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Our verdict

LiberalMind endorses Terence Collins and Bree Moeggenberg for the two seats — as unproven at the state level, and on watch

Election Day is November 3, and this is a vote-for-two race: ten candidates, two seats, eight-year terms, on a board that currently sits 6–2 Democratic — a Republican sweep of both seats would tie it 4–4. The campaign's central datum is sourced and stark: 38.2% of Michigan third graders were proficient in English language arts this spring, the lowest in the twelve-year history of the state exam. This is also the thinnest file in Michigan's statewide coverage: the research located no polling and no campaign-finance figures for this race, and the Democratic incumbents' records in this research date to 2018 — their 2019–2026 board records were not independently compiled. We print what is sourced, state the gaps plainly, and make the call the doctrine supports on the record that exists. LiberalMind endorses Terence Collins and Bree Moeggenberg — as unproven at the state level, and on watch. Read the research, and see why.

How Michigan got here

Like the executive offices above it on the ballot, State Board of Education candidates are nominated by party conventions, not by a primary, and appear on the ballot with a party label. Democrats re-nominated both incumbents at their August 29, 2026 nominating convention in Lansing, having endorsed them in the spring. Republicans nominated Terence Collins and Bree Moeggenberg at their August 22, 2026 convention in Mt. Pleasant, having endorsed them on March 28.

The board hires and oversees the state superintendent, sets policy and academic standards, and advises the Legislature. Two of its eight seats are up. Election is by plurality block voting — vote for not more than two.

Ten candidates for two seats, confirmed against the race's reference pages, the Votebeat voter guide, and county candidate records: Judith Pritchett (Democratic, incumbent since 2019); Tiffany Tilley (Democratic, incumbent since 2019); Terence Collins (Republican); Bree Moeggenberg (Republican); Charles Essner (Libertarian); Wissam Charafeddine (Green); William Mohr II (U.S. Taxpayers); Christine C. Schwartz (U.S. Taxpayers); Mary Anne Hering (Working Class); and Kelli Monroe (Natural Law).

Competitiveness evidence: none was located. No ratings and no polling for this race were found in the sources consulted. The structural fact — a 6–2 Democratic board, and a 4–4 tie if Republicans sweep both seats — is from Votebeat, labeled as such. Money: no campaign-finance figures were located for any candidate in this race in the sources consulted. We print neither a competitiveness claim nor a money claim beyond those two statements.

Judith Pritchett (Democratic, incumbent) — an educator's career, a board record not compiled here

Background, as sourced: An educator for roughly 25 years — teacher, superintendent of Centreville Schools, and Chief Academic Officer for the Macomb Intermediate School District — who worked primarily with high-poverty districts. Elected in 2018 with 25.2% of the block vote. That biography is sourced to a 2018 candidate profile (AFT Michigan), and we date it as such: her 2019–2026 record on the board — votes, superintendent oversight, positions taken — was not independently compiled in this research, and we do not invent it.

Pros: A career educator's résumé — classroom, district superintendency, and intermediate-district academic leadership — with a stated focus on high-poverty districts. Seven years' incumbency on the board itself.

Cons: On the record available to this research, her incumbency cannot be priced either way: the board she has sat on since 2019 now presides over the lowest third-grade English proficiency figure in the state exam's twelve-year history (38.2%), but no sourced account of her individual board record was located to attach that outcome to her votes — or to separate her from it.

The flaw, plainly: Insufficient record in this research to price the incumbency — stated as a gap, not filled with inference. No in-service break with her party was located, and none was searched for in a compiled board record because none was available to search.

Tiffany Tilley (Democratic, incumbent) — the second incumbent, the same dating caveat

Background, as sourced: Director of the Southfield Community Anti-Drug Coalition, with K–12 substitute-teaching experience. Her 2018 stated priorities were the achievement gap, illiteracy, anti-bullying, and wrap-around services. Elected in 2018 with 24.0% of the block vote. That sourcing is also dated 2018 (AFT Michigan), with the same caveat: her 2019–2026 board record was not independently compiled in this research.

Pros: A stated 2018 agenda that named illiteracy directly — the issue this cycle's proficiency figure has made central. Community anti-drug coalition leadership and classroom substitute experience. Seven years' incumbency.

Cons: The same pricing problem as her running mate, stated plainly: illiteracy was her stated priority in 2018, and third-grade English proficiency in 2026 stands at a twelve-year low — but with no compiled board record in this research, we cannot source what she did or did not do about it in office, and we do not price an outcome against an individual without that record.

