PHOENIX — A Tucson lawmaker wants to turn nonpartisan school board elections into the sort of often contentious partisan affairs as races for the Legislature.
But the Arizona School Boards Association, made up of those currently serving on elected school boards, is panning the idea from Sen. Justine Wadsack. And one board member, a registered Republican like Wadsack, called the proposal “stupid.’’
So far, though, Senate Bill 1097 has been approved on a party-line vote in the Republican-controlled Senate and cleared a House committee, also with a party split. The measure now awaits a vote in the full House, where Republicans are in the majority.
The legislation is based on Wadsack’s argument that voters really don’t know much about the people running for school boards. Her contention is that putting a party label behind a name on the ballot will provide some inkling of what they believe.
“This reform is about getting voters the information that they need to make the best decisions for their children and their schools,’’ Wadsack told colleagues during a hearing on the legislation.
Conservative think tank’s support
The proposal is not occurring in a vacuum.
It is being promoted by the Opportunity Solutions Project. That is a division of the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability, which promotes itself as a conservative think tank.
Its issues range from blocking expansion of Medicare or Medicaid, to opposing “ranked-choice voting,” to fighting against ESG policies — environmental, social and governance — that affect decisions of corporations and some government entities, in what one writer at the foundation has called the “radical remake of America.’’
It also calls for changing how school boards are elected.
One piece is making those races partisan. The foundation also wants to impose term limits on school board members and eliminate staggered terms, the current practice that ensures some stability by not having all seats up at the same time and preventing a total takeover in any given year.
“I’m sure the members of this committee can all agree that the more voter information that we have, the better our elections can be run,’’ testified Matt Fiorti, a lobbyist for the foundation.
He said the best evidence of that stems from a decision in North Carolina to allow counties to create partisan school board elections. Fiorti said the number of people voting for candidates was higher in counties where voters knew the partisan affiliation of candidates.
“This reform is not about playing politics,’’ Wadsack said.
Political effects
But a draft study from the University of Georgia on the North Carolina experience found that shifting to partisan elections reduced the chances of Democrats getting elected.
Even the foundation acknowledges a political effect. It says that in 14 North Carolina counties where school board races are nonpartisan, residents voted for Republican candidates for Congress but elected registered Democrats to school boards.
Fiorti told lawmakers there are issues coming before school boards where he believes party affiliation matters.
Exhibit No. 1, he said, was the 2018 decision by the board in the Phoenix-area Washington Elementary School District to no longer accept student teachers from Arizona Christian University.
That was driven by Tamillia Valenzuela, a board member, who cited the university’s mission to “influence, engage and transform the culture with truth by promoting the biblically informed values that are foundational to Western civilization.’’ Those values, according to the university’s website, include “traditional sexual morality and lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.’’
Valenzuela said that sends the wrong message to LGBTQ staff and students in the district.
Fiorti said some parents objected. The policy was scrapped last year after a lawsuit was filed.
“I think that’s a pretty good example of the values of certain school boards and certain communities not necessarily aligning,’’ he said.
Wadsack said other school districts have their own issues with partisan tinges.
“A lot of parents have come to me and said if only they had known the political affiliation of a particular school board member, they never would have voted for them,’’ she said.
‘You’re representing all kids’
Chris King, a member of the board of Vail Unified School District, said that hasn’t been his experience. He said Wadsack’s bill is built on the presumption that residents, approached by candidates for their votes or having seen decisions made by incumbents, really have no idea about their ideas and philosophies, which he doesn’t buy.
“School boards are the closest elected officials to the people,’’ King told Capitol Media Services. “And they represent everybody regardless of party affiliation.’’
Putting party affiliation on the ballots will have a partisan effect on the outcome of elections, King said.
“You’re going to have school boards that are nothing but Republicans, school boards that are nothing but Democrats,’’ he said.
But more likely the former, King said.
“A majority of the school districts in the state are Republican leaning,’’ he said. “What you’re going to do is you’re going to guarantee that Democrats never see a school board election again.’’
And this from King, a registered Republican: “I think it’s stupid,’’ he said of the legislation.
“When you’re representing kids, your party doesn’t matter because you’re representing all kids,’’ he said. “And if you can’t step into a school board room and put your partisan politics behind you, then you really don’t deserve to be there in the first place.’’
Matt Kopec, a board member for Amphitheater Public Schools, said voters know who he is — and what he stands for — without having to put a D behind his name on the ballot.
“I’ve run twice now,’’ Kopec said. When he goes door-to-door people do ask things like his registration, his political worldview, he told Capitol Media Services.
“And I’ll tell them so that people definitely have that information if they want to,’’ he said. They also can glean information from websites and social media, he noted.
The result in his own district, Kopec said, is a board that includes Republicans, Democrats and those unaffiliated with either major party.
Having board members identified and elected based on partisan affiliation “would just alter the dynamics of how these boards operate — and not in a good way,’’ Kopec said.
He acknowledged there are education issues with partisan overtones, such as whether the state should provide taxpayer dollars so students can attend private and parochial schools, whether what’s been dubbed “critical race theory’’ should be taught in classrooms, and what books should be allowed in school libraries.
But Kopec said none of that requires partisan identification of candidates. He said would-be board members can make their positions known during the campaign. And there are requirements in many cases for public comment, something he thinks does not occur as often or as readily at the Capitol.
The one issue for which he can recall some philosophical division among Amphi board members was during the COVID pandemic and the debate over whether students and staff should be masked. But even then, Kopec said, there really wasn’t a split.
“We followed the recommendations of the public health and safety officials in terms of what would be best for the safety of our students,’’ he said.
Getting people to run for unpaid posts
Chris Kotterman, lobbyist for the Arizona School Boards Association, told lawmakers he doesn’t doubt there will be some people who want to vote a straight party-line ticket if school board members are identified by party registration. But he said that’s not necessarily a good thing.
“I would submit to you that just because someone’s a Republican or a Democrat and they get their name checked by another Republican or another Democrat doesn’t necessarily increase the quality of that vote or say that that person knows more about the race than a person who doesn’t’’ know the candidate’s affiliation, he said.
Barry Aarons, who lobbies for county school superintendents throughout the state, said they think creating contentious partisan elections will further complicate the ability to get qualified people to run for the unpaid positions.
The University of Georgia study also found another effect of changing to partisan school board elections.
“Our main preliminary results show that districts that switch to partisan elections experience reductions in per-pupil spending,’’ it says. “And schools located in districts that switch to partisan elections experience increased teacher turnover and an increase in less experienced teachers.’’
But the researchers also found a positive impact on school performance measures at the high school level.
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