Like the other elections that took place last month, the one that decided who would serve on the Albuquerque Public Schools Board was characterized by record turnout.
A decade ago, less than 7% of eligible voters participated in Albuquerque’s local school board elections. But things changed in 2019, after New Mexico moved its local elections from February to November. This year, initial counts suggest at least a third of eligible voters helped choose the individuals charged with overseeing – and perhaps improving – the city’s schools. That’s worth celebrating, even if we don’t love the outcome of this particular election.
In a 2021 Education Next survey, 39% of American adults said they didn’t know if their local school board members were elected (nearly all are), and another 5% said they were appointed (which isn’t typical). Yet, despite Americans’ confusion, local school boards decide how the hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. devotes to K-12 education are spent, who becomes superintendent and which reading, math, science, and social studies curricula local schools use…