School board reform has added urgency
Legislation that would require candidates for local school boards to disclose their campaign donors is being touted as a way to reduce corruption — and that’s true. If voters know who is funding campaigns, they will sit up and take notice when donor X receives the plum T-shirt contract to provide practice jerseys for the basketball team. Transparency supports good government.
But in these days, when national groups are infiltrating local school board elections, there is another and more immediate reason to want to know who is funding candidates.
Across the nation, groups such as Moms for Liberty and the 1776 Project are putting dollars and volunteer efforts into taking over school boards. In the November election, about half of the 270 candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty won, with a third of the 1776 group’s choices winning. And these groups, many made up of farright Christian nationalists, aren’t going anywhere. Moms for Liberty, in fact, has operated in Albuquerque.
In a state like New Mexico, with lax reporting requirements in school board contests, a well-funded group conceivably could come in and finance winners, with voters in the dark about candidates’ true motivation. That often doesn’t surface until after board members are sworn in.
Such concerns are not the primary reason why nonprofit Think New Mexico has focused efforts this legislative session on reforms to school board operations. But the role of dark money is something to keep in mind during discussions on school board governance.
House Bill 325 would increase the training, accountability and transparency of local school boards. If enacted, the legislation would enhance school board members’ training — both traditional public and charter boards — to focus on how they can help improve academic performance and support a superintendent. Meetings would have to be webcast and archived, too, improving transparency and allowing citizens to see how the boards operate.
An essential component of the legislation would take effect before elections by requiring all school board candidates to disclose campaign contributions. Currently, only those school board members in districts larger than 12,000 students must be transparent. That’s only a handful of the 89 districts in New Mexico; Santa Fe just dipped below that number, meaning the vast majority of school board candidates can keep the source of donations confidential.
The legislation also would require school board members who violate prohibitions against nepotism to step down. Only the smallest districts, with enrollments under 500 students, could apply for a waiver from nepotism rules for qualified candidates.
The legislation, introduced by Reps. Natalie Figueroa, D-Albuquerque, and Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, will receive its first hearing Saturday in the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee.
School board elections too often fly below the radar. They are low-turnout elections with far too many citizens simply ignoring them. With elections for New Mexico school boards now moved to November, turnout is improving, but more people showing up to vote isn’t necessarily better unless they are paying attention.
Knowing which interests are funding candidates is an important piece of information in deciding a vote. School board elections are nonpartisan, whether held in blue Santa Fe or deep-red Clovis. That doesn’t mean candidates don’t run to put in place certain agendas.
Those can be benign — save art and music offerings for all children. They can be more controversial — bring in a new athletic director to oversee sports. Or, as is happening in other parts of the country, school board candidates can run to take over schools with an extremist agenda in mind. Even such white supremacist groups as the Proud Boys have focused on school boards in recent months.
The more voters know about candidates, the less likely it is our schools will become another place to fight culture wars. This reform legislation will improve how school boards operate with improved training and transparency requirements. On top of that, transparency before an election will make sure candidates for school board are running with the best interests of children — not their donors — in mind.