Partisan school boards aren’t good for anyone

There’s a lot of bad legislation working its way through the Arkansas Legislature this session, but perhaps the worst getting the least attention is Senate Bill 206, which if passed would make all school board elections in Arkansas partisan.

Right now in Arkansas school board elections are nonpartisan and occur separately from the general election. Over time this has helped public schools remain appropriately distanced from partisan and ideologically charged elections. If this new legislation passes, we will suddenly find ourselves in a situation where all our children are going to “Republican” schools or “Democrat” schools.

Do we want this? I don’t think we do. Some of the proposed legislation is written in such an obfuscating way as to defy adequate description in a short letter to the editor, but it’s clear from the approach the goal will be to disassemble school boards as quickly as possible (shortening current school board terms) in order to replace them with hyper-partisan school boards. It’s especially written in such a way as to gerrymander school boards in ethnically diverse neighborhoods.

Just consider all the ways this legislation is rife for abuse. School boards are the ones who hire and fire superintendents. This legislation would make all school board superintendents party members, hand-selected by whatever political party currently controls the school board. Additionally, since partisan elections are vetted by the party at their meetings, it would mean all school board candidates would have to campaign and work through their respective parties rather than maintain an appropriate level of distance from partisan politics that, by and large, do not apply directly to matters of public schools.

Since a lot of people vote a straight party ticket, this one piece of legislation if passed would scoop all public school issues up into parties that have not, by and large, had public school matters as part of their core platform.

I am calling on all our legislators to avoid turning our public schools into partisan schools. It’s not good for anyone.

CLINT SCHNEKLOTH Fayetteville