Our democracy is in trouble. If you are reading this blog post, you are most likely invested in success of our next generation and our society as a whole. I have a direct ask for you: run for school board.
There is an unprecedented increase in gerrymandering to control the outcome of elections and ensure one party rule. Voter turnout, particularly in school board, local, and non-presidential year elections is at historic lows. There are coordinated efforts at voter disenfranchisement. Elections are costly with Super PACs putting a large thumb on the scale. Incumbents win with little effort, oftentimes in uncontested races, so that elected school board members rarely match the citizenry in terms of age, gender, race, or income. The outcome is typically a school board led by people with little accountability and more extreme viewpoints than the average citizen.
This cannot change unless regular folks who know our schools, who send their children to our public schools, and who care about each child thriving raise their hands and commit to participate in the arena – win or lose. I ran in Chicago’s first school board election so I know what I am asking of you. I didn’t win, and even if I knew that outcome, I would still run. Standing up for our children matters and it changes the conversation. It increases engagement of those within your circle. It increases accountability for each person that wins the seat.
We get the government we deserve.
By extension, we get the schools we deserve. Right now the schools we have are not the ones our children need.
This is why we need you. We need you to stand in the rain at farmers markets asking your neighbors to support your candidacy. We need you to feel the ache in your feet from walking block after block to unanswered doors so you can connect with one more voter. We need you to pick up an extra box of bandaids at night to cover the papercuts you earned installing yard signs in cold ground under a lack of sleep. We need you to end each day exhausted but a bit more confident in how to realize your community’s hopes and dreams for its schools. We need you to not only run for school board but to also do the work along the way to be the board member our young people need.
If people with the necessary knowledge, skills, and community connections do not run, then those who seek self-interested and narrow agendas will secure these seats that determine our young people’s future. This makes school board elections ground zero in any effort to ensure that our representatives reflect the will and values of the majority of Americans. If you read this publication it means that you are already a part of the conversation that needs to be had about how our schools are governed. Your voice needs to be heard. It’s your turn to run for your local school board or demand your community transition to an elected board.
