Opinion: Democratic Governors Must Prove Education Is a Priority. Here’s Where to Start

Every Democratic governor says education matters. It’s the safest line in politics. But far fewer govern as if it does.

That wasn’t always the case. Not long ago, Democratic governors led the country on education reform. Leaders like Jack Markell in Delaware, Phil Bredesen in Tennessee and Dannel Malloy in Connecticut made schools a central priority of their administrations. They set clear goals, pushed for accountability and were willing to challenge parts of their own coalition to improve outcomes for students.

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They governed with urgency and clarity. And they understood something that feels less common today: Education systems don’t change unless leaders are willing to make them.

Education is not just another policy area. It is perhaps the most consequential, complex and politically sensitive system any governor oversees. It touches nearly every family. It is deeply shaped by local control. And it is surrounded by organized interests with a direct stake in how the system operates.

Education also presents a unique political challenge: The incentives are misaligned. No one loses office because fourth-grade reading scores stagnate. But elected officials can face immediate, organized opposition when they challenge the status quo. The result is a system where the costs of inaction are high, but the political risks of action are higher. In a system like that, drift is the default.

Elected leaders like legislators and school board members are highly responsive to organized pressure, which narrows the path for meaningful reforms to get any traction. Mayors typically lack formal authority over schools, and superintendents must navigate carefully within tight political constraints. All this makes education unusually resistant to change. And it is precisely why, in education more than anywhere else, gubernatorial leadership is not optional. It is decisive.

If you want to be an education governor , the work begins with how you use power. School systems respond to signals, incentives and pressure from the top. That means the governor has to lead.

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Start by making your priorities unmistakably clear. Inside any administration, people take their cues from the boss. If education is truly a priority, it has to show up everywhere: in your first budget, in your schedule, in your public remarks, in internal meetings where others might expect other topics to dominate. And make it clear that this conviction is your own. Because when resistance comes, and it will, people will test whether you really mean it.

Next, tell the truth about the scale of the problem. Education systems are remarkably good at normalizing failure. Low proficiency rates become “expected.” Chronic absenteeism becomes background noise. Declining outcomes are explained away rather than confronted. But a governor has the platform to break that pattern. Understand the data deeply enough to speak with authority, and clearly enough that families understand what’s at stake. This is not about assigning blame. It’s about creating urgency. Because without urgency, nothing moves.

Then, follow the money. K-12 education is typically the largest or second-largest line item in the state budget, yet it functions as a black box. Ask uncomfortable questions about where the money is going and why programs that aren’t working persist. If you don’t understand the budget, you are not really governing the system.

From there, set clear, student-focused goals and mean them. Vague aspirations produce vague results. If you want change, you need concrete, measurable goals tied to student outcomes: third-grade reading proficiency, middle school math readiness, chronic absenteeism, college enrollment and persistence rates. Pick a small number, make them visible and track them relentlessly.

And none of it holds together without the right people running the system day to day. If you want schools to improve, you need an education policy team that is there to drive change, not manage the status quo. You have to make your expectations explicit: Your people are not only empowered to push, they are expected to do so.

They will face resistance — from bureaucrats and office managers within the system, from teachers unions and other organized stakeholders outside it, from legislators hearing from constituents who liked things the way they were. And when the pressure gets high enough, it will come to you. That moment defines whether you are serious. If you retreat, the system learns that pressure works. If you hold the line, it learns that change is real. Reinforce the signal you sent at the beginning: This is your priority, these are your goals, the conviction is your own.

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None of this is easy. It requires sustained attention, a willingness to ask hard questions and the political courage to withstand pushback. But the alternative is what too many states already have in place today: systems that drift, outcomes that stagnate and families who lose faith that change is possible.

In Tuesday’s election,13 Democrats were voted in as their states’ new governors, with two more, in Kansas and Alaska, leading in races that have yet to be called. They have a fresh opportunity to reclaim the mantle of educational leadership — and they don’t have to wait for Washington to do it. With control of the federal government now divided, little by way of policy or legislation is likely to come from D.C. To understand the directions that Democrats will take on K-12, look to the states.

On education, governors are the single most important policymakers. They have the ability to set the agenda, align everyone from the state board to local districts around it, and withstand the pressure that reform inevitably brings.

Democratic governors once used that power to lead the country on education reform. At a moment when America’s schools need it most, it is time for them to lead again.