Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #138

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to Hall Pass, a newsletter written to keep you plugged into the conversations driving  school board governance, the politics surrounding it, and education policy. 

🧑‍🎄 A note to readers: We’ll return to your inbox again on Jan. 8, 2025. Thanks, as always, for reading, and we’ll see you in the New Year! Please take our survey, described below, to tell us what topics, stories, and issues you’d like us to cover next year. Happy Holidays!

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over the effect school choice has on rural districts 
  • Year-end survey
  • School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
  • The top four Hall Pass education stories of 2024
  • Voters have addressed measures on religion in public schools at least nine times during the past 100 years
  • Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over the effect school choice has on rural students

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

Do private school choice policies help rural students take advantage of alternatives to the public school system? Or do they primarily benefit wealthier urban and suburban students while siphoning money away from rural public schools?

Jason Bedrick and Matthew Ladner write that school choice is good for rural students and allows them to find options that best meet their needs. They also say school choice policies already exist in rural districts and have helped improve public schools.

Brayden Love writes that school choice policies like vouchers take money away from rural public schools that provide essential services like transportation. He says weakening public schools hurts rural areas since schools are often one of the most important economic and community centers. 

Rustic Renaissance: Education Choice in Rural America | Jason Bedrick and Matthew Ladner, The Heritage Foundation

“No one school can meet the needs of all children who just happen to live nearby. Families in rural areas deserve more education options. By embracing education choice policies, state lawmakers can deliver on the promise of America’s education system and ensure that all children have access to the learning environment that best meets their individual needs. Policymakers who want to increase education options for rural families should enact education choice policies, such as K–12 education savings accounts, and broaden charter school laws to make it easier to open them in rural areas. … Rural areas have far more education options than education choice critics claim—from private schools and charter schools to microschools and virtual learning. … States with robust education choice policies have seen a significant increase in education options in rural areas. … Expanding education choice does not harm rural school districts. Indeed, the best evidence suggests education choice policies spur rural schools to improve.”

Public school vouchers are bad for rural schools, and bad for Oklahoma | Brayden Love, The Oklahoman 

“Make no mistake, school vouchers would disproportionately affect rural schools like the one from which I graduated, as well as negatively affect Oklahoma’s public education system as a whole. For a $3,600 voucher, will private schools provide bus routes miles into the countryside? Will they provide free and reduced meals for students who might very well be receiving their only meals of the day at their school? Since they accept public tax dollars, will they ensure accommodation to students with disabilities or those that require individual education plans? … While proponents might have genuine intentions, in actuality, this is a reverse Robin Hood bill that will cut off millions of dollars from public schools while leaving rural Oklahomans with little to no alternative options. Put simply, it would erase the progress that Oklahoma public education has made in previous years. …Rural schools are economic engines for sparsely populated areas and serve to unite the community behind a common good. Why are we willing to let policy being pushed by Washington, D.C., billionaires like those funding attack ads against opponents of SB 1647 dictate policy in rural Oklahoma?”

Take our year-end survey and tell us what you hope to see in this newsletter in 2025!

Education issues in 2025 will continue to be front of mind for many policymakers at both the federal and local levels. There will be a new presidential administration, district and state budget issues, efforts to advance early literacy policies, private and public school choice legislation, college and career readiness initiatives, debates about AI, and so much more. 

We want to hear from you—tell us what stories and topics you’re most interested in seeing  Ballotpedia cover. Please share your thoughts in a brief survey! 

School board update: filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications

This year, Ballotpedia covered elections for more than 25,000 school board seats in 36 states. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on covering the country’s more than 80,000 school board seats.  

Election results from the past week

Texas

On Dec. 14, voters in Austin decided a general election runoff for the At-Large Position 8 seat on the Austin Independent School District school board. Fernando Lucas de Urioste defeated Lindsey Stringer 70-30%. 

The two candidates were the top vote-getters in the Nov. 5 general election, though neither won a majority of the vote. Six candidates competed in the general election. 

De Urioste works for an advocacy firm that represents students. In his Candidate Connection survey, de Urioste said he believes in “free and appropriate public education, and as a trustee I will work as I have for the past 19 years to ensure equal access for ALL students. I have a deep understanding of Special Education and Section 504 and the many issues and failures that can get school districts in trouble.” 

Four seats were up for election this year. The Austin ISD is the sixth largest district in the state, with roughly 80,000 students.

Upcoming school board elections

This year, Ballotpedia will provide comprehensive coverage of Oklahoma’s school board primaries and/or general elections. In Oklahoma, elections are canceled if only one candidate files to run for a seat. If two candidates file, the primary is canceled and both advance to a general election. If more than two candidates file, a candidate can win the primary outright with more than 50% of the vote. When that doesn’t happen, the two top vote-getters advance to the general.

