Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #129

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. 

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over Confucius Classrooms
  • In your district: Reducing chronic absenteeism 
  • School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
  • Three statewide education-related measures to watch this November 
  • Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey

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On the issues: The debate over Confucius Classrooms

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.

Confucius Classrooms are part of a Chinese government education initiative that funds teaching the country’s language and culture in K-12 schools worldwide. Confucius Classrooms are affiliated with university-based Confucius Institutes. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) funds the programs and picks teachers to send to schools. In 2020, the State Department designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center as a foreign mission of China, citing the “opacity of this organization and its state-directed nature.”

There are at least 164 Confucius Classrooms in the U.S., and 79% of those operate out of a public school district, according to a July 2024 National Association of Scholars (NAS) report. The NAS says that it “upholds the standards of a liberal arts education that fosters intellectual freedom, searches for the truth, and promotes virtuous citizenship.”

Maggie McKneely writes Confucius Classroom programs aim to promote socialism and influence young Americans with pro-China propaganda. McKneely says foreign influence in education is a national security threat that Congress should address. 

Naima Green-Riley writes Confucius Classrooms did not significantly influence the opinions of students in a survey she conducted. Green-Riley says the classes focus on culture and language and are not overtly political. She says students are capable of discerning truth and aren’t easily indoctrinated. 

Is China teaching your child in public school? | Maggie McKneely, The Hill

“The Confucius Classrooms programs primarily teach Chinese language to students, but often they also include courses in history or economics. That may sound benign, but each Confucius Classrooms teacher is hired and approved by the Chinese Communist Party and is expected to promote China and socialism to students. These classes are a subtle way for the Chinese government to influence young Americans and make them more sympathetic to socialist ideology and China’s global aims. … The American education system has plenty of problems without the outside influence of hostile nations. Yet countries like China are using our K-12 schools as just one more way to influence American society. A foreign-linked curriculum designed to teach the next generation to appreciate socialism and to empathize with America’s greatest competitor is a national security threat, and Congress has a responsibility to address it.”

The State Department labeled China’s Confucius programs a bad influence on U.S. students. What’s the story? | Naima Green-Riley, The Washington Post

“Regardless of whether students at these schools were taking Confucius Classroom classes, on average, they developed less favorable views of China over the academic year. … Even though the content of their Chinese classes was not overtly political, students at the schools in my study learned about current events in other classes or by following the news. One student told me that if he could go to any place in the world, he would travel to Hong Kong, adding that the protests there had piqued his interest. Another student — an avid National Basketball Association fan — learned about Chinese government politics after the Houston Rockets’ general manager was chastised by the Chinese government for a tweet in October 2019. … My findings suggest that American students — even young high-schoolers — are discerning and able to process conflicting signals in the learning environment. … For this reason, it is unlikely that they are being indoctrinated by the Chinese Communist Party.”

In your district: Reducing chronic absenteeism

We featured this survey in our last edition, but we’re keeping the form open for one more week to give more readers a chance to participate. Please complete the brief survey below—anonymously, if you prefer—and we may share your response with fellow subscribers in an upcoming newsletter.

How does your district address absenteeism? If it’s an issue, what strategies involving the school board, educators, and parents could improve attendance?

Click here to respond!

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

This year, Ballotpedia will cover elections for over 11,000 school board seats across more than 30 states. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on the country’s more 80,000 school board seats.  

Election results from the past week

On Oct. 1, Ballotpedia covered recalls against Emil Mackey and Deedie Sorensen, members of the Juneau Borough School District school board. Sorensen is the president of the board, while Mackey is the vice president.

Preliminary results show that around 65% of residents voted against recalling both Mackey and Sorensen.  

The recall effort started after the district’s finance consultant informed the board in early 2024 that the district faced a $9.5 million budget shortfall (with nearly $2 million carried over from the previous fiscal year). In the spring of 2023, the board unanimously approved the district’s budget through June 30, 2024. After the budget shortfall was discovered, the board approved a modified budget, which included a $4 million interest-free loan from the city of Juneau.

Recall supporters said Mackey and Sorensen failed “to understand the FY24 budget and accounting errors resulting in $7.9M deficit and taxpayer loan from CBJ [City and Borough of Alaska]”. 

