Can you name any government offices that were once non-partisan, but have improved due to competition between political parties?
Yeah, I can’t either.
And it’s hard to imagine how injecting partisanship into the most important and expensive thing state government does: public education, would be good for children or voters. But the top referendum on Florida’s Nov. 5 ballot proposes making school board elections partisan.
Republicans, who run Congress, approved asking voters to pass what will appear on the ballot as the First Amendment. The Republican decision last year coincided with a backlash from parents in several counties where normally low-key school board meetings had turned into long, bitter arguments over the removal of library books and materials. Ban discussion of some sexual topics in the classroom.
Although some of the content was quite graphic, especially for elementary school students, Gov. Ron DeSantis was happy to seize on the culture wars as an element of his ill-fated presidential campaign.
School board candidates used to run as Democrats or Republicans, but more than 2 million voters supported a 1998 constitutional amendment that made elections nonpartisan. This change did not result in significant improvements in student performance in reading or math, nor did it attract high-ranking apolitical education experts to the school board, nor did it cause school taxes to go up or down. , did no harm. Either.
There is nothing to prevent school board candidates from telling voters their party affiliation. Their voter registration is public record anyway, and anyone whose vote was swayed by an “R” or “D” next to a politician’s name will question that person in public. You can.
But labeling a team with a political party invites unnecessary forms of team loyalty that have no place in something as important as education. If you want to vote for something irrelevant, like supporting every Gator on the ballot, that’s your prerogative, but it cheapens the outcome.
And if you pay attention to local elections, you can tell which candidates are liberal or conservative. It is not necessary to identify each party.
The immediate effect of having school board members run in primaries along partisan lines would be to disenfranchise approximately 30% of registered independent voters. As it is commonly known, these NPAs pay property taxes to send children to school and support their education, but since Florida has closed its primaries, most people This means that they will be excluded from the important first round, which will essentially determine the species.
Making these races partisan means making them as thorny as the top polling races, such as gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. With a few exceptions, far-right Republicans will win primaries by appealing to the “Freedom Moms” crowd and other culture warriors, while Democrats, likely with support from teachers’ unions, will win primaries. The party will nominate the most left-wing candidate.
Temperance and compromise will become fond memories. The school board will be split, with Republicans using their traditional fundraising advantage to control the agenda. Democrats may take control in some counties.
In other words, your county school board will start to look like the Florida Legislature, or worse, the Legislature, with members who care about winning first and getting things done second. It turns out.
When faced with a complex and costly education problem, do you want school board members to ask themselves, “How will this improve learning?” Or should I be worried that if I vote for this, the party executive committee will hate me?
In Washington and Tallahassee, this is called “primary participation.” If you stray from the Democratic or Republican establishment once or twice, the party will likely fund a candidate to challenge you in the next primary. If you show that you are prioritizing official duties over partying, it may be time to change teams. Punishment is swift and severe.
Some members of Congress still say, “If it ain’t broke, there’s no need to fix it.” School board elections are working well and do not need to be fixed.
Bill Cotterell is a former Capitol Hill reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him at wrcott43@aol.com.
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