North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction
The North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction is the elected head of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and oversees the public school systems of the state.
The Superintendent is currently an elected member of the North Carolina Council of State, chosen in a partisan election every four years. Created as an appointed office, called the "General Superintendent of Common Schools" in 1852, the office was abolished at the end of the Civil War, then reestablished as an elected office under the North Carolina Constitution of 1868.
The Superintendent of Public Instruction also serves as a member of the North Carolina State Board of Education, the body which holds most of the authority over elementary and secondary education in the state.The following list shows the Superintendents of Public Instruction for North Carolina and the years they served:
- Calvin H. Wiley, 1853–1866
- , 1866–1868
- Samuel S. Ashley, 1868–1871
- Alexander McIver, 1871–1873
- Kemp Plummer Battle, 1873
- Alexander McIver, 1873–1875
- Stephen D. Pool, 1875–1876
- John Pool, 1876–1877
- John C. Scarborough, 1877–1885
- Sidney M. Finger, 1885–1893
- John C. Scarborough, 1893–1897
- Charles H. Mebane, 1897–1901
- Thomas F. Toon, 1901–1902
- James Y. Joyner, 1902–1919
- Eugene C. Brooks, 1919–1923
- Arch T. Allen, 1923–1934
- Clyde A. Erwin, 1934–1952
- Charles F. Carroll, 1952–1969
- A. Craig Phillips, 1969–1989
- Bob Etheridge, 1989–1996
- Michael E. Ward, 1997–2004
- Patricia N. Willoughby, 2004–2005
- June Atkinson, 2005–2016
- Mark Johnson, 2017–present
