DO SCHOOL BOARDS STILL MATTER?

Paula Simons says yes; public trustee candidates state their cases

Here we go.

This is the requisite column, the sort that columnists write before an election, exhorting you to vote.

Please. Don’t stop reading. I know, it’s been a dull campaign. Don Iveson, the incumbent mayor, faces no serious challengers, even though 12 people are officially running against him. There are only three city council seats without incumbents and with wide open races.

And, with a record number of candidates, it’s hard to keep track, much less make an informed decision.

Then, there are the school board races, which traditionally “enjoy” even lower voter participation. Lots of people, especially if they don’t have children in the school system, just leave their trustee ballots blank.

During the last municipal election, in 2013, we had a hot and exciting race for mayor. Voter turnout was still only 34.5 per cent.

Dismal as that was, participation in school board races was even lower. About 55,600 of those who cast ballots in the civic election failed to vote for a school trustee.

The Catholic school board election had the lowest participation rate. In most wards, fewer than 10 per cent of eligible Catholic electors voted for a trustee.

The highest turnout was 11.8 per cent in Ward 72. In Ward 75, which had the most dismal participation rate, only 7.8 per cent of eligible Catholic voters bothered to cast a ballot for a trustee.

The public board races had better engagement, with between 25 per cent and 30 per cent participation in most wards.

But Ward B lagged, with just 18 per cent voter turnout.

It doesn’t help, of course, that the ward boundaries for the school board races don’t match the city council ward boundaries. I live in city council Ward 6, but I live in public school district Ward C, and Catholic school district Ward 75. Small wonder people get confused.

On top of that, the two large boards have both redrawn their ward boundaries since the last election. I only realized last month that I now live in a completely different ward than I did in the last election, even though I didn’t move. If you’re in the same position, you may not have the incumbent trustee you did in 2013.

Yet I challenge you: Let this be the year you vote for a trustee, even if you don’t usually bother.

Voter turnout overall will likely be lower than the last election. In school board elections, that means a tiny group of committed activists could get their candidate elected. If you don’t vote, it’s possible that someone with very different values than you will effectively end up casting a vote for you. That could mean candidates you might consider fringe or extreme could actually get elected.

School trustees don’t have the power they did before then-premier Ralph Klein stripped school boards of most of their taxing powers. They can’t set mill rates, nor do they have much control over the curriculum, which is set provincially.

They’ve even lost their bargaining power since the province has negotiated provincewide contracts with powerful education unions. But school board elections still matter.

Collectively, the public and Catholic trustees manage budgets totalling $1.7 billion. That’s almost as much as the City of Edmonton’s own budget.

Trustees decide which schools to close, which schools to amalgamate, which new school sites should take priority. They decide which special programs of choice to offer, and where those programs should be based. Such decisions affect everything from property values to transit routes to infill development. Even if you don’t have school-aged kids, board decisions have major, substantive impacts on your life.

This year’s school board races are actually some of the most exciting ones this election cycle, with huge differences in ideology and philosophy. Both boards are on the front lines of the culture wars, including those who pit religious freedoms and values against the human rights of LGBTQ students and teachers.

The Catholic board was deeply dysfunctional this past term, feuding over issues that included gay-straight alliances, unisex bathrooms, the power of the bishop and the covert erasure of embarrassing trustee comments caught on tape.

The public board showed more civility, but started to unravel as its term ended in its own fight over gay-straight alliances and transgender rights. If you want two functional school boards, with trustees who share your values, voting would be a good start.

A community of well-educated, well-adjusted kids is a universal social good. Maybe you’ll never have children. Maybe your children have graduated. Schools still belong to us all.

If you don’t want someone to vote for you, vote for yourself. It’s your right.

And your responsibility.