Both board members said they voted to approve a budget in the spring of 2023 based on information the district’s administration and financial staff gave them. 

So far this year, 11 school board recall efforts have gone to the ballot. Excluding the Juneau recall, whose results haven’t been certified, voters removed six board members and rejected efforts to remove four. In even-numbered years between 2014 and 2022, an average of 16 school board members were in recall efforts that made it to the ballot. Click here to listen to our recent On the Ballot podcast breaking down this year’s state and local recall efforts.

Click here to learn more about school board recall efforts. Click here to read our 2024 mid-year recall report.

Three statewide education-related measures to watch this November 

Since April, we’ve brought you recurring deep dives into the education-related measures voters in many states could expect to see on their ballots this November. You can read our previous coverage here, here, here, here, and here. 

Now that it is October and Election Day is about a month away, we’ve prepared a list of three noteworthy education-related measures to watch in Colorado, Florida, and Massachusetts that deal with private school choice, partisan school board elections, and standardized testing. 

Let’s dive in with a look at the big picture. Measures are presented in alphabetical order. 

There are 10 education-related measures on the ballot this November 

Overall, voters in 10 states will decide 11 statewide education-related measures in Arkansas, Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, and Utah. That’s the highest number of education-related measures on statewide ballots since 2018. 

Click here to explore the full list of education-related measures going back to 1974. 

Colorado’s Amendment 80 would establish a right to school choice in the state constitution

Here’s what Amendment 80 would do: This initiative would add an amendment to the state constitution stating that “Each K-12 child has the right to school choice.” It also says that “all children have the right to equal opportunity to access a quality education” and that “parents have the right to direct the education of their children.” 

The amendment says “school choice includes neighborhood, charter, private, and home schools, open enrollment options, and future innovations in education.”

Here’s what supporters are saying: Advance Colorado Action President Michael Fields, who proposed Amendment 80, said, “We’ve had broad bipartisan support of school choice for decades here, but I feel like that might not be the case in the future. We’ve seen legislation this year going after charter schools. I think that will continue in the future from some legislators. This is strictly locking in what we already have in place. I just think that parents should be in charge of education. I think it’s easier when they have resources to send their kid to the school that they want to. I believe that there’s good fits for kids in all different types of education. I just think that the options should be available for everybody.”

Advance Colorado Action describes itself as an “issue advocacy organization that believes in a smaller, more accountable government.”

Here’s what opponents are saying: The Colorado Education Association President Kevin Vick said, “They’re using the innocuous word of ‘choice’ as a vehicle for what opens the door clearly for a voucher scheme. There’s no other reason to include private schools in [the initiative] unless that is their ultimate intent. … We’re definitely concerned about the implications of this ballot measure. It has the potential to do tremendous damage to already fragile school funding, and we’re also extremely worried about the lack of transparency built into this measure with public funds.” 

The CEA is the largest teachers union in Colorado. 

Colorado is one of 17 states without private school choice options allowing families to use taxpayer funding for private educational expenses. Twelve states with Democratic trifectas, including Colorado, do not have private school choice options. Only four states with Republican trifectas—Idaho, North Dakota, and Texas—do not have private school choice policies. 

Colorado’s 1994 Public Schools of Choice law allows students to attend any public school (including neighborhood schools, charter schools, and some online schools) for free, even if they do not live in the school district.

Measures dealing with private school choice are also on the ballot in Kentucky and Nebraska this year. 

Florida’s Amendment 1 would bring back partisan school board elections

Here’s what Amendment 1 would do: The amendment would make school board elections partisan beginning in 2026. Candidates would be nominated for the general election through partisan primaries and appear on the ballot with partisan labels, such as Democrat and Republican. 

Currently, the Florida Constitution requires school board elections to be nonpartisan, meaning that partisan labels do not appear on the ballot next to a candidate’s name.

School board elections in Florida were partisan until 1998, when voters approved Amendment 11 64% to 36%.

Florida is one of 41 states that hold nonpartisan school board elections. If Floridians approve Amendment 1, the state would join Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, which hold partisan school board elections. 

In Rhode Island, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, the law allows for partisan or nonpartisan school board elections depending on the district.

