A California school board member who championed parental rights is on track to win statewide office, so Sacramento is racing to strip that office of its power before she can take it.
State legislators unveiled a last-minute “gut-and-amend” bill late last week that would transfer authority over California’s public schools from the elected superintendent of public instruction to a new “education commissioner” appointed by the governor. The move comes after Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley School Board and a fierce advocate for parental notification policies, emerged as the top vote-getter in the state’s primary election for superintendent.
Shaw captured nearly a quarter of the vote in a crowded field. In a deep blue state that hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office in years, a pro-parent conservative suddenly has a real shot at overseeing California’s sprawling public education system.
AB 181 would reduce the superintendent’s role to what the bill describes as “the independently elected nonpartisan voice for the public interest in the governance of the state’s educational system.” In plain terms: giving speeches and attending rallies. The real power would flow to a bureaucrat handpicked by the governor.
Shaw didn’t mince words in her response.
“CA families said NO to failing schools and insider politics. So Sacramento’s answer? A gut-and-amend bill to strip power from the elected Superintendent and hand it to a Governor-appointed bureaucrat,” Shaw wrote on social media. “They know change is coming, and they’re trying to stop voters before November.”
Shaw’s rise to statewide prominence began with her work in Chino Valley, where she led the school board to adopt a policy requiring school officials to notify parents when students declare a new gender identity on campus. The policy put Chino Valley at the center of California’s bitter fight over parental rights in education. State officials pushed back hard. Litigation followed. But parents won a tenuous victory, and California currently cannot prevent districts from adopting similar parental notification policies. Ongoing appellate litigation has created what some describe as “legal limbo” for school districts, but the state’s attempt to crush parental rights at the local level has stalled.
The tactic reveals a troubling pattern emerging in blue states: when the democratic process threatens to deliver results that conflict with progressive priorities, officials simply hollow out the offices conservatives might win. Voters can cast their ballots, but the real power stays safely in the hands of appointed bureaucrats loyal to the political establishment.
Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the legislation. The bill is designed to reach his desk quickly, well before November’s general election.
