The countdown is on until Election Day.
With midterm elections just weeks away on Nov. 3, Education Week has reviewed what’s on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and assembled a guide to highlight the statewide races and ballot initiatives of greatest consequence to schools.
Check out the full guide here, including a state-by-state lookup tool and an overview of the top education issues surfacing in state races.
Below, we’ve put together a list of six K-12 highlights from state elections based on our state-by-state review of what’s on the ballot.
Some of Trump’s key education policies are showing up in state ballot measures
Since returning to the White House last year, President Donald Trump has made it a top priority to eradicate what his administration terms “illegal DEI” from schools and keep transgender girls off girls’ school athletic teams.
Those priorities will end up on some state ballots next month.
Voters in four states—Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and Washington—will decide on ballot measures about gender identity and school athletics.
Arizona and Nebraska already have laws prohibiting transgender girls from joining girls’ athletic teams. In Arizona, this year’s ballot measure would expand the ban to transgender boys seeking to play on boys’ teams and to non-school athletic leagues such as Little League. Nebraska’s ballot measure would enshrine the existing ban in the state constitution, along with a requirement that school sports be designated male, female, or co-ed.
Colorado and Washington are among the 21 states that don’t ban children’s athletic participation based on gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Washington state’s education department has faced related investigations from the Trump administration, which contends the state’s policies violate Title IX, the federal sex discrimination law.
On the anti-DEI front, Arizona and Wisconsin voters will decide on ballot measures that would bar state entities, including schools, from giving anyone “preferential treatment” based on race. The Arizona measure would also prohibit schools from using public funds for DEI-related positions and disciplining students differently based on race—a nod to federal policies addressing the “disparate impact” of school discipline on different racial groups that the Trump administration has stopped enforcing.
Two-thirds of K-12 funding-related ballot measures would limit taxes schools rely on
Gender identity, athletics, and DEI may be animating federal education politics, but funding and taxes are the most common subjects addressed by this fall’s education-related ballot measures.
Eighteen questions on ballots in 12 states deal with tax and funding questions that would affect key K-12 funding sources, according to an Education Week analysis. They account for more than half the ballot measures related to K-12 going before voters across the country.
Twelve of the measures are designed to limit taxation—and funding sources schools rely on—in some way, either by repealing taxes, limiting tax rates, expanding tax exemptions, or restraining state revenue growth. The remaining six are intended to expand revenue available for schools, either by raising taxes on high earners or dedicating new revenue sources to K-12 funding.
- In Washington state, a ballot initiative would repeal a newly passed state income tax on higher earners.
- Two measures in North Carolina would amend the state constitution to lower the state income tax rate and limit the amount by which local governments can increase property taxes.
- Measures in Florida and Wyoming would increase the amount of residential property shielded from taxes.
- A Minnesota measure would convert a long-running state trust fund into a permanent funding source for schools.
- A Colorado measure designed to generate more revenue for public services including education would introduce graduated state income tax brackets through which higher-income residents pay higher rates and face a tax increase.
California is a special case. It has two ballot measures designed to generate more state revenue—a permanent extension of higher state income tax rates for top earners and a one-time tax on billionaires’ assets. But if the billionaires’ tax passes, it could be nullified by two additional ballot measures if either one garners more votes. Those measures would also make it more complicated for state policymakers to pass new taxes. A fifth ballot measure would make it more difficult for local government to pass special taxes by raising the threshold for passage to two-thirds voter support from a simple majority.
The state with the highest number of school-related ballot measures shouldn’t come as a surprise
Based on the above, it should come as no surprise that California has more school-related ballot measures than any other state. In addition to the five tax-related measures described above, a sixth measure would create an expedited environmental review process for building projects that would apply to schools.
But those aren’t the only statewide measures on Golden State ballots this fall. California voters will decide on 14 statewide propositions in total, according to CalMatters.
California has voted on more than 1,300 statewide ballot measures since 1912, more than virtually any other place on the planet, according to Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington state have the second-highest numbers of school-related ballot measures, with three each going before voters this fall.
One state has a unique school-related ballot initiative
A recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is standard fare at America’s public schools. But in Alabama, “The Star-Spangled Banner” would also become part of the school routine under Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
The measure would amend the state constitution to require that school boards mandate a broadcast or live performance of the national anthem at least once a week during school hours.
