November School Board Elections

The Assembly Appropriations Committee meets today to consider bill A 4394, sponsored by Lou Greenwald, that would give school boards the option to move elections to November and eliminate budget votes as long as the budget is under the 2% cap. (Wall Street Journal coverage here.) According to New Jersey School Boards Association,

Under the proposal, communities could use one of three options to change the school election date to November and eliminate the annual vote on the base budget:

• Adoption of a resolution by the local board of education.
• Adoption of a resolution by the municipal governing body.
• Voter referendum through a petition signed by at least 15 percent of voters who participated in the previous general election held for members of the General Assembly.

NJSBA backs the bill, except for the second bullet point. It’s fine with the rest of the bill and will testify in favor of it. NJEA backs it too. It seems likely to pass (legislators need something to get done in lame duck, right?) and Assemblymen Greenwald and Donald Norcross have already scheduled a press conference for 2:00 today.

How do Board members feel about the bill? (Chime in, please.) Here’s my best guess: eliminating budget votes is a no-brainer, but board member votes in November? Not so much. Right now those April elections are much more easily controlled: voter turnout is notoriously low, those who do turn out tend to be parents and teachers, and there’s no taint of partisan politics. No one’s too worried about the other two mechanisms to move elections (the second and third bullets): know anyone likely to take on a petition project? Probably not. And most municipalities wouldn’t bother getting involved. They’ve got no real skin in the game.

There does seem to be a hefty price tag for eliminating school budget votes, a cost that goes beyond moving school board member elections to November. According to the bill, school boards would be required to make a four-year commitment to November elections. We’re not a particularly risk-friendly group. And some members could reasonably argue that agreeing to four years of November elections is tantamount to deciding the election dynamics for the next generation of school board members.

Red herring? Yeah. But count on hearing it.

I think November school board elections are a great idea. What could be bad about more community involvement, increased turnout, and unleashing district administrators from budget marketing duties to spend more time on education? How much time would be recaptured by not having to market budgets at Rotary Clubs and PTO’s and senior centers? Some district elections are already heavily partisan. And maybe everyone will be so preoccupied with the general elections that they’ll ignore school board member candidacies. Look at it this way: you’ll need more lawn sides in order to garner name recognition during a cluttered ballot. But you’ll get away with far fewer debates because everyone will be focused on general election candidates.