Jillian Balow is an American politician who was appointed as the Virginia superintendent of public instruction 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. 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, was an American, multi-state educational initiative begun in 2010 with the goal of increasing consistency across state standards, or what K–12 students throughout th ...

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 Glenn Allen Youngkin (born December 9, 1966) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 74th governor of Virginia since 2022. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he spent 25 years at the Private equi ...

as the Virginia superintendent of public instruction. 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 Virginia 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