Jillian Balow is an American politician who was appointed as the

Virginia superintendent of public instruction In Virginia, the Superintendent of Public Instruction is the chief executive of the Virginia Department of Education and also serves as the Secretary of the Virginia Board of Education. Jillian Balow was appointed Virginia's 26th Superintendent ...

in January 2022. She resigned from the position in March 2023. From 2014 to January 2022, she was the Wyoming superintendent of public instruction.

Career

Balow was a division administrator in the

Wyoming Department of Family Services The Wyoming Department of Family Services is a state agency of Wyoming, headquartered on the third floor of the Hathaway Building in Cheyenne. The Social Services Division is responsible for managing cases involving abuse, neglect or exploitation ...

. Balow was president of the

Council of Chief State School Officers The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense E ...

. A Republican, she was elected as the Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2014, winning 61% of the vote against Democrat Mike Ceballos. During her 2014 campaign, she opposed the

Common Core The Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as simply Common Core, is an educational initiative from 2010 that details what K–12 students throughout the United States should know in English language arts and mathematics at the conc ...

initiatives. Balow ran unopposed in 2018. Her last day as the Wyoming superintendent was January 16, 2022. In January 2022, Balow was appointed by governor Glenn Youngkin as the

. She succeeded acting Virginia superintendent Rosa Atkins. On March 1, 2023, Balow announced her resignation as Virginia's Superintendent of Public Instruction, effective March 9. Balow's tenure at VDOE was marked with high-profile fights over issues including revised state standards for history education and the treatment of transgender students in schools.

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* * * 1970 births 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians Living people School superintendents in Virginia Superintendents of Public Instruction of Wyoming Virginia Republicans Women in Virginia politics Women in Wyoming politics Wyoming Republicans {{Wyoming-politician-stub