House committee looks at moving school board elections to November

The move would increase voter turnout and save money, a conservative researcher said, while a Democratic lawmaker fears partisan politics would be injected into “hyperlocal” races.

October 7, 2024

A representative from a leading national conservative political advocacy organization testified during an October 1 interim study that aligning local school board elections with general elections in November would increase voter turnout and save money for public school districts.

Representative Chris Banning (R-Bixby) requested the study, held before the Oklahoma House Elections and Ethics Committee. During this year’s legislative session, Banning filed HB 3563, which cleared committee before failing to be heard on the House floor. The bill would have moved local school board elections from February and April of each year to June and November on even-numbered years, aligning them with state and federal election cycles. The bill would have also changed term lengths for all school board members to four years.  

Banning said he intends to file a similar bill ahead of the 2025 legislative session. “We’ll increase voter turnout, and we’ll save the schools money. That’s what this legislation does,” he told committee members. “And we’ll have an accurate representation of the community.”

The interim study’s only invited speaker was Dr. Bradley Ward, Oklahoma Deputy Director for Americans for Prosperity. Several women wearing Moms for Liberty T-shirts also sat in the gallery.

Representative Mickey Dollens (D-Oklahoma City), a member of the House Rules and Ethics Committee, said he wanted to hear different perspectives on the issue. “These are traditionally an opportunity for lawmakers to hear both sides,” Dollens said. “We didn’t get that today.”

Moving school board elections to coincide with state and federal general elections could increase partisanship in what typically are local contests, Dollens said. “I think this is a bad idea based off of how hyperlocal our school board elections are,” he said. “I see this as a bigger strategy to retain more power and control over partisan politics.”

Banning said he’s spoken with superintendents, school board members, and teachers who want to move school board elections to November so that the expenses could be repurposed for other school uses. “They need the money,” he said.

Ward told legislators that by his calculation, Oklahoma school districts would have saved about $17 million in 2023 had school board elections been held with general elections. “Under statute, school districts are responsible for reimbursing county election boards for all costs of school board elections,” he said.

What Ward did not say was whether school districts would still be held responsible for election costs even if they were held in conjunction with state and federal elections. He also did not address school bond elections, which by statute are held the second Tuesday in February of each year, except in years when presidential primary elections occur. Then, school bond elections are held on the same day as the presidential primary.

Banning’s bill did not call for moving school bond elections. He said that bond elections are “sporadic,” and that by removing the sixty-three bond elections that took place alongside school board elections in 2023, the savings would have decreased to about $15 million. During even-numbered years, the savings would decrease to $14 million because of the extra expense to print separate ballots for school elections.

The average voter turnout during April’s school board elections across Oklahoma was 6 percent, Ward said. In one race in the Western Heights school district, just sixty-seven out of 16,691 registered voters cast ballots, and in an Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education election, 350 out of 22,528 registered voters cast ballots. Such low turnout “undermines democratic representation,” Ward said.

In contrast, 17 percent of statewide voters turned out for the March 2024 presidential primary, and 69 percent of voters participated in the November 2020 presidential election.

In 2006, Texas passed legislation forcing many school districts there to hold on-cycle elections, which increased voter turnout in school board elections by an average of 16 percent, Ward said. The effect was even more dramatic when Michigan passed similar legislation in 2012.

According to Sarah Anzia, a political science professor at Stanford University, the effect of moving the school board elections of 174 Texas districts to November instead of May resulted in slightly lower teacher salaries in those districts, supporting her hypothesis that school board members were less responsive to interest groups like teacher unions when they were forced to hold on-cycle elections.  

When asked if he was concerned that moving school board elections to November would entice more extreme candidates (even though school board elections are nonpartisan), Banning said. “I think that’s up to the people to decide, not us legislators,” he said.

Oklahoma’s approximately 2,500 locally elected school board members oversee about 700,000 students and are responsible for approving curriculum and instructional materials and for hiring and evaluating district superintendents, Ward said. Common education appropriations for fiscal year 2023 were about $12.3 billion. “School board elections play a critical role in shaping the education landscape of our communities and our state,” said Ward. “School boards are essential to the success of Oklahoma schools and have a critical role in the state’s education ecosystem.”

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