Check out my post today at WHYY’s Newsworks
July 12, 2012Sunday Leftovers
July 15, 2012Will November Elections Make School Board Seats More Competitive?
Not so much, according to today’s NJ Spotlight. In fact, fewer candidates are filing for spots on boards that chose to move elections to November. (Currently, there are 70 hold-outs for April out of 541 districts that hold elections.) This belies a fear among some school boards that November elections might provoke more intense rivalry and partisanship than April ones.
Frank Beluscio of NJ School Boards Association says that a proposed change in the filing date — which would move it to early September — could encourage more aspiring board members to participate in elections.
1 Comment
“This belies a fear among some school boards that November elections might provoke more intense rivalry and partisanship than April ones.”
?????
The real fear is that November school board slates will be captured by local partisan organizations. This is not a function of the number of candidates on a ballot.
Let's not kid ourselves as to why most Boards jumped to November: they and their administrators wanted the assurance of annual 2% increases in the property tax levy free of required voter approval.
A Faustian bargain, to be sure.