More people are vying to get a seat at the table when it comes to deciding how school districts educate children. TMJ4 News went in-depth on why some say politics is behind the increase in candidates who want to become a school board member in Wisconsin.
“It’s our school board and it’s important,” say Terrance Golden, a Greendale voter and parent.
Former Milwaukee School Board President Bob Peterson says he has seen a spike in the last few years.
“There were certainly issues around Covid for several years. Some school boards experience people who had very narrow political agendas coming along trying to either ban books or deal with Covid issues or undue equity initiatives,” says Peterson.
In Southeast Wisconsin, there are several school board races with at least five or more candidates running. In Greendale, there are five candidates running for two seats. And with only the school board race on the ballot in places like Greendale, voters say that alone was motivation.
“I felt I needed to vote,” says Golden.
“If you don’t for those school board members than you can’t complain about what is happening in those schools. And we know what’s important as far as what should happen in schools,” says Roxanne Carloni, Greendale voter, and former educator.
Wisconsin Association of School Boards does not track the number of candidates, just the number board members. Executive director Dan Rossmiller say since they pandemic he has seen bigger slates of school board candidates and recently a large amount of turn over especially as school boards debated Covid policies like virtual learning and masking.
“I was surprised to learn that about 40% of our members had served for 2 or fewer years on their school boards, and almost 50. I think it was 48%. Had served for less than a full term a full 3 year term on their school boards. So we've had a tremendous amount of turnover,” says Rossmiller.
Political issues have become a major factor in school board races according to Ballotpedia. In 2021, it showed only one school board race had a political conflict. In 2023 it showed 142 races with a conflict.
But Bob Peterson says seeing a high interest in school boards isn’t new especially in Milwaukee. He says when major issues develop he has seen spikes in people wanting to run.
“I have seen it ebb and flow,” says Peterson who says his political involvement in school boards started during desegregation in the 1970s and has continued. “I hope more people run for school board. I hope people realize that this is an essential part of our democracy, our public schools.”
Besides seeing an increased number of candidates running for school board, there has been a large number of recall elections for school board members as well. There have been 50 recall election in the US in the last three years with Wisconsin seeing 14 recall elections.
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