Thurmond Left in the Dark as California Rewrites Education Power Structure

When you’re the top education official in a state of nearly 40 million people, you’d think you’d get a heads-up before your entire job gets dismantled. California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond didn’t.

In an interview on California Politics 360, Thurmond revealed he was completely sidelined during the negotiations that stripped the Department of Education from his office—a move he calls the most significant restructuring of state education governance in decades. The shift, which lawmakers and Governor Newsom rammed through last week as part of the budget process, transfers control of the Department of Education to a new Education Commissioner appointed directly by the governor starting in January 2027. Thurmond’s role? Reduced to sitting on three state boards.

“The governor’s never spoken to me directly about that. I don’t think that’s the way you conduct making a change of this nature,”Thurmond said, clearly stung. What’s particularly striking is how fast this happened. The proposal hit paper on Friday, passed by Monday—no public hearings, no input from the actual superintendent running the department. Lawmakers later cited century-old research about accountability structures to justify the rush, but Thurmond wasn’t buying it.“It seems to me they’re just looking for someone to blame when they say that, rather than thinking about solutions.”

The superintendent’s core complaint: the overhaul doesn’t actually fix anything. It doesn’t propose new metrics, doesn’t set concrete goals for student performance, and frankly, just adds another layer of bureaucracy to an already tangled system. He compared it to moving boxes around on a desk and calling it reform. Yet despite his obvious frustration, Thurmond took the high road—he pledged to help the incoming Education Commissioner navigate the new structure, acknowledged that Governor Newsom has invested more in education than any recent governor, and made clear this isn’t personal.

But here’s what lingers: Thurmond’s right that this reshuffles power without solving the underlying challenge of how California educates 1,500 school districts across wildly different communities. And the process matters. When you’re making major institutional changes, locking out the person currently steering the ship sends a message about whether expertise or politics is driving the decision.

As Thurmond heads toward the exit after 18 years in elected office—including a gubernatorial run he poured everything into—he’s already focusing on what he believes actually moves needles: expanding dyslexia screening, ramping up tutoring and phonics training, securing paid STEAM internships for students, and ensuring every kid graduates ready for tomorrow’s jobs. The Department of Education reorganization will get its moment in January. But Thurmond’s leaving behind concrete initiatives he believes will outlast any bureaucratic reshuffling.