Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Balow, is resigning later this month.
She sent her resignation letter to Governor Glenn Youngkin Wednesday.
In a statement, Balow thanked Youngkin for allowing her to serve and talked up some of her accomplishments. That includes giving parents more say over their children’s education.
Her tenure has been marked with several significant controversies since she took office last year – including a Department of Education error that shortchanged the state’s public schools hundreds of millions of dollars and a contentious, contorted process to revise the state's K-12 history standards.
Balow’s resignation is effective March 9th.
Chad Stewart at the Virginia Education Association says she leaves several unresolved problems – including work on those revised standards.
"We want to make sure that isn't seen as another excuse to delay the finalization of the Virginia history standards, which are now eight months behind schedule," Stewart explains. "There's a vote scheduled for them coming up on April 20th by the Virginia Board of Education. And so far, the Youngkin administration has looked for virtually any excuse to delay these standards out further and further."
Balow came to Virginia from Wyoming, where she served as that state’s elected Superintendent of Public Instruction.