Primaries are scheduled for Feb. 11, 2025, while general elections are scheduled for April 1.

We’ll have more information on which districts are holding primaries and/or general elections in January, after filing periods end. 

In 2023, Oklahoma held elections for 556 school board seats. Although Oklahoma’s school board elections are nonpartisan, Ballotpedia used publicly-available voter files and candidate filing information to identify candidate partisan affiliations, finding that:

  • Registered Democrats won 24%
  • Registered Republicans won 72%
  • Registered independents or a minor party candidates won 4%

Ballotpedia also found that 92% of incumbents who ran for re-election won, but 82% ran unopposed. Of the 80 incumbents who faced opposition, 47% lost.

Click here to read our full 2023 analysis of Oklahoma’s school board elections. 

Upcoming school board election filing deadlines

Ballotpedia researchers are hard at work collecting filing deadline information for our 2025 school board election coverage. 

Below, you’ll find upcoming filing deadlines for some districts holding elections in the first part of 2025:

  • Districts in Missouri have filing deadlines on Dec. 31 for general election on April 8:
    • Center School District
    • Grandview C-4 School District
    • Hickman Mills C-1 School District
    • Kansas City Public Schools
    • Liberty Public Schools
    • North Kansas City Schools
    • Park Hill School District
    • Platte County R-III School District
    • Raytown C-2 School District
    • St. Joseph School District
    • St. Louis Public Schools
  • Districts in Wisconsin have filing deadlines on Jan. 7 for primaries—if necessary—on Feb. 18. General elections are scheduled for April 1.
    • DeForest Area School District
    • Madison Metropolitan School District
    • McFarland School District
    • Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District
    • Milwaukee Public Schools
  • The Anchorage School District, in Alaska, has a filing deadline on Jan. 24, 2025, for a general election on April 1. 

We’ll continue to update this section of the newsletter as we know more in the coming weeks.

The top five Hall Pass education stories of 2024

Another year has—almost—come and gone! Thank you for joining us in this newsletter—we’re grateful to have you as a subscriber. 

Every Wednesday, since early 2022, we’ve helped you understand the debates shaping education and make sense of school board politics. As we close out the year, let’s take a look back at our top stories. You can find our 2022 and 2023 top stories here and here. 

An introduction to the four-day school week (March)

The number of districts adopting a four-day school week is growing, even as academics, school board members, administrators, teachers, and parents debate the benefits—or lack thereof—of the modified schedule. 

In this story, we explored the history of the four-day school week, where it’s used, how it works, and the main arguments for and against it. 

A primer on Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds (April)

During the pandemic, Congress allocated $190 billion to districts in three tranches—a historically unprecedented infusion of federal funds into the country’s K-12 public school system. Now, many districts are grappling with the double whammy of falling enrollment and the loss of millions in federal aid. 

In this story, we provided a bird’s eye view of ESSER funding, before diving into its effect on district budgets. 

Talking AI and education with Missouri School Boards’ Association Director of Digital Initiatives Mark Henderson (August)

In the span of two years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the hottest topics in education. A growing number of students and teachers report using AI applications like ChatGPT or Claude, and administrators, school board members, and even lawmakers are working to develop policies that try to harness the benefits of this new technology and lessen the downsides.  

Early on, the Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA) took a proactive approach to AI. Last summer, the MSBA released the AI for K-12 Education Toolkit, a resource for helping school boards, administrators, teachers, and parents understand AI in schools. The Toolkit includes chapters explaining how AI tools work, what AI policies and procedures can look like, and how districts can navigate concerns about ethics and equity.

We talked with Mark Henderson, the MSBA’s Director of Digital Initiatives, about the Toolkit, the challenges around equitable access to AI technologies, the debate over cellphones in classrooms, and more. 

Here’s what to know about the debate over universal school meals (August)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided the funding for free school meals to all public school students, regardless of family income. Although federal funding for universal meals ended in 2022, several states have since passed laws continuing the policy. 

We tucked into the history of school meal programs—including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP)—and the arguments for and against expanding eligibility to include all students.

Election roundup: ballot measures and Chicago Public Schools board of education election (November)

Our post-election edition looked at the results of ballot measures related to partisan school board elections, school choice, and standardized testing. We also looked at election results for Chicago’s first ever school board elections. Previously, the mayor appointed the seven-member board, but beginning in January, a 21-member board, comprising 11 appointed members and 10 elected ones, will oversee the country’s third-largest district.

Voters have addressed measures on religion in public schools at least nine times during the past 100 years

We’ll leave you with a story taken from Ballotpedia’s trove of information on historical ballot measures—specifically those related to education. Our repository of education-related ballot measures goes back to 1862. 

Over the last 100 years, voters have decided on at least nine ballot measures related to religion in public schools.

The most activity occurred in the 1970s, when voters decided on four religion measures between 1972 and 1974. Topics included the Ten Commandments, the Bible, prayer and contemplation, religious clothing, excused absence for religious instruction, and students’ religious rights. The most common topic was school prayer, with five measures addressing prayer.

  • California (1926): Voters rejected (43-57%) a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to allow public schools to purchase and use the Holy Bible, provided that no student is forced to read the Bible against their parents’ or guardians’ preferences.
  • North Dakota (1948): Voters approved (53-47%) a ballot initiative to prohibit public school teachers from wearing clothing or garb that indicates their affiliation with a religious order, sect, or denomination while performing their duties at school and enacting penalties for violating this rule.
  • Maryland (1970): Voters approved (73-27%) a constitutional amendment to provide that “nothing shall prohibit or require the making reference to belief in, reliance upon, or invoking the aid of God or a Supreme Being” in public institutions and places, including schools.
  • Florida (1972): Voters approved (79-21%) a non-binding question that asked, “Do you favor an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to allow prayer in the public schools?”
  • Massachusetts (1972): Voters approved (82-18%) a non-binding question that asked, “Shall the voluntary recitation of prayer be authorized in the public schools of the Commonwealth?”
  • Wisconsin (1972): Voters approved (50.4-49.6%) a constitutional amendment authorizing laws allowing public schools to release students during school hours to receive religious instruction elsewhere.
  • West Virginia (1984): Voters approved (78.8-22.2%) a constitutional amendment requiring public schools to set aside a period at the start of each school day for students who wish to engage in personal and private contemplation, meditation, or prayer.
  • Missouri (2012): Voters approved (82.8-17.2%) a constitutional amendment to provide that public school students can express their religious beliefs in written and oral assignments “free from discrimination based on the religious content of their work;” provide that public school students cannot be “compelled to perform or participate in academic assignments or educational presentations that violate his or her religious beliefs;” provide that public school students have a “right to free exercise of religious expression without interference;” and require public schools to display the text of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, among other provisions.

The most recent vote was in Alabama in 2018, when residents voted 71.7-28.3% to approve Amendment 1. The measure allowed for—but did not require—the display of the Ten Commandments on public property, including public schools. The amendment also said, “No public funds may be expended in defense of the constitutionality of this amendment.”

Click here to learn more about ballot measures related to religion.

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

This year, 564 school board candidates in 397 districts across the country completed our Candidate Connection survey. Throughout the year, we’ve featured many of these responses in this newsletter, giving you a look at the issues animating candidates and the themes around which these local elections have revolved.

Today, we’re highlighting surveys from two candidates who won in elections on Nov. 5—Jamal Aljahmi and Robin Brown.

Aljahmi won one of two at-large seats in the general election for Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education, in Michigan. Aljahmi received 23% of the vote, while Amer Zahr, who won the other seat, received 13.7%. Aljahmi and Zahr defeated eight other candidates, including incumbent Jim Thorpe. 

Dearborn Public Schools is the third largest in Michigan, with around 20,000 students. 

Here’s how Aljahmi answered the question, “What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?”

“In my view, the primary job of a school board member is to oversee various aspects of the education system, ensuring transparency, accountability, and financial responsibility. This includes making sure that educational policies and practices are implemented effectively and equitably across all schools. School board members are also responsible for monitoring the district’s budget and financial health to ensure that resources are allocated efficiently and in a manner that best supports student learning and success. By maintaining a strong focus on these key areas, school board members can help create an environment where all students have the opportunity to thrive.”

Click here to read the rest of Aljahmi’s responses.

Brown defeated incumbent Zipporah Miller in the general election for Prince George’s County Board of Education District 5, in Maryland. Brown received 56.8% of the vote. Five seats were up for election this year. 

Prince George’s County Public Schools is the second largest district in the state, with around 136,000 students. 

Here’s how Brown answered the question, “What is your favorite book? Why?”

“The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. This was the book that allowed me to fall in love with reading. I was fourteen and couldn’t believe how descriptive and poetic someone that talented could be.”

Click here to read the rest of Brown’s responses. 

If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey. If you’re not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!

In the 2024 election cycle, 6,539 candidates completed the survey, including over 500 school board candidates. 
The survey contains more than 30 questions, and you can choose the ones you feel will best represent your views to voters. If you complete the survey, a box with your answers will display on your Ballotpedia profile. Your responses will also appear in our sample ballot.