Washington's state schools chief, Chris Reykdal, announced on Monday, November 9, that he will not seek re-election to a fourth term in 2028 — a decision that opens up one of Washington's statewide offices two years early and ends, on a timetable of his own choosing, a tenure that began in 2016 and ran through a school-funding court fight, the COVID-19 pandemic and two Trump administrations.
Source: OSPI (official statement)
“In elective office, we have three choices as elected officials: run for the office you hold, run for a different office, or step back from elective office. I am taking option one off the table,” Reykdal said in a statement issued from Olympia. “In 2028, I will not seek re-election as Washington's Superintendent of Public Instruction for a fourth term.”
Source: OSPI (official statement)
His first and most important reason, he said, is term limits. “Public institutions are strengthened when leadership changes, new voices emerge, and those entrusted with public office understand that the position belongs to the people, not to the person holding it,” he said. “While our state does not have term limits for statewide office, I believe we should impose those limits on ourselves to ensure new energy and new opportunities are always created.”
Source: Washington State Standard via Gorge News Center
The office he is leaving — and the two years he still has in it
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction channels funding to Washington's schools, implements state education laws and sets curriculum standards. Like other state agencies it can request legislation but cannot pass laws. Reykdal's current term runs through January 2029, and he was explicit that Monday's announcement changes nothing about the next two years: “I intend to serve the next two years with all of the hard work, passion, and conviction that I first promised voters in 2016.”
Source: Washington State Standard via Gorge News Center
The work he listed for those two years is the agenda his would-be successors will inherit: sustainable and equitable school funding, student well-being, academic achievement, holding other elected officials accountable to public education, and ensuring every young person has meaningful opportunities after high school — starting, as the Washington State Standard reported, with securing additional dollars for cash-strapped districts.
Source: OSPI (official statement)
A tenure shaped by three fights: McCleary, COVID and Trump
In his first term, lawmakers and Governor Jay Inslee delivered a major increase in state funding for public schools, bringing Washington into compliance with the state Supreme Court's landmark McCleary ruling, which had found the state was not providing adequate financial support for local schools. Since then, the Standard reported, the state has not kept up with that commitment despite Reykdal's annual urgings — and school districts are now contemplating suing again.
Source: Washington State Standard via Gorge News Center
His second term was consumed by COVID-19, which upended how public education was delivered. Learning loss was broad and deep, social and emotional challenges were widespread, chronic absenteeism surged alongside a youth mental health crisis, and closing campuses drove an exodus from public schools whose aftereffects, the Standard noted, will linger for years. In his current term, districts still wrestle with financial challenges and pandemic effects while Reykdal copes with a Trump administration that has directed U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the federal education agency. Reykdal's own summary was blunter: he “served through the pandemic and through both Trump administrations.”
Source: Washington State Standard via Gorge News Center
Reykdal started his career as a classroom teacher. In his statement he praised the OSPI team that oversees the entire $20 billion education system with, in his figures, a mere 0.3 percent of the education budget supporting the office's own work, and called the office “an independent voice for public education in direct service to voters and to our local school districts — a legacy that should live on, no matter who the voters choose to lead this work in 2028 and beyond.”
His electoral record — and the question he left open
Reykdal, 54, a Democrat and former state lawmaker, was narrowly elected to the officially nonpartisan post in 2016, beating Erin Jones by a single percentage point. Re-election came more easily: he defeated Maia Espinoza by nearly 10 points in 2020 and David Olson by a similar margin in 2024. What he did not close on Monday is his own future. He said he is ready to consider the next chapter and will decide in the coming months whether to run for a different statewide office in 2028, seek federal office, or walk away from elective office altogether — a decision he said he and his wife Kim will weigh together and announce transparently. On Monday he declined further comment; the Standard noted that any statewide or federal run would currently put him up against an incumbent Democrat.
Source: Washington State Standard via Gorge News Center
What happens next
For Washington families — including Punjabi and South Asian families in Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane and the farming districts of the Yakima Valley whose children attend the state's public schools — the immediate effect is a known end date rather than a change of policy: the superintendent who sets curriculum standards and channels their schools' funding stays in office until January 2029. The open-seat race to replace him now becomes one of Washington's defining contests of 2028, and Reykdal's own decision — another office, federal office, or private life — will land in the coming months.