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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowLegislation under consideration in a state Senate committee would scrap Indiana’s nonpartisan school board elections and instead call on candidates to declare a party and run in primaries.
The Senate Elections Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 287, authored by Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrnesville, this week but postponed a vote on the legislation.
We encourage the committee’s chair, Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, to shelve the bill. And if there is a vote, we urge senators to vote no.
We don’t see a need to inject more politics into school boards. And apparently, we aren’t alone.
According to an Indiana Capital Chronicle, several school board members testified against the measure.
One was David Finkel, who told the committee he’s a Republican precinct committee member in Shelby County, which means he’s not opposed to politics overall. Still, according to the story, he told lawmakers he’s “never had partisan issues” come up during his 15 years serving on the Shelbyville Central Schools board. He added, “Let’s keep that rhetoric out of our school boards, and let us focus on education.”
Our favorite quote in the story is this one from Concord Community Schools board member Mike Malooley: “I just want to know: Who is looking at the state of modern American education saying, ‘You know what this thing needs? More politicians.’”
We agree. Candidates for school board can tell voters their party. They just don’t run as a representative of that party, which means they aren’t included in straight-ticket voting.
We suspect the latter is one reason some are advocating for this change. But we like the idea that voters are required to consider the races separately and without party labels.
One advantage of nonpartisan races is that the system encourages people to run who are interested in their communities and education but not necessarily politically active or especially partisan. That’s a great thing.
In fact, one of our biggest concerns about SB 287 is that it makes it much more difficult for people who are independents or third-party candidates to run.
According to the bill’s fiscal note, minor party and independent school board candidates would be required to obtain signatures equal to 2% of the number of voters who voted in the latest secretary of state election in the school district. That’s the same requirement independent and third-party candidates for the Legislature or county sheriff or city council face now. Under current law, school board candidates in all but a few counties need just 10 signatures to run.
We think making it harder for people to run is the wrong move, as is turning school board campaigns into political battlefields.
Byrne, the bill’s author, told the committee, “School board decisions are inherently political” because they deal with curriculum, parents’ rights and fiscal matters. We think that’s the wrong attitude. These decisions should be student-focused, with robust debate leading to informed decisions. Politics doesn’t need to play a part.•
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