Legislator has a genius idea: School boards should be more like ... the Legislature
A state senator has come up with a genius solution to fix what ails Arizona’s schools.
It’s simple, really. Just have the state’s 200-plus school boards operate like the state Legislature.
No ... seriously.
Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, a Scottsdale Republican who is running for secretary of state in 2022, has introduced a bill that would scrap our current system of electing school board members in a single non-partisan election.
Instead, school board hopefuls would run, as federal, state and legislative candidates do, in August party primaries with the winners going on to face off in a November general election.
Winning could come down to an R or a D
Ugenti-Rita says school boards have become increasingly political and requiring party labels will help educate voters on where candidates stand.
“This holds elected officials accountable,’’ she told Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fisher. “And this provides additional transparency to the voter.’’
In other words, it allows candidates to win based not upon how well prepared they are to oversee the education of children but upon the initial – R or D – behind their name.
And it allows either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party to control each of the state’s 200-plus school boards.
Raise your hand if you think that’s a good idea.
Anybody?
School boards are the latest election red meat
Ugenti-Rita isn’t alone in the push to further politicize school boards. The idea has gained steam across the nation this fall as board members have come under fire from parents and conservative activists fed up with pandemic policies and culture wars.
But it exploded in November when Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin harnessed parent anger to defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe for governor and Republicans took control of the General Assembly in the left-leaning state. (This after a September debate in which McAuliffe shot himself and his entire party in the foot, declaring “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach kids.”)
In Tennessee, the Republican-run General Assembly recently passed a law that allows the local Democratic and Republican parties to decide whether to hold partisan elections for school boards in their counties.
In Arizona, the issue has rocketed to the front and center of next year’s governor’s race with Republicans Kari Lake and Matt Salmon racing out to school board meetings in Scottsdale and Chandler, vowing to stop what Salmon calls “school board bullies”.
Strangely, neither seems overly exercised about the bullies lobbing death threats at school board members, but I digress.
The answer is to ... make boards more political?
There is no doubt that school boards make political decisions. A hundred years ago, our national knock-down-drag-outs centered around whether to teach the theory of evolution.
Today, it’s whether to follow public health guidelines on masks and how to teach about race and how to treat transgender children.
Into the fray – and just coincidentally, the campaign for secretary of state – comes Ugenti-Rita, with Senate Bill 1010. It would bar school districts from ejecting peaceful protesters from school property during board meetings and would set up partisan school board elections.
“I think we should align the system with how these boards have been acting for decades, which is political,” she told Fischer.
So the answer is … to further politicize school boards?
3 reasons why this is a horrible idea
It’s a bad idea. Let me count the ways.
No. 1. It would freeze out the fastest growing segment of voters, independents who already comprise a third of Arizona’s electorate. Most of them don’t vote in primaries, leaving the choices to the Republican and Democratic base. Translation: moderates need not run.
And if an independent should want to serve on a school board? That just became harder.
They could petition to get on the general-election ballot, but the signature requirement is far higher for them than for partisan candidates. The fact that no independents actually serve in any state elective posts ought to tell you something about their prospects.
No. 2. It wasn’t that long ago that school boards went begging for candidates. This bill, by requiring them to campaign twice, would boost the cost of running for an unpaid seat on the school board, prompting many good candidates to beg off.
Or to seek out campaign contributions from special interests.
Under Ugenti-Rita’s plan, I suspect a seat on the local school board would become the first foothold on the political food chain, a place where ambitious sorts would focus not on kids but on starting a political career.
No. 3. Finally and most importantly, who in their right mind thinks it’s a good idea for our school boards to emulate the Legislature and Congress? The animosity. The gridlock.
Do you realy want to see your local school board influenced by the political needs of a party rather than the educational needs of our children?
You don’t think, once these elections become partisan, that a Republican who isn’t Republican enough or a Democrat who isn’t Democrat enough won’t face pushback if they refuse to toe the party line? If they even consider the merits of the opposing party’s point of view?
Want to know about candidates? Pay attention
Go ask Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema about that or Republican state Sen. Paul Boyer, who won’t be running for re-election next year because he dared to question the Senate’s election audit mania.
Ugenti-Rita says we need this bill so that voters will know something about the candidates whose names are listed on the ballot.
Of course, there’s already an easy way for that to happen if you happen to be a parent who has concerns about what your child is being taught.
Just pay attention.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Want to fix Arizona school boards? Then don't make them partisan
