Local school board candidates in most Michigan communities appear on the ballot without party labels. Many people who serve on school boards say they like it that way because their major responsibilities don’t align with partisan agendas. But, as K-12 education has become more of a political flashpoint, an effort has launched in Lansing to have school board candidates show their blue or red primary colors.
Some Republican lawmakers at the state Capitol say school board candidates with party loyalties should put that there out for voters to see.
“I think a majority of everything in life has some partisanship to it. We see it in every area of life, right?”
GOP Representative Jason Woolford has sponsored a bill to require school board candidates to declare themselves as Republicans, Democrats, some other political party or independent. He says party alignment signals where a candidate stands on curriculum, sex education or sports participation, while being publicly non-aligned allows candidates to fly under the radar on these issues.
“I think that it’s absurd to think that as soon as someone runs for school board, all of a sudden we expect them to become a superhero, nonpartisan person and that’s just not the case. There are people who are Republicans, they’re Democrats and those form their ideologies, their thoughts, the things that they do, and I think it’s very important that people understand that.”
The bill cleared the House Elections Committee last month on a party-line vote and is now awaiting action on the House floor. It was adopted by the committee’s Republican majority over the objections of many school officials and education groups, including the Michigan Association of School Boards.
“While you can still believe strongly in one party or the other, the board table is different and it’s not about party politics. It’s about what’s best for the district.”
Government Relations Director Jennifer Smith says local school boards in Michigan have remained largely above the partisan fray to focus on executive functions like balancing budgets and hiring superintendents.
“You don't want to look at a superintendent and decide you're going to hire them because they're an R or a D, and we'll get along with the board better. You want to hire the best candidate for your community and your student body. And that is definitely a spot that politics does not belong.”
Smith says the pressures would be compounded as local school board candidates would have to run in partisan primaries to be nominated. And, she says, military personnel and government employees who are legally not allowed to engage in partisan political activities would be barred from running for local school boards.
The tradition of nonpartisan school boards dates back to the late 1800s and the early 20th Century, when Michigan was among the early wave of states to make school attendance compulsory.
“And there was a focus on ensuring that education was of high quality… “
Scott Levy is an academic, local school board member and author of the book “Why School Boards Matter: Reclaiming the Heart of American Education and Democracy.”
“…And at that point, there was a push to make local school board elections nonpartisan and really try to separate out the governing of districts from the broader partisan politics of our society.”
Levy says school board members and candidates obviously have positions that fall into ideological columns, and they certainly don’t have to hide party loyalties. But historically, the job has not been perceived as partisan or handled that way – and that’s why it remains that way across most of the U.S. He says infusing party politics into school board elections would be a step back from that tradition.
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