Elected School Boards and the Dangerous Illusion of Democracy

One hundred and fifty years ago when public schools were invented, each school had its own governing board of trustees elected from its community, with each trustee known to the electors and accountable to them. And usually the system worked quite well. But then schools began to be amalgamated, with one board of trustees overseeing multiple schools, and the more schools overseen by a single board the less democratic and accountable the trustees became. Now we are in the situation described by this article about US municipal elections.

The article speaks in terms of a 20% voter turnout rate in Ohio:  in Ontario the percentage of citizens who vote for school board trustees ranges from 20% to 30%. As in Ohio, the teachers' unions take a big interest in the school board elections and encourage their members to vote for designated candidates, with the result that most Ontario school boards are dominated by educators. Thus the school boards are not at all democratic, nor do they represent the community's interests in overseeing the community's schools.

Elected school boards are an expensive way to pretend that school boards are doing the people's will.

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