More States Consider Partisan School Board Races As Education Debates

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 10:43 AM

more states consider partisan school board races as education debates

As education issues play a more prominent role in political debates, some state lawmakers have joined a new push to make school board elections partisan. Bills proposed in six states this spring would require or allow local school board candidates to declare a party affiliation on the ballot. Forty-one states currently require nonpartisan local school board races, the product of historical efforts to separate education governance from divisive politics. Supporters of such efforts say party labels would give voters one more piece of useful information about candidates and improve voter participation in races that have typically received less attention than those higher on... “You’ll have counties in southwest Florida that voted for me by like 40 points, and yet they’re electing people to school board who are totally the opposite philosophy,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said in January as he announced his education priorities.

“We want transparency. We want people to do what they think is best in educating voters to the maximum degree.” Welcome to the Monday, May 5, 2025, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: One state has enacted legislation codifying the nonpartisan election of school board members, and one governor has vetoed a bill that would have required partisan labels on school board election ballots so far in... Today, as part of our continuing coverage of school board elections and education policy, we'll look at the landscape of partisanship in school board elections and where lawmakers are considering changes.

On April 10, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed HB1724, which adds school board members to the list of offices elected in nonpartisan elections. School board elections in Arkansas were already nonpartisan, but the bill also made changes to school board election dates, among other things. In more than 90% of U.S. public school districts, school board elections are nonpartisan and have been for centuries. But that long tradition may well be changing – and putting at risk the quality of the country’s education system by introducing divisive national political issues into the process by which a local community...

At present, nine states have passed legislation that enables school board races to be partisan. Four states provide for board elections that have partisan affiliations listed on the ballot; another five states permit districts to choose nonpartisan or partisan races. Bills introduced in six states in 2023 would require or permit school board candidates to declare party affiliations on the ballot. In 2024, lawmakers in Iowa, New Hampshire and Arizona introduced similar bills. Neither Iowa’s nor New Hampshire’s bill has yet been voted on, and Arizona’s bill was vetoed by the governor. Floridians will decide on partisan school board elections at the ballot box in November 2024.

The sponsor of the 2023 bill in Ohio, which has not yet passed, said partisan elections provide voters with better “information about candidate platforms.” As a former school board member in Ohio and a scholar of educational leadership, I see this shift having the potential to disrupt the important work of nonpartisan school boards in communities across the... Professor of Educational Leadership, Miami University Kathleen Knight Abowitz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic... Miami University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US. In more than 90% of U.S.

public school districts, school board elections are nonpartisan and have been for centuries. But that long tradition may well be changing – and putting at risk the quality of the country’s education system by introducing divisive national political issues into the process by which a local community... At present, nine states have passed legislation that enables school board races to be partisan. Four states provide for board elections that have partisan affiliations listed on the ballot; another five states permit districts to choose nonpartisan or partisan races. Bills introduced in six states in 2023 would require or permit school board candidates to declare party affiliations on the ballot. June 3 (UPI) -- In more than 90% of U.S.

public school districts, school board elections are nonpartisan and have been for centuries. But that long tradition may well be changing -- and putting at risk the quality of the country's education system by introducing divisive national political issues into the process by which a local community... At present, nine states have passed legislation that enables school board races to be partisan. Four states provide for board elections that have partisan affiliations listed on the ballot; another five states permit districts to choose nonpartisan or partisan races. Bills introduced in six states in 2023 would require or permit school board candidates to declare party affiliations on the ballot. In 2024, lawmakers in Iowa, New Hampshire and Arizona introduced similar bills.

Neither Iowa's nor New Hampshire's bill has yet been voted on, and Arizona's bill was vetoed by the governor. Floridians will decide on partisan school board elections at the ballot box in November 2024. The sponsor of the 2023 bill in Ohio, which has not yet passed, said partisan elections provide voters with better "information about candidate platforms." As a former school board member in Ohio and a scholar of educational leadership, I see this shift having the potential to disrupt the important work of nonpartisan school boards in communities across the... by Cameron Arnzen, Brown University, Rebecca Jacobsen, Michigan State University However, political actors and wealthy donors increasingly turn their gaze toward local elections to supplement their national efforts.

