats saw a shift in political party.
• Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, DC, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands all held nonpartisan elections, although some new members including in Nebraska were elected with party endorsements.
• Two incumbent chief state school officers will return to office in North Dakota and Washington, and two states will have newly elected leaders to helm their state agencies, with a partisan flip in North Carolina.
• In 11 governors’ races, three states had incumbents on the ballot, all returning to office. Governors in nine of these eleven states appoint state board members.
• Florida, Indiana, and Nevada had education-related governance issues on their statewide ballots, while voters in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska rejected ballot initiatives on school choice and private school scholarships. In Arkansas, however, voters overwhelmingly supported lottery-funded scholarships for career and trade education, a move that reflects growing bipartisan support for career and technical education.

“With elections in the rearview mirror and pressing education issues to address, state leaders who seek to make significant impacts will need to focus more on what unites them than on what divides them,” write the authors. “To help their states’ education agendas succeed and persist in a shifting political landscape, state boards can wield their power to engage and listen to constituents and build new common ground among multiple stakeholders.”

Read and share State Education Elections in 2024 Yield Few Shifts.

 

NASBE serves as the only membership organization for state boards of education. A nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, NASBE elevates state board members’ voices in national and state policymaking, facilitates the exchange of informed ideas, and supports members in advancing equity and excellence in public education for students of all races, genders, and circumstances. Learn more at www.nasbe.org.

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