Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #182

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 religious charter schools
  • In your district: reader responses to teacher strikes
  • School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
  • What the end of the shutdown means for the U.S. Department of Education
  • Extracurricular: education news from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: the debate over religious charter schools

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.

On Nov. 3, former U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch (D), who founded a system of English-Hebrew charter schools in Florida, submitted a letter of intent to the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board (OSCSB) to apply for authorization to establish a virtual, religious-based Jewish charter school in the state. In 2023, the OSCSB approved St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, which would have been the first religious charter school in the U.S.. Forty-seven states and D.C. authorize charter schools, all requiring them to be secular. 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 6-2 against St. Isidore in 2024, holding that public funding for religious charter schools violates state and federal laws. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a rare 4-4 decision in May 2025, leaving the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision intact. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case without an explanation. Click here for our deep dive. 

In light of Deutsch’s letter, let’s revisit the debate over religious charter schools. 

University of Notre Dame law professor Richard W. Garnett says the U.S. Supreme Court has held in recent cases that governments cannot use religion as a basis for excluding religious groups from participating in taxpayer-funded programs or initiatives generally open to secular organizations. Garnnett argues that charter schools in Oklahoma and many other states are best viewed as private contractors who work with the government to provide a public good, and that nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevents this kind of arrangement. 

American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) attorneys Heather L. Weaver and Daniel Mach say religious charter schools are incompatible with the purpose of public education, which is to provide free schooling for students from all backgrounds. Weaver and Mach say the separation of church and state ensures that individuals are free to choose their own beliefs without pressure from the government and so that the government can't manipulate religious organizations. 

Educational Pluralism Delayed | Richard W. Garnett, Law & Liberty

“To be clear: No one has suggested that Oklahoma, or any other state, is required to authorize and contract with religious charter schools. But, once a political community decides to operate a school-choice program, or any other public-benefit program for that matter, it may not discriminate against otherwise eligible beneficiaries on the basis of religion.

“The longstanding American constitutional experiment in religious freedom is not, and never has been, anti-religious. Our governments are ‘secular,’ but they need not and should not be ‘secularist’ in the sense of being hostile to religious institutions and their work and witness in the public square. To be sure, we wisely distinguish between religious and political authorities. We don’t let governors pick bishops, and we don’t let bishops set tax rates. This is what the ‘separation of church and state,’ correctly understood, means. This distinction does not preclude cooperative arrangements between authentically religious schools and governments in the service of opportunity and pluralism.”

The Oklahoma Supreme Court Rejected the Nation's First Religious Public Charter School | Heather L. Weaver and Daniel Mach, ACLU

“Church-state separation is a cornerstone of our democracy. It’s critical to preserving the right of every person to decide for themselves—without pressure from the government—which religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice. It also ensures that the government doesn’t undermine religion either by co-opting it for political purposes or rendering religious institutions dependent on the state to spread their faith. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that the separation between religion and government is particularly crucial in our public schools, which, by design, freely serve all students equally regardless of religious background or preference.

“St. Isidore is, and has always been, free to open as a private religious school that taxpayers would not be forced to support. It is not free, however, to assume the mantle of a public school—including all the associated legal and financial benefits—while flouting the Oklahoma and U.S. Constitutions. The Oklahoma Supreme Court recognized as much, explaining, ‘What St. Isidore requests from this court is beyond the fair treatment of a private religious institution receiving a generally available benefit…It is about the state’s creation and funding of a new religious institution violating the Establishment Clause.’”

In your district: reader responses to teacher strikes

We recently asked readers the following question: Should teacher strikes be allowed, restricted, or prohibited—and why?

Thank you to all who responded. Today, we're sharing a handful of those responses. We’ll return next month with another reader question. 

A community member from Pennsylvania wrote:

Teacher strikes should be allowed. Teachers work very hard and are typically not paid highly despite the profession requiring an advanced degree. Collective bargaining can help improve these conditions, which means the classroom will be improved for students whose teachers can serve them better if they don't need a second job. 

A former substitute teacher from Ohio wrote:

Ultimately, strikes are a problem because of the catty drama they cause. If a teacher breaks ranks because their money is tight, they get bullied the rest of their career. On the other side of the coin, if a substitute teacher politely declines to come in because they wish not to cross the picket line, they get ghosted. If they do come in, they're often bullied by the striking teachers and, in some cases, the students. Therefore, for all involved, strikes should be prohibited.

A school board member from New Jersey wrote:

Yes they should be allowed to strike for better wages, compensation and work environment. Teachers are the only professionals that are required to purchase the majority of their supplies themselves. They are often berated by parents and administrators for just trying to do their job which is educating children. They are often disrespected and their concerns ignored. They are often paid far less than  they should be and have to fight for every dollar that they are paid. There was once a time when teachers were valued and respected and it is past time that that was the case again. 

A school committee member from Massachusetts wrote:

If teachers really cared about educating children, then why would they blatantly deny education by holding a strike! We constantly hear about the importance of children not missing days of school, but if teachers miss days to strike, what does that tell students? There are other more adult ways of finding solutions to problems than ultimatums and demands, and tantrums. This is a lesson we constantly tell children, so why not demonstrate it!

Every strike I’ve ever seen has really been about more money regardless of how the demands are phrased. So…. Why not be realistic and talk about how and where to get more money, especially if the requests really indicate student needs? 

There is more than enough money in the USA for all kinds of luxuries, frivolities, and waste! It is time people started to make demands where the money really is and stop using kids’ education as a battering ram.

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

In 2025, Ballotpedia will cover elections for more than 30,000 school board seats. 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

Alaska voters defeated recall efforts against three Gateway Borough School District school board members — Judy Guthrie, Jordan Tabb, and Katherine Tatsuda — on Nov. 18.

