SB962 to move school board elections to the fall

SB962, which would move school board general elections to November, has cleared the Oklahoma House of Representatives Rules Committee and is awaiting action by the whole house.

The bill does not alter terms of office and does not make the elections partisan. The bill does not change the date for school millage elections, which will still fall on the 2nd Tuesday in February, but these elections are rare (if not non-existent) as legislation has made most mill levies permanent.

Currently, the school board filing period begins on the 1st Monday in December, with a primary election on the 2nd Tuesday in February and a general election on the 1st Tuesday in April. As I have often written, the filing period, falling right after Thanksgiving at the beginning of the run-up to Christmas, is easy to overlook, there is worse weather and less daylight available for door-to-door campaigning in the winter months, and it's easy for voters to forget the dates of the school board election when their district only has a chance to vote once every five years (in all but a few school districts). The situation is well-suited for incumbent board members to minimize turnout to those voters likely to vote their way.

Here is the schedule of school board elections proposed by SB962, as approved by the Senate and the House Rules Committee:

In odd-numbered years:

• Three-day filing period begins: April, 2nd Wednesday
• Primary election: September, 2nd Tuesday
• General election: November, 2nd Tuesday

In even-numbered years:

• Three-day filing period begins: April, 2nd Wednesday
• Primary election: August, 4th Tuesday (state/federal runoff)
• General election: November, Tuesday after 1st Monday (state/federal general)

Ray Carter's OCPA story on the bill links to an Annenberg Institute analysis of the demographics of voters in school board elections in Oklahoma, California, Illinois, and Ohio. From the study's conclusion:

America's system of deference to local school boards in making essential educational governance decisions is premised on the assumption that the objectives of voters who elect these boards will be aligned with the educational interests of public school students. Our analysis points to several reasons for doubting the validity of this assumption in many contexts. As we show, most of those who cast ballots in school board elections do not have children enrolled in local schools and these voters do not resemble the students who attend the public schools. The disconnect is especially pronounced on the dimension of race, and the gap is particularly large in majority-nonwhite districts and in places with the most worrying racial achievement gaps.

While it is beyond the scope of our research to identify the root causes of these disparities in political participation,16 we should note there is evidence suggesting that institutional reforms have the potential to narrow them considerably. For example, moving school board elections on-cycle, to coincide with higher-turnout national elections, is likely to significantly boost the political representation of households with children and increase the racial diversity of the electorate (Kogan, Lavertu and Peskowitz 2018).

The bill is on the House floor agenda for today with an amendment from Speaker McCall which would shift the filing period to the 1st Monday in April for odd-numbered years, but leave even-numbered year filing period to line up with filing period for federal and state offices. The effective date is also changed -- November 1, 2022, rather than January 1, 2023, which would bring it into effect for the next school board cycle. This also means if the bill passes the House, it will have to go back to the Senate for final approval.

This bill is a step in the right direction, but it is not the ideal end state. At the very least we ought to harmonize election dates between odd- and even-numbered years. Better yet, move all school (and municipal) elections to the fall of odd-numbered years, so that voters are in the habit of going to the polls every year in November. Odd-numbered year elections could be reserved for local offices and issues (municipal and school board), to insure that they aren't overshadowed by who's running for president or governor. Change school board terms to two years (everyone on the ballot every odd-numbered year) or four (roughly half of the members up for election every odd-numbered year). Require school and municipal ballot propositions to be held only on the November election in odd years. It may be, however, if this SB962 goes through, the value of these other reforms will be more apparent and easier for the legislature to contemplate.