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Why School Board Races Are Important
Whether you're a parent of a child in public school or other types of schools, school boards affect you.
School board members determine the cost of education and how much they'll ask of taxpayers. Beyond money, school boards determine what kind of Superintendent to hire, whether or not to permit parents a choice between public schools, whether to grant a charter if permitted by the state, or whether home school children can participate in a class or two.
They even control what textbooks to buy and organize committees who advise them, which unfortunately more often than not are composed of more administrators and teachers than parents.
Many education observers have noted that school boards are more sympathetic to the demands of school officials than parents. In San Diego, California, parents frustrated over the school board continually rubber stamping the Superintendent's textbook picks organized to help influence the outcome of the elections, so that the curriculum that had been held up as the main reason for inadequate instruction could be changed.
In New York City, parents supported the mayoral takeover of the public schools and the elimination of the school board in order to bring about much needed reforms to a broken system. The mayor of Los Angeles is slated to take over that city's failing schools this January and a school board takeover is a very popular topic in the DC Mayoral election.
School boards don't have all the power, of course. The power for education is splintered across local, state and federal levels and across schools, districts and other bureaucracies. But the local arena offers an opportunity for concentrated influence.
The challenge to all parents, then, is being engaged in school board politics when there are so many other important things tugging at you.
The key is to know clearly who is running for school board, what the important issues are and how to distinguish what simply sounds good from what works. There's nothing better for a community than to have a reform-minded school board that takes nothing for granted, asks questions of the school leaders and demands accountability from the system.
- Make sure you know when school board elections are. Many assume they take place at the same time as the general elections, but many times that's not the case. Some take place in the spring, at a time when most people are not thinking about elections.
- Does the candidate believe parents should have a larger voice in school decisions and that your decisions about how your children best learn should get first priority? Ask them what they would do if a parent wanted to send his child to another school in the system or perhaps to an independent, public charter school. Does the candidate support the concept of parents having greater choices in education?
- What are the important issues facing your community right now? What should they be? If your reading program hasn't been reviewed in years, is this something the candidate will pursue? Make sure he/she is not overly focused on bricks and mortar. There's much more to being a good, responsive school board member than whether the football field needs better grass.
There are lots of other questions to ask and many more ideas that will relate only to your community. There may even be groups in your community already focused on a parent-friendly agenda that you can seek out.
The bottom line is that parents need to take that extra time to understand what' s happening at the schools and how to effect change through school board elections. The age-old institution of local school boards have often shown themselves to be defenders of the status quo in local communities, and parents need to stake a claim on the policies that emanate from school boards - not only to help their own child, but to help all children.
Link here for more information on School Boards and District structure.
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