Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WORLAND — Unopposed in her bid for a second term, Wyoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow celebrated election results and her victory winning the Republican nomination by playing Bingo at the Ten Sleep Brewery.
When asked if Tuesday’s primary brought any surprises, Balow said, “The best surprise was spending election night in Washakie County. We went to the Ten Sleep Brewery and played Bingo and had a wonderful time with the patrons there and celebrated the victories of many candidates. It was great.”
She noted she is a McGarvin and has spent a lot of time in Ten Sleep Canyon. “It was really nice to be in Washakie County for the election results. Worland and Ten Sleep did a great job in rolling out the red carpet and treating us well.”
THE NEXT FOUR YEARS
Balow said holding the office of state superintendent is her first public office. When she ran four years ago she knew there would be challenges but wasn’t sure what all they would entail.
What she found is that she loves her job.
“I love it. I think it is a wonderful position for an educator to be. I can’t imagine doing this job without the lens of a teacher. I really enjoy it. Probably what I enjoy the most is knowing that there are great teachers across our state who are doing wonderful things every day and I get to carry that water forward and I get to create a policy structure that supports them,” Balow said.
“I had no idea I would love it as much as I do, but I do. It’s a crazy pace and lots of challenges, and lots of negotiations and politics but when I get to go to classrooms and when I get to go visit schools, and when I get to hear what teachers are doing then it makes it all worthwhile.
“Four years wasn’t enough. We got a lot of really great things started with computer science, career and tech [education], accountability, but we’re not done. When I say we I mean Wyoming just isn’t done moving in this direction.”
Balow said one thing she has done in her first term is pushing back on federal overreach into education. “In four years we’ve moved from No Child Left Behind to the Every Student Succeeds Act and we’ve seen the authority of education really move from the federal government and the U.S. Department of Education back to the states. So shepherding that and onboarding our school districts and our legislature to make more decisions that the federal government made for us in the past is always an opportunity … to do the right thing and do it to the best of our ability.”
She said it’s important to implement the new law in a way for the communities to have more say over education and our stakeholders to understand better how are schools are really performing.
STATE ELECTIONS
Regarding the results, she said as state superintendent she looked at all of the candidates for the state’s top five elected officials including governor. “We thought about
scenarios and how do we work with each one of these. I’m confident moving forward into the general election that there is so much opportunity to work on education issues with, in particular Mark Gordon [Republican nominee for governor] but Mary Throne [Democratic nominee for governor] also sat on the education committee for a number of years. It’s good to see both candidates with some state government experience.”
Regarding legislative races, Balow said, “It never ceases to just make me have goose bumps to think about our voting opportunities and privileges as Americans and as Wyomingites, to put the folks we deem best into those seats.”
Balow said she is looking forward to working with the new legislators in next year’s Legislature and noted she and her staff this year are going to offer an introductory course for incoming legislators on the initiatives, systems and processes of the department.
She said the information is not meant to influence them but rather, “I do think it’s important for them to know this is what your elected state superintendent is working on in terms of initiatives, which for me is career and technical education; career, college, military readiness; computer science; school safety and security.”
FINAL VOTE TALLY
Balow received 92,010 votes. She was unopposed for the Republican nomination. There were no Democrats on the ballot.
For the other top state elected officials:
Mark Gordon earned the Republican nomination for governor with 38,915 votes; Mary Throne won the Democratic nomination with 12,944 votes.
Curt Meier, 51,293 votes, defeated Leland Christensen, 46,017, for the state treasurer Republican nomination. There was no Democrat on the ballot.
Secretary of State Ed Buchanan was unopposed for the Republican nomination and earned 94,510 votes, while Democratic challenger James W. Byrd received 16,751 for his party’s nomination.
Kristi Racines won the Republican nomination for state auditor with 59,462 votes over Nathan Winters with 39,841. Democrat Jeff Dockter, unopposed for that party, earned 16,326 votes.
This is the first in a series of articles that stem from an interview with State Superintendent Jillian Balow while she was in Worland Wednesday morning for the national PLC and RTI Institute at Worland Middle School. The interview covered a wide range of topics including standards and graduation requirements, school safety and home-schooling.