Over the last 14 months, it has been my privilege to jumpstart Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s education agenda as Virginia’s 26th Superintendent of Public Instruction. His agenda serves as a model for pragmatic reform that empowers parents and raises the bar for schools in Virginia and across the nation.

Youngkin’s 2021 victory in what had been a reliably blue state reframed conventional wisdom about education policy and reform. And it owed to a fundamental belief that parents should be involved in and in charge of their children’s education.

Long before winning his election, Youngkin’s “parents matter” agenda captured the attention of education experts throughout the country, myself included. (I am among a small handful of education leaders to have served as state superintendent in two states.) More importantly, his vision caught the attention of voters, who overwhelmingly did not buy into progressive, often radical, ideologies being pushed on students.

Exit polling showed that Youngkin earned a more than two-to-one advantage among voters for whom education was their most important issue. That surge — which, let’s be honest, was suburban moms — helped deliver his victory in a state that, only a year earlier, President Biden had won by 10 points and where for more than a decade, both the state’s U.S. senators have been Democrats.

As pundits would later analyze, Youngkin’s win was about much more than education policy as usual. It was a referendum over school control, and it came amid a perfect storm of frustrations — school closures, mask mandates, lesson plans rife with ideological subterfuge, and mounting opacity between administrators and families.

Youngkin’s first order of business was to “calm the storm” that had been brewing for several years. Within weeks of taking office, we lifted the student mask mandate, made in-person schooling an expectation, not a luxury, and talked honestly and often about how social issues had become more important than students’ academic success.

Second, operating under Youngkin’s first executive order, we outlined a plan for eliminating teaching and learning materials produced by the state that promoted divisive concepts in our schools Separately, we authored a report showing how Virginia schools had fallen behind prior to and during the pandemic. Offering no excuses, Youngkin used these findings as evidence for reinstating classroom fundamentals, measuring outcomes, and providing parents with transparency.

Finally, the governor championed the bipartisan Virginia Literacy Act , which he signed into law last spring. This clean-sweep legislation removes all-too-common haphazard reading instruction and replaces it with research-based, science-backed reading instruction. The new law provides for teacher development, insists on an evidence-based curriculum, analyzes data, and informs parents — all for the express purpose of helping struggling readers. There is no greater accomplishment in my career than leading efforts in two states to implement literacy legislation. Leaders like Delegate Carrie Coyner, Deputy Superintendent Jenna Conway, and Dr. Emily Solari will keep this work on the front burner for years to come.

My leadership at the Virginia Department of Education was not without controversy. Earlier this year, my team alerted me to a mathematical error, which resulted in a significant miscalculation of the estimated amount of basic state aid that would go to schools in the state’s two-year budget. The mistake was rectified, additional safeguards have been put in place, and I am confident the error will not occur again. As Virginia’s top education official, I take responsibility. The buck stops with me.

Now, after having helped the governor navigate two legislative sessions, I am stepping aside as Virginia’s State Superintendent. I continue to support Youngkin’s education agenda as vehemently today as I did after his 2021 victory. The challenges, opportunities, and successes ahead will be immense. I am confident that Youngkin’s commitment to empowering parents and reforming schools from the bottom up will position Virginia as a beacon for other states (not just red) that are committed to improving student outcomes. Youngkin will continue to expand learning opportunities for all students, engage parents in new ways, and uphold great educators.

Jillian Balow served as Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction beginning in January 2022, and as Wyoming’s Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2014 until 2022.