Partisan school board races are a bad idea | Opinion
In late October, Tennessee lawmakers organized a special session aimed at loosening COVID restrictions such as school districts requiring masks for students, proof of vaccination requirements for private business employees, and basically anything else that would rile up a person who drives a vehicle with a “Don’t Tread on Me” license plate attached to it. Most of the legislation passed in the COVID-19 Omnibus Bill was predictable considering the speed at which our state is tumbling toward far-right politics, but a few other bills slipped in that seemingly had nothing to do with COVID-19. The one that caught my attention as someone who works in public education was the bill allowing school board elections to become partisan races.
The way this particular bill is written, however, does not require people seeking a school board appointment to declare a party. It also does not mandate that local parties nominate certain candidates to run with an “R” or “D” beside their names. The key word in the bill is “authorizes”. The bill itself reads “As enacted, authorizes partisan elections for school board members.”
The state is allowing local parties to nominate candidates, but the onus of responsibility falls on the parties themselves to exercise this option. So, as an educator, let me speak on behalf of most everyone in public education and kindly say to both local parties: Stay the hell out of school board elections.
Two years ago, the Madison County Republican Party endorsed specific school board candidates in the 2020 elections. And, while the local Democratic party never officially endorsed candidates, they did allow candidates’ information to be posted on their social media page.
The involvement of any local political party should be limited to providing unbiased information about candidates to the public and then allowing the individual voter to make an informed, personal decision when casting their vote. A local party should never endorse a specific candidate in a non-partisan race.
While national politics is heavily weighted with party affiliations and sensationalism, local elections have a far greater impact on people within a given community. If elections in Madison County (other than County Commission races) become reduced to looking for a letter next to a candidate’s name and voting based on whether or not that letter matches the candidate you voted for in the last presidential election, then our community ceases to become unique and starts to mirror the trainwreck that can describe contemporary national politics.
Each school board member represents a district in Madison County. A person running for school board can only run for a certain position within that district. The point is that there is a limited amount of research that needs to be done to make an intelligent decision on who to vote for in a school board race. There is absolutely no need for a political party to nominate or endorse a specific candidate. The job of both parties in Madison County, however, is to encourage as many people to vote as possible and to provide unbiased information about each candidate. Period.
Individuals wishing to run for local office also have some say in this process. Should either party choose to exercise the option to make school board races partisan, the candidates themselves could (and should) choose to run as an independent.
In the end, the school board members for the Jackson-Madison County School system should be elected solely on their ability to understand the needs of our students, teachers, and district. It should not matter what political affiliation they have next to their name. So, again, Madison County Republicans and Madison County Democrats - if you want to help our local school board election you can petition our Election Commission for more early voting options, you can get unbiased information out to the public about candidates, and then please leave the rest of it alone. Thanks in advance.
Gabe Hart is a columnist for The Jackson Sun. Contact him at opinions@jacksonsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: Partisan school board races are a bad idea | Opinion
