We’ve increasingly begun to believe that Alamance County lawmakers should go ahead and introduce legislation to convert the Alamance-Burlington school board into a partisan election for seats every two years.
The charade of non-partisanship has become increasingly evident by the partisan caste and tenor of school board meetings and actions.
The latest evidence was provided by school board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves last week who appeared at a press conference in Raleigh in an entirely self-serving political stunt alongside state Democratic officials who lambasted the Trump administration for its pause of some funding from the education department.
Ellington-Graves allowed herself to be used a prop in a partisan anti-Trump press conference headed by Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson and the Democratic Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green.
Ellington-Graves’ appearance also offered some ex post facto justification for the insight of local Republican leaders, whose executive committee last year declined to provide an endorsement for her reelection bid in the ostensibly non-partisan race, in which she was successful nonetheless – in fact, she came in first for four open seats. (Ellington-Graves is a registered Republican, although it’s often difficult to ascertain any Republican principles in many of her positions.)
And, as is so often the case with Democrats and their allies firing off lawsuits at the Trump administration, they did so somewhat prematurely.
The Department had said it was a pause, and that pause didn’t even last a week, but not before Democrats in North Carolina and elsewhere filed unnecessary lawsuits that North Carolina taxpayers are on the hook to fund. The feds have already released $36 million of the $165 million in question, or about 22 percent.
Last week’s partisan rhetoric and actions by an ostensibly non-partisan school board chairman demonstrate why it not too surprising that over the past decade, more and more North Carolina counties have moved toward having partisan elections for school board members. Currently, in almost half of all school systems, 54 out of 116, North Carolina school boards are elected on a partisan basis.
Six of the 14 largest school systems in the state (ABSS is the 14th) – including Guilford, Forsyth, and New Hanover – have partisan school board elections.
Another potential advantage of partisan races – in addition to the greater transparency about where candidates stand on issues – is the potential for greater voter participation.
One study of 36 North Carolina counties (with 16 partisan and 20 non-partisan school boards) found many more voters in non-partisan races simply skipped voting on the race, compared to those in partisan cases.
All in all, there is absolutely no evidence that ABSS schools are improving under the current leadership and non-partisan board. We think it’s time to join others in electing school board members based on their partisan affiliations. We don’t think a partisan board could do a worse job.