The flaw, plainly: Insufficient record in this research, as with Pritchett — plus the tension, printed as a tension and not a verdict, between a 2018 illiteracy priority and a 2026 proficiency floor.

Terence Collins (Republican) — brief local board service, a stated spending test

Background and service: A financial analyst and University of Detroit graduate who served on the Grosse Pointe school board from October 2023 to December 2024 — brief, real, local board service. His stated priorities are financial oversight, parental transparency, and reading, writing, and math instruction. His stated test for spending, in his own words: "Does it improve student learning, strengthen safety, or support the people doing that work?"

Pros: The only candidate in the major-party field with school-board service of his own, however brief, and a finance professional's background for an oversight board. Priorities stated in the cycle's own terms — core instruction and transparency — with a checkable test for every dollar.

Cons: His board service lasted fourteen months at the local level; he has never held statewide office. There is no longer record against which to verify how the stated test was applied when it cost something.

The flaw, plainly: Unproven beyond a brief local term — a watch-closely posture under our doctrine, never a demerit and never, by itself, a reason to withhold an endorsement.

Bree Moeggenberg (Republican) — a childcare provider and parent organizer, unproven in office

Background, as sourced: Chair of the Isabella County chapter of Moms for Liberty; a licensed childcare provider and business owner. She campaigns on family–educator cooperation, public accountability, and keeping classroom instruction focused on learning. No elected office was located in the sources consulted.

Pros: A working early-childhood provider — daily, practical contact with the youngest end of the system this board governs — and a business owner's accountability framing. Her stated agenda aims classroom time at learning, which is the ground the 38.2% figure is fought on.

Cons: No elected or appointed public record was located. Her organizational role is documented; her record in any office is, by definition, not — there is none to inspect.

The flaw, plainly: Unproven — no service record exists to price. Under our doctrine that posture carries a watch, not a penalty.

The minor candidates, briefly

Wissam Charafeddine (Green) is an educator, engineer, and entrepreneur with a master's in software engineering from the University of Michigan–Dearborn — the fullest minor-candidate biography located. Charles Essner (Libertarian) is confirmed on the ballot by the reference pages and county records; no further record was located. William Mohr II (U.S. Taxpayers) was the 2024 U.S. Taxpayers nominee for Wayne State's Board of Governors. Christine C. Schwartz (U.S. Taxpayers) and Mary Anne Hering (Working Class) are described in the reference pages as perennial candidates; Hering previously ran for this board in 2018, taking 1.7%. Kelli Monroe (Natural Law) is confirmed on the ballot; no further record was located. A standing check found no pedophile-association material meeting the proven standard — knowing association with or defense of a convicted pedophile — for any candidate on this ballot.

OUR CALL

LiberalMind endorses Terence Collins and Bree Moeggenberg for the two seats — as unproven at the state level, and on watch.

We name the limits of this call in the piece itself, because the record demands it. The incumbents cannot be fairly priced as individuals on this research: their biographies here are eight years old, their board records were not compiled, and the one hard outcome in the file — 38.2% third-grade English proficiency, a twelve-year low — belongs to the board as an institution, not to any sourced vote of either woman. What can be priced is this: after seven years of a 6–2 board of the incumbents' party, Michigan's foundational literacy number is at its recorded floor, and neither incumbent's file, as sourced, contains a break, a dissent, or a program that answers it — Pritchett's is a career in the system the board oversees, and Tilley's stated 2018 priority was the very problem now at its worst reading. The Republican nominees are unproven — Collins by brevity (fourteen months of local board service), Moeggenberg by absence of office — and under our doctrine unproven is never a demerit and never a reason to withhold: it is a watch. Collins brings a finance background, a stated spending test, and priorities aimed at core instruction and parental transparency; Moeggenberg brings a provider's ground-level stake in early learning and an accountability agenda. In a vote-for-two race, the endorsed pair is Collins and Moeggenberg — endorsed as unproven, watched accordingly, and with the board-record gap on the incumbents flagged here as the first thing a fuller record could change.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 5, 2026

Winner: Judith Pritchett and Tiffany Tilley (Democratic) — called by the Associated Press. This result was appended on November 5, 2026 (results wave 3); the original article above is unchanged, exactly as published before Election Day.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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