Ex Officio: A Brief Look at the Governor's Proposal

An Ex Officio Brief

Most of the UC Regents are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the State Senate for 12-year terms. However, there are also alumni and student Regents who serve as voting members for one year. And finally, there are the ex officio Regents: the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the State Assembly, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the president of UC who serve as long as they are in office.

Except for the last, the other ex officio Regents are all elected, statewide officials whose positions are enshrined in the state constitution. The governor and the Speaker of the Assembly are generally busy with their main duties and - with the exception of former governor Jerry Brown - typically don't attend Regents meetings. The Lieutenant Governor - currently Eleni Kounalakis - doesn't have much to do under the constitution. She would become governor on the death or resignation of the governor. She also becomes acting governor whenever the governor is out of state. (That situation is becoming more frequent during the current governor's non-campaign for president.) So, without much else to do, she often does attend Regents meetings.* 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction primarily is involved in matters related to K-12 on a day-to-day basis. However, Governor Newsom recently proposed downgrading the responsibilities of Superintendent, essentially moving his responsibilities to the governor and his cabinet. Undoubtedly, he would have proposed eliminating the position entirely, but since it is enshrined in the constitution, that step would take a constitutional amendment. Depending on where you stand, the proposed downgrading of the Superintendent could be seen as a power grab or, alternatively, as a reform designed for good governance and efficiency. Either way, we would primarily be talking about governance of K-12 education.

As it happens, however, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) has generally endorsed the governor's proposal. You can find the details at:

https://edsource.org/2026/newsom-education-restructuring-california/754254 and

https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2026/5165/2026-27_Re-Envisioning_State_Education_Governance_031826.pdf.

What is absent from the LAO's analysis of the plan is higher education. As noted, the Superintendent is an ex officio Regent. If the governor and LAO have their way, the role of the Superintendent would become some kind of external evaluator of K-12 operations. He would, however, continue as an ex officio Regent. So we would then have two ex officio Regents with day jobs that don't give them much else to do, as opposed to only the Lieutenant Governor now.

Is that a Good Thing for UC? Yours truly doesn't know. If you think of the Superintendent of Public Instruction as a link between UC and the K-12 system, a weakened Superintendent, as proposed by the governor, would mean a weakened link. Maybe that doesn't much matter; maybe it does. But now you know.

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*Lieutenant Governors often have gubernatorial ambitions. (Newsom was Lieutenant Governor for 8 long years before being elected governor.) But those ambitions don't always work out. Lieutenant Governor Kounalakis is currently running for State Treasurer after dropping a campaign for governor. (Tony Thurmond, the current Superintendent of Public Instruction, is running for governor.)