School boards need solid candidates to run
April 2, 2005

Guestview by David Ernst

The annual school budget vote and elections to boards of education will take place May 17. These, as you know, are typically low-key affairs that attract less media attention and less citizen participation than the general elections. (Given that the typical school board candidate spends next to nothing, or nothing, on his or her campaign, that’s not surprising.) It is nevertheless, dismaying when there is a shortage of solid candidates for local board seats.

Often, interest in school board elections varies directly with the abundance, or lack of, high-profile local issues. Some of you have editorialized on school board candidacies in the past, and we appreciate your coverage.

Some opinion and news pieces have, in an effort to empathize with school board members, stressed the lack of pay, the long hours the occasional abuse. From my admittedly biased perspective, they tend to get a lot of the blame and little of the credit. As one of our speakers told a group of new board members: “We won’t pay you, but we will yell at you.”

I think the vast majority of school board members, however, don’t view their service as being as joyless and thankless as it’s sometimes portrayed. A 2002 poll by the Public Education Network and Education Week found the public ranked local school boards above, presidents, governors, lawmakers, parents, teachers and mayors in terms of both their responsibility for high-quality schools and their power to improve them. Many school board members relish this task.

A recent survey by the New York State Council of School Superintendents indicated a large majority of school boards enjoy a close working relationship with their superintendent. Most school board members find the experience helps them grow personally. Overwhelmingly, they reap personal satisfaction from setting policies and priorities that put children on the path to a life of success and happiness. As former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said: “Where there is a good school district, there is a good school board; the reverse is also true.”

Obviously, when trying to encourage people to run for anything, it’s important to cite the rewards as well as the hardships. Other information is available in the leadership development section of our Web site, vpvw.nyssba.org.

David Ernst, director of communications and research, Latham.