Moving School Board Elections

It seems common sense is about to prevail in New Jersey which in itself is a significant step forward. The State Assembly on Monday approved a bill which would move school board elections from April to the general election date in November. The idea is to increase voter participation from the average 15% who now chose members of local school boards and also save money by getting rid of a costly spring Election Day. Not only that but what might be the most meaningful part of the Assembly measure is that people will no longer vote on their local school budgets unless their district is looking to exceed spending and taxing caps.

As it stands now when a school budget is defeated in April the district and towns look to see what can be cut and often by the time the budget is officially adopted it’s not much different from the one voters rejected. Under this new proposal as long as the budget stays within caps than there is nothing to vote on but if a district asks for voter support to exceed those limits then they’ll have to live by the will of the voters. As I’ve said before the school budget is the only expense we get to vote on and I believe many vote “no” just because they have the ability to do so. School Districts that are prudent in their spending should not have to ask for permission from an apathetic voting public that is looking to do anything to cut their tax dollar.
We don’t get to say how our money is spent in our local town, Trenton or Washington so why should the school budget be the lone scapegoat from an unhappy public.

While it’s often and unpaid and thankless job serving on a school board is an important position and by moving the election to November more of the voting public will no doubt have a say in the process. Yes there is some downside as it will make for a lot of election choices in some years and it could bring partisan politics into the educational mix but the truth is that’s always existed to some extent. The positive appears to far outweigh the negative and now it’s up to the State Senate to approve the bill which they are expected to do. Once that happens New Jersey will have taken a step in the right direction