KNOWLEDGE IS POWER - PARTY AFFILIATION GIVES VOTERS THE SIGNAL THEY NEED

Regrettably, thanks to leftist reformers who wanted education in the hands of “experts” instead of citizens, roughly 90 percent of school districts hold non-partisan school board elections today.24-25 Rather than removing politics from schools, this simply keeps parents and taxpayers in the dark about who they are voting for and what school policies they support. [...] Because of the reduced voter participation in non-partisan races, teachers’ unions have even more say in the outcome of elections.35 With fewer overall votes, each voter the unions steer to the polls is more meaningful to the outcome of the race. [...] Likewise, in Kentucky, counties that overwhelmingly voted for the Republican candidate for United States Senate see school policy and curriculum set by registered Democrats.37 5 KNOWLEDGE IS POWER | FEBRUARY 16, 2024 | TheFGA.org Schools in toss-up states in the Heartland are also dominated by registered Democrats because of the non-partisan nature of their school board elections. [...] This misalignment will continue so long as voters are left in the dark about the policies that school board candidates support because of the lack of party affiliation on the ballot. [...] States must take action to protect parents and taxpayers Despite these problems, and perhaps in some cases because, only four states generally allow party labels in school board elections and another five allow local authorities to decide.39 This means that the vast majority of school board members across the country are elected without the benefit of party labels.