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The state constitution says June Atkinson should run North Carolina's public schools, a judge ruled Friday.

If Gov. Bev Perdue wants to put someone else in charge, she'll have to support a different candidate in the 2012 election or push for a constitutional amendment.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood's ruling settles, for now, a political power struggle pitting the governor against the elected state superintendent. In January, Perdue asked the State Board of Education to create the dual position of board chairman and chief executive officer of the Department of Public Instruction. She wanted William C. Harrison to hold the powerful job. A few weeks later, the board complied.

That left Atkinson, elected to her second term last year, as an "ambassador" for education, in the governor's word.

Perdue's intention wasn't bad, in theory. Education leadership in North Carolina has been too fragmented. Who's in charge: the governor, the state board, the superintendent? All could claim a piece, but that was a formula for ineffectiveness and lack of accountability. Perdue's plan would fix that by unifying state board and DPI leadership under an officer who would answer to the governor. Ultimately, the buck would stop at her desk.

Previous governors also had taken steps to weaken the superintendent's position, but none so blatantly as Perdue. The problem: She overrode the state constitution and ignored the will of the voters. Atkinson refused to accept that and sued to establish her authority.

Hobgood rightly decided in her favor. The constitution created the elected office of state superintendent, and its authors intended for it to have a substantial function. The attorney general isn't meant to be merely an ambassador for the legal community, the agriculture commissioner is not an ambassador for the farm sector, and so on. These are executives with real duties and powers, which may not be co-opted by the governor.

Whether spreading executive authority among several independently elected officers provides the best system of government is debatable. But if Perdue believes reforms are necessary, she should ask the legislature to propose a constitutional amendment outlining improvements and campaign for its approval by the people.

The state plans to appeal Hobgood's ruling to the N.C. Supreme Court, but reversal seems unlikely. The constitution includes the office of state superintendent for more reason than to have an ambassador for education, and voters elected Atkinson to do more than that.

It looks as if, starting Monday, she finally has real work to do.