This has been true for public education where once nearly invisible elections are attracting widespread attention. Despite this growing interest, it remains unclear how local school board elections are being shaped by tides of nationalization and polarization. As of 2022, there were 90,837 substate governments, 15% (13,318) of which are school boards, according to the U.S. Census. Our ongoing research provides insights to these numerous, yet understudied, elections. Here we focus on how candidate party affiliation does or doesn’t shape voter decision making in an era of nationalization and partisan polarization.

Most SB elections have been nonpartisan for over a century and their status as single purpose governments buffered local education from the tides of national partisan battles. That buffer is eroding. The boundaries between national, state, and local education politics are becoming increasingly porous and now local education is also experiencing partisan polarization. Today, just 9 states allow/require school board candidates’ partisan affiliation to be printed on the ballot, but 14 considered this change in 2023. As education debates become drawn into national political battles, school board elections serve as a vital window into the intersection of local governance and national political forces. Knowing a candidate’s party affiliation can serve as a heuristic for voters—especially in low-information elections.

Alternatively, growing partisanship in education may lead to red education for some, blue education for others, and divided communities where opinions are mixed. To explore how different institutional arrangements shape voter decision making, we worked with students at Brown University and Michigan State University to conduct an exit poll of school board elections. We staffed student workers in sampled school districts in Michigan (on-cycle, nonpartisan) and Rhode Island (on-cycle, partisan). Voters at selected precincts in each school district—all of which had contested school board elections—were asked to complete a survey about their K-12 policy priorities, political identities, vote selections, and what shaped their vote... This past April, parents and residents from across my Central Pennsylvania school district gathered to protest a looming school board decision. Many of the attendees congregating in the administration center had never participated in a school board meeting before.

Yet with the future of our school district’s well-being on the line, they could not remain silent. The decision at hand was a rather routine one: the replacement of the school district’s solicitor. But the board’s newly elected conservative majority, emboldened by a secretive meeting with a controversial law firm and willing to suspend the district’s policy to take action, chose to appoint their hand-selected replacement in... In this case, the district’s new solicitor did not even possess experience in education law — the core requirement for the job. The public, and even several school board members, were kept in the dark until the decision had effectively been made. Actions such as these have become a trend across Pennsylvania, with a growing list of school districts hiring conservative firms such as the Independence Law Center for legal counsel.

Ever since that April meeting, residents from across the political spectrum have voiced their wide-ranging beliefs about the district’s policies and approaches to contentious cultural issues. Many have lost faith in the school board after this ill-advised solicitor appointment. As one parent expressed, “If you don’t have trust, how can you know your kids are going to be safe?” Through this abrupt change, the new board majority had already burned bridges and sowed distrust just months into their tenure. Still, many of the conservative residents who elected them remain dissatisfied, continuing to echo certain national conservative groups’ disdain for inclusive school policies: most recently, changes to Title IX that prevent discrimination on the... As the presidential election heats up heading into the fall, experts say local school board races are becoming more politicized and partisan, eliciting various responses from states and districts.

In Indiana, for example, a district ruled that a school board candidate who wanted to appear on the ballot with a Trump-themed nickname is disqualified. In Florida, however, voters are faced with an amendment that, if passed, would allow school board candidates to appear on the ballot with their party affiliation. Julie Marsh, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, said that in recent years, school board elections have seen higher spending and are “more politicized…more partisan, more nationally oriented, more contested.” Marsh said that in 2023, high-profile politicians in 31 states issued endorsements for school board members. “Parties are seeing the strategic value of boards in terms of building a base and advancing their agenda,” said Marsh. “It’s [the Florida amendment] clearly coming from the Republican Party in Florida, and DeSantis has pushed for this amendment.”

More States Consider Partisan School Board Races As Education Debates

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