Here’s what Amendment 1 supporters are saying: State Rep. Spencer Roach (R), who sponsored the amendment, said, “This is not about, at least for me, advancing the cause of one political party over another. But for me it’s about transparency, and I simply believe that we have an obligation to give voters as much information about a candidate as possible, and let them make a decision about vetting a candidate.”

Here’s what opponents of Amendment 1 are saying: Alachua County Public Schools Board Chair Tina Certain said, “It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is, and I think everyone should get to vote and have a voice on a candidate, not just based on your political registration during the time of the election. We’re seeing more politicization in education because of the governor of Florida’s actions. That is not rising up from local communities. It’s coming down from Tallahassee, from the governor, down.”

Massachusetts’ Question 2 would eliminate a standardized testing requirement for graduating high school

Here’s what Question 2 would do. Question 2 would repeal the requirement that students achieve a certain competency level on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam in 10th grade to graduate high school.

  • The initiative would require that students participate in the assessment program without achieving a certain competency level and complete all local or district graduation requirements (such as number of class credits, satisfactory grades, and regular attendance). 
  • If a student did not meet the minimum MCAS competency requirements in tenth grade, the proposed law would require them to retake the assessment in the 11th or 12th grade. 
  • The initiative would also allow former students who failed the MCAS and were prohibited from graduating to request a diploma if they fulfilled all other local or district requirements.

Massachusetts lawmakers passed the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) in 1993, creating the MCAS. The state began requiring students to score at a certain level to graduate in 2003. 

Here’s what proponents of Question 2 are saying: Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) President Max Page said, “Massachusetts residents are ready to join the vast majority of states that have scrapped the use of standardized tests as a graduation requirement and instead use authentic, educator-designed assessments of student skills. The MCAS will still be taken, as is required by federal law, but it will be used for diagnostic purposes, and not as a high-stakes test required for earning a diploma.” 

The MTA is the largest teachers union in the state. It launched the Yes on 2 campaign. 

Here’s what opponents of Question 2 are saying: Revere High School world history and psychology teacher James Conway said, “The MCAS test forces all of us to take ownership of passing these kids and making sure that they can get ahead. It lets employers know, colleges know, that these kids have a high school diploma that’s actually worth something.”

Eight states required students to pass a statewide assessment to graduate high school in 2023, according to Fair Test: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an organization that opposes standardized testing requirements. Those states are Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. 

Twenty-six states have other assessments, such as a civics assessment, ACT/SAT, college and career readiness assessment, and/or end-of-course exams for certain subjects, required to graduate high school. In 16 states, there are no statewide assessment requirements to graduate.

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

As we approach Election Day, we’re featuring survey responses from school board races in which all candidates have completed Candidate Connection. We previously featured responses from candidates running in general elections for Granite School District Precinct II, in Utah, and Poway Unified Board of Education Trustee Area A, in California. 

Today, let’s look at the general election for Indianapolis Public Schools school board District 1, in Indiana. Alan Schof, who has worked as a writer and editor, and Ashley Thomas, who founded and manages a consulting firm, are running. 

Here’s how Schof answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”

“I am passionate about ensuring safe, nurturing school environments for all children in Indianapolis. I am passionate about bringing calm to kids and communities after an onslaught by corrupt outside forces that have been disruptive to our public school district. The number one issue in the past 12 years that I’ve been involved is unnecessary disruption to thousands and thousands of children and families. The rationales for doing this do not stand the test of time. We need a five-year moratorium on Charter schools in Indianapolis while the Rebuilding Stronger plan settles and we can evaluate effectiveness of its equity mission. Perhaps my most notable passion is that I am a strong advocate for arts education for every K-12 child.”

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

Here’s how Thomas answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”

“I am committed to our city and the future of our students, and will work tirelessly as a Commissioner to improve:

– Early and adolescent literacy and what families can do at home to support their readers

– Bus, pedestrian and cyclist safety, especially for students as they make their way to school.

– Student experience and academic quality within the district’s large traditional high schools.

– Parent access to and knowledge of district policies by building the Parent Policy Network, which will connect families with the latest IPS efforts to improve and fund local education so they can share information within their own communities to support our schools.”

Click here to read the rest of Thomas’ 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!

Other school board races with 100% survey completion this week include the general election for Indianapolis Public Schools school board District 1, in Indiana.

In the 2022 election cycle, 6,087 candidates completed the survey. 
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.