The performance would be the responsibility of a school-approved band, choir, vocal group, or vocalist, and schools would have to use the version of the national anthem archived by the Library of Congress, according to a state summary. The amendment would require only the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner” be broadcast or performed. (The full song has four stanzas, though only the first is typically performed.)
The measure would make Alabama the first state with a constitutional amendment on either the national anthem or Pledge of Allegiance in schools.
(Another ballot measure in Alabama would enshrine a requirement in the state constitution for a daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at schools. It would also require local school boards to pass policies authorizing student-led prayer, which is already allowed.)
Voters in 17 states will directly elect state education officials
Today, 12 states elect their state superintendent—typically the top K-12 official charged with running the state department of education—a number that has steadily dwindled since the start of the 20th century.
Of those 12 states, eight will hold elections for state superintendent in November, with incumbents on the ballot in four of those contests.
North Dakota is holding a special election to formally choose a successor to Kirsten Baesler, who is now the assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education.
And in California, voters are electing a state superintendent, but the person they elect will be a lot less powerful than their predecessors. Under a new state law, California’s next governor will appoint an education commissioner to run the state department of education. Rather than run that state agency, the elected superintendent will serve on the state board of education and as a “nonpartisan voice for the public interest” in the state’s education system.
Both candidates for the post, Richard Barrera and Sonja Shaw, oppose the change.
Another nine states and the District of Columbia will elect members of state boards of education, with 44 seats total up for grabs. Most state boards establish high school graduation requirements, set academic standards, and determine licensing requirements for school staff. State boards in 20 states appoint the state superintendent.
Eight seats each in Texas and Utah are up for election this year. In New Mexico, voters are electing five of the 10 members of the state board that authorizes charter schools. Ohio is phasing out its partially elected state board in favor of a fully gubernatorially appointed one, so it’s not holding elections for the panel this year.
Election outcomes in some states could hinge in part on voter attitudes toward private school choice
Eighteen states now have at least one private school choice program for which all students are eligible, according to an Education Week analysis. Before 2022, that number was zero. Statewide elections this year are among the first to happen since states passed these expansive policies making state funds available to families for private education.
In Arizona and Iowa, the rapid growth of private school choice has become a topic of debate in statewide races. Both states have passed education savings account (ESA) programs that make state funds available for families to use on private or home school, with virtually all students eligible, regardless of income. Elections this year could gauge voters’ attitudes toward these programs, and set the stage for some restrictions on them.
Running for reelection, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, is proposing more accountability and transparency measures for the state’s ESA program, including restrictions on expenses ESAs can cover, education requirements for teachers at private schools accepting ESA money, and a requirement for ESA students to have first attended an Arizona public school.
Her Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, has championed the program and has said he would focus on expanding school choice in rural areas that have fewer private school options.
More than 100,000 Arizona students now receive ESAs worth more than $1 billion annually. The state’s public schools enroll about 1.1 million students and spent $13.1 billion during the 2024-25 school year.
A similar debate is playing out in the race for Arizona state superintendent, with Democratic candidate Teresa Leyba Ruiz calling for more spending controls and transparency in the program, along with an income cap to qualify and the end of automatic approvals for expenditures of $2,000 or less.
The Republican candidate, State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, has also called for more accountability in the program and an improved technological platform to run it, but isn’t backing an income cap for families or testing requirement for private schools accepting ESA funds. She defeated incumbent state Superintendent Tom Horne in the Republican primary, drawing support from Republicans who think Horne has too aggressively regulated ESAs.
In Iowa, Democratic candidate Rob Sand has made criticism of the state’s ESA program a major part of his campaign, calling for income limits on the universal program and audit requirements for private schools accepting public money, and concluding that the program mostly enrolls students who would have already attended private schools without the state funding. His Republican opponent, Zach Lahn, has said he’s supportive of ESAs, recently calling them “a foundational freedom.”
The ESA program enrolled more than 41,000 students last academic year, compared with 473,000 students attending Iowa public schools.
In Arkansas, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Texas, challengers to Republican governors who have overseen large private school choice expansions are pledging to pause or repeal those programs.
2026-10-07 06:00:00
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