The recall petitions against the three board members alleged they violated state laws and board policies related to financial expenditures and hiring requirements and did not provide proper oversight of former Superintendent Michael Robbins.

Upcoming school board elections

On Dec. 2, voters in Atlanta, Georgia, will decide three runoffs for Atlanta Public Schools school board. Four seats were up for election this year on Nov. 4. Incumbents ran for re-election in two of the four races, with one winning outright with more than 50% of the vote and the other advancing to a runoff. 

What the end of the shutdown means for the U.S. Department of Education

The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, which began Oct. 1, ended on Nov. 12 when President Donald Trump (R) signed a congressionally authorized short-term spending bill—or continuing resolution (CR)—funding the government through Jan. 30, 2026. The CR passed the U.S. Senate 60-40 and the U.S. House 222-209.

The shutdown halted many government activities that depend on annual appropriations and resulted in departments and agencies furloughing—that is, temporarily suspending without pay—hundreds of thousands of employees until Congress could restore funding. 

Roughly 87% of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2,400 employees were furloughed. During the shutdown, the Education Department stopped issuing new grants, paused civil rights investigations, and delayed implementing new federal rules and assisting states with compliance. The shutdown also interrupted federal payments for programs like Head Start, which provides family and education services for low-income children under five. 

Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who has said she is working to return education to the states, argued the shutdown revealed that the Education Department isn’t essential to the education system. On Nov. 18, she announced a plan to shift management of some federal K-12 and higher education programs and grants to other agencies. 

The short-term funding bill restores some terminated Education Department employees and prevents further layoffs—for now: On Oct. 10, more than a week into the shutdown, the Education Department fired an estimated 466 employees. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which supports students with disabilities, lost 121 of its 135 employees. Staff working in the Office for Civil Rights and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education were also fired. 

These reductions in force (RIF) actions occurred across the federal government.  

As part of the budget deal, Congress has required the Education Department to re-hire workers fired during the shutdown and barred it from dismissing additional workers through January 2026. 

The union representing Education Department employees says the continuing resolution falls short of protecting staff: Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, the Education Department employee union, said: “The continuing resolution language doesn’t do enough to protect public servants. The Trump administration has shown us repeatedly that they want to illegally dismantle our congressionally created federal agency. We have no confidence that the U.S. Education Department will follow the terms of the continuing resolution or allow the employees named in October firings to return—or even keep their jobs past January.”

The Education Department began the year with over 4,000 full-time employees. Following RIF actions over the spring, as well as voluntary retirements and resignations, the department now employs roughly 2,000 workers. 

McMahon says the shutdown shows the Education Department isn’t needed: When the U.S. Senate confirmed McMahon in April, she said she would work to carry out Trump’s goal of closing the Education Department and transferring its functions to other agencies or the states. McMahon made that case on USA Today on Nov. 16, arguing the shutdown confirmed a popular conservative argument that the Education Department isn’t a necessary component of the education system: “Students kept going to class. Teachers continued to get paid. There were no disruptions in sports seasons or bus routes.”

McMahon has also supported fewer conditions on federal education funding on the grounds that state and local education leaders know better than civil servants in D.C. about their region's unique educational challenges. Critics, however, have said states will divert funding for vulnerable students to private school choice programs. 

The Education Department spent about $268 billion in 2024. 

Roughly 60% of the Education Department’s budget is devoted to higher education, including Pell Grants and managing student loans. Much of the rest is earmarked for elementary and secondary education. The Education Department’s key K-12 programs, like Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), are established in law and distributed according to congressionally mandated formulas to state education agencies, schools, and nonprofits that support students.

On Nov. 18, the Education Department announced partnerships with other agencies to manage some federal K-12 and higher education programs and grants: McMahon said the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of State would take over programs through six interagency partnerships with the Education Department.

For example, management of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers 27 grant programs, will move to the U.S. Department of Labor. One of these programs is Title I, which sends $18 billion a year to schools with a high percentage of low-income students. The U.S. Department of the Interior will oversee several education programs that serve Native American kids and adults. 

Click here to learn more about this announcement. 

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

Today, we’re looking at responses from Kaycee Brock and Royce Mann, the two candidates running in the Dec. 2 runoff election for an at-large seat on the Atlanta Public Schools school board. Brock and Mann were the top-two vote-getting candidates in the Nov. 4 election, but neither received a majority of the vote. Brock received 39.4% to Mann’s 32.7%. Aisha Stith came in third with 27.9%. 

Here’s how Brock answered the question, “What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?”

  • “​​Literacy is one of the most important issues to focus on. Assessing where the district is in the Science of Reading implementation and determining which resources are needed is an essential first step.
  • “I believe every APS graduate should walk across the stage with a clear postsecondary pathway plan.
  • “Every family should feel like they have a high-quality school in their district. We should narrow down the cluster support to ensure each area is getting what they need to make that happen.”

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

Here’s how Mann answered the question, “What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?”

  • “Public education is under attack, and now more than ever, we need a strong first line of defense for our public schools. We need leaders at the local level who will fight back against efforts to censor our classrooms and defund our schools.
  • “Atlanta's students deserve someone on the Board of Education who understands their experiences. Our board consists of nine members, but there is currently no one on the board who was a student in our schools within the last two decades. I am running to be the youngest person ever elected to a citywide office in Atlanta because this moment requires fresh and bold leadership.
  • “Strong public schools are key to ensuring economic mobility. On the board, I will fight to prepare students for success in today's world by working to double the number of counselors in our schools, expand afterschool and job training programs, increase wraparound services, achieve universal Pre-K for all families, and provide free MARTA access for APS high schoolers.”

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

If you're a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey.