Want to Fight Racism? Start With Fixing School Boards | Opinion

Elected school boards need a complete transformation if we are going to provide our nation's children with the education they deserve.

That transformation must occur in three areas: people, power and professionalization. Our students need the right people on school boards who are representative of the community they serve. Those people need to use their power to dismantle systematic barriers for students. And that power will be enhanced by the professionalization of school boards, with rigorous training, tools, and support to effect change.

This election season was a test of getting the right people elected. The overall message for school boards from the Nov. 8 midterm elections is clear: Voters are rejecting the negativity and misinformation that has engulfed school board politics. Diverse leaders who are focused on equity and who are recruited, trained, and supported are more likely to be elected.

An Ipsos poll earlier this year found that 76 percent of Americans and 77 percent of parents agreed that classrooms should be places for learning, not political battlegrounds. Extremist school board, gubernatorial, and congressional candidates who campaigned on book and curriculum bans failed in multiple states, proving what recent polling had already been telling us: parents are fed up with political attacks on public education and want their elected officials focused on keeping kids safe, supported, and academically successful.

Michigan offers a great snapshot of that point. According to the organization Red Wine & Blue, of the 172 extremist school board candidates who ran in targeted suburban counties, 129 of them (76 percent) lost. But we can't take that for granted. In Florida, about 61 percent of the conservative group Moms for Liberty's 67 endorsed candidates were victorious.

However, most parents don't lie in bed at night worried about book bans or critical race theory. They worry about whether their child's school is preparing them to live a happy and prosperous life. Unfortunately, results for students who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in spring 2022 show that parents should be worried.

Spring 2022 NAEP results show the biggest drop in math performance in fourth and eighth grades since the testing program began in 1990. In reading, about one-third of students in both grades can't read at even the "basic" achievement level—the lowest level on the test.

To address the need to dramatically improve the American education experience, we have been piloting the framework of people, power and professionalization and are seeing positive results around the country. In these midterms, we supported school board members to run for re-election on issues of improving student outcomes, environments, and experiences in equitable ways—and they were more likely to win. Across 13 races, 10 won, one lost and two are not yet called (but looking promising).

In addition, our local partners who are helping to recruit the right people as outlined above, train those people and help them get elected, have seen an 70-plus percent success rate in their elections in jurisdictions like Indianapolis (all three of their candidates won), Baton Rouge (seven of nine won), New Orleans (the one candidate won), California (the two candidates won) and Atlanta (five of their seven won).

This is inspiring because these school board leaders embody the people we need—leaders who are diverse and anti-racist. The term "anti-racism" has become politicized, but it's a simple concept that is easy to support once it's understood.

Most Americans today would consider themselves to be "not racist." However, when dealing with calcified, entrenched policies—as is the case with systemic racism in education—it's not enough to be "not racist." Individuals must actively work to change systemic and institutional racism through policies and practices. That's being anti-racist. Anti-racism is defined as "the practice of actively identifying and opposing racism."

As we laid out in our report "Empty Seats at Powerful Tables: The State of School Boards in America," we need to support newly elected board members in more meaningful and intentional ways to help them govern well. The election is only one day, but critical decisions are made on behalf of students and families the other 364 days a year. We must professionalize the role and provide the training, support, and resources school boards need to change tired, old status quo policies. And when this happens, our data above show that these leaders are more likely to run for re-election and win.

This is important to note because with the pandemic restrictions unleashed unprecedented anger and vitriol directed at local school board members. The effects of that are a big reason only 38 percent of current school board members from our report said they planned to run for re-election. In 2016, more than 70 percent of incumbents ran for re-election.

This looming "great resignation" from the boards governing America's schools presents an opportunity to recruit and train new, more diverse leaders to help push school boards to enact the policies and practices necessary to dismantle systemic racism in education. And we know when we do this, that they are more likely to be successful in their re-election campaigns and continue to tackle systemic barriers to improve student outcomes, experiences, and environments.

Ethan Ashley and Carrie Douglass are co-founders of School Board Partners, which offers an intensive two-year fellowship for elected school board members focused on antiracism and equity across America. They have worked with nearly 100 school board members from 65 districts over the past four years, having an impact on nearly 6 million students. The fellows are diverse in every sense of the word: in race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, geography, language, disability, and more. Eighty-five percent are people of color.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.