BY: Michael DiMatteo 

I’ll never forget my first summer camp at a public school. I’d been teaching for three years at a  Catholic high school as I couldn’t get my foot in the door at a public one. I was a rookie, fresh out  of college, and in those days, public schools rarely hired people fresh out of college, preferring at  least a few years of experience before handing over a classroom.  

When I did get that first public school position in 1990, my fourth year as a teacher, I got a  significant raise—$36,000 a year, up from $16,600. I thought I won the lottery, the historian in  me unable to resist a trip to an art gallery to accrue a blue-chip piece of art, a piece I still have.  

That first summer, I was on the football field coaching freshmen football and two people walked  onto the field. I had no idea who they were—why would I? I was the new hire, the school year  had not even started, and I was coaching football, as green as I could be.  

“Hey Coach,” I said to one of the older assistant coaches, a man who’d been at the school for a  number of years, “why are those guys on the field during practice? Do I need to go over there  and ask them to leave?”  

“Sure,” he said, smiling one of those what-are-you-crazy smiles. “Do that, if you want to lose your  job.”  

“What?” I said, having no idea why he said that.  

“Those are two school board members,” he said, “and they’re the most powerful ones on the  board.”  

“So?”  

My “so” was stated out of complete ignorance. Catholic schools, at least the one I worked at,  didn’t have a school board, so I had no idea what one was, nor what its, or their, job entailed.  

“So, they can do whatever the hell they want, and go wherever they want. We all try to stay as far  away from them as we can.”  

That’s all it took for me—I said nothing and tried to avoid them at every turn.  

A few years later, in 1996, I was at another school, teaching history and political science and  coaching football. At that school, the board members were not only accessible, they were—nice.  Really nice. In fact, I had two board members’ kids in my class and had no issues at all. I  addressed the school board twice about a policy—that’s how cooperative they were, and I loved  the place.  

Two different places, two completely different experiences.  

Then, a third place (I’d taught and coached at seven different schools in my career). The board  fought the superintendent, fought the teachers, and generally fought for control of just about  everything. During my six-year tenure there, the school had 3 principals, two athletic directors,  and 3 different department chairs for Social Studies. Oh, and 3 superintendents. There were a  host of other problems as well, with board members at war with each other.  

Talk about dysfunction. At that time, that particular school was a mess. 

Why Tell Me That?  

Because…it’s one of the biggest problems in American education that few talk about. Yes, there  was some discussion during COVID—with forced school closures and remote “learning,” and  even with the so-called book bans, where some people openly read passages to school board  members in an attempt to show the graphic nature of some LGBTQ books available to grade  school children (and subsequently told the excerpts were “too graphic” for an open board  meeting), but those instances were rare.  

 Now, more than ever, school boards need to be examined, and people need to be involved. Why?  Test scores are decreasing, teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and parents are  becoming disillusioned with the current state of public education as home schooling is taking off  more and more.  

For some, school board membership has also been a place where locals who wish to either begin  a career in politics or make a name for themselves locally get elected. They hold a position of  some weight in the community and take advantage of that, often for personal gain, to foster a  political agenda, or to become an activist in some form, the true job of a school board member  falling by the wayside.  

It’s interesting to note that elections for school board are often ill-attended as well, most  community members finding local elections not worth the trouble of leaving the house. Typically,  a local election has low turnout—some 5%-10% of eligible voters finding it important to get  involved. In a recent New Jersey school board election, the turnout was between 3%-4%. There  are a lot of reasons for this—off-year election cycles, minimal media attention among the most  prominent—but the fact remains turnout is low.  

This plays into the hands of those most active—we’ll call them activists—as they’re able to  mobilize their supporters, often under the radar, to get elected.  

Theoretically, school board members are to be nonpartisan—some 90% of public schools  nationwide have school board elections that are officially nonpartisan, but this is changing as  groups like Run for Something are actively supporting progressive candidates, or other groups like  Moms for Liberty, a conservative group, endorsed 166 school board candidates, with 54 getting  elected in 2023.  

The fact is school boards are becoming a battleground, with conservative groups mobilizing more  and more to challenge progressives in this arena.  

What is the Function of a School Board?  Let’s begin with what is not a function of a school board.  

It is not:  

• To exact revenge on teachers  
• To create or foster identity politics  
• To have political leanings one way or the other  
• To endorse racial, ethnic, or gender ideology 
• To not micromanage the school(s)  

What it is supposed to do are two things:  

• Hire a competent Superintendent  
• Develop and enforce policy and maintain/improve facilities  

Here’s the sticking point: Policy.  

Policy seems to be contingent on a few things, most notably where the school is located. If it’s  located in a city that leans liberal, policies will be more liberal, and the reverse is true as well.  Having said that, there should be one overriding question—does the policy help kids or is it  fostering some political agenda?  

Historically, American public schools have been governed locally, with school boards reflecting  the values of their communities. While this remains largely true today, the creation of the U.S.  Department of Education in 1979 introduced greater federal involvement in educational policy,  funding, and oversight. While intended to promote equity and national standards, some critics  argue that this shift diluted local control and opened the door to broader social or political issues  being addressed through the school system.  

In addition, school boards, as mentioned, are often launching pads for those interested in a  political career, or voice, not doing what’s best for the students in the district. Often, students are  the last ones on the radar of overzealous, often-activated school board members. The result is  policy not guided or grounded in sound educational policy, but policy reflective of the latest  political trends, trends often at odds with sound educational policy.  

Adopting literacy standards based on empirical, proven research is policy. Replacing classic  literature to align with the latest political trend is politics.  

Little of this is good for students and their development, creating a disjointed educational process  that often leads to educational outcomes that are less than what students deserve. I’ve seen school  boards devolve into little more than political factions fighting with each other, and creating  nothing but division and dysfunction in the school(s) it is supposed to serve, as well as the  community at large—the district’s students left by the wayside.  

One other problem…  

Many board members are put on school boards with little experience in business, athletics, or  some of the other necessary skills needed to run a school. While many bring necessary voices,  school boards also need people with experience relevant to school operations, be it business for  sound financial oversight, or even athletics to ensure extracurricular needs are considered. Often,  school boards are saddled with people who have none of those qualifications, and, therefore,  decisions made are often not the best ones for the school or students.  

What Can Be Done?  

As teachers…little. Board meetings can be attended and one’s voice can be heard, but in many  cases, at the great risk of losing one’s job. As a result, most teachers, unless they’re leaving the 

position, simply won’t get involved in board issues—and that’s the right thing to do. It is not a  teacher’s job to be involved in board matters—that’s for the union (if there is one) and possibly  the Principal or Assistant Principal as advocates for their building and teachers. A teacher’s job is  to teach as best we can under the circumstances created by the board and Superintendent.  

That means, as many things do in the democratic process, holding a board accountable for their  actions, or inaction, is up to the voters themselves. It is one of the most significant things a  community member can do—vote in school board elections, but vote ensuring the elected  members are focused on students, not their political leanings or their personal agendas. They  hired a Superintendent—support that person as well—or remove him/her if they are not doing  what they were hired to do. It’s a simple job that’s made not-so-simple as apathy among  community members often trumps having solid-performing schools.  

That’s why the democratic process is so hard for some—it demands involvement even though the involvement is minimal.  

As actor Michael Douglas said in the film The American President, “Democracy is advanced citizenship.”