Hall Pass - May 15, 2024

Welcome to Hall Pass, a newsletter written to keep you plugged into the conversations driving school board politics and governance.

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

• On the issues: The debate over new federal Title IX regulations 
• School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
• From the ballot to the blackboard: Education-related ballot measure news
• Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
• Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over new federal Title IX regulations

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

On April 19, the U.S. Department of Education announced an update to Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 that expands bans on sex-based discrimination in schools to include gender identity and sexual orientation. The regulations include requirements that schools use students’ preferred pronouns and allow students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity instead of their biological sex.

When first enacted, Title IX stated: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Since April 19, attorneys general in over 20 states—all with Republican governors—have sued the Biden administration, arguing the U.S. Department of Education exceeded its authority under the Constitution. Governors in some states, including Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), have signed orders prohibiting public school districts from enforcing the new rule, which takes effect in August. 

Teresa Manning writes that the Title IX rules will allow biological males claiming to be women to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms and play women’s sports. Manning says the rule prioritizes LGBTQ activism over the comfort and safety of young girls. She says the rule completely changes the intended meaning and effect of Title IX and exceeds the Department of Education’s authority.

The Bay Area Reporter Editorial Board writes that the Title IX expansion is necessary to protect LGBTQ students against discrimination from conservative states and school boards. The board says sex-based discrimination definitions should include protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The board also says conservative policies like sex-restricted bathrooms hurt vulnerable students.

We’ll be back next week for a deep dive into the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX update and the political response. 

Biden Admin Is Weaponizing Title IX To Promote Fringe Sexual Politics | Teresa Manning, Newsweek

“Most controversial, the redefinition of sex to include "gender identity" means that males claiming to be female and wanting to use women's locker rooms, or play on women's sports teams, can now claim that Title IX gives them that right. Ironically, women's athletics only exist in their present form, especially at the college level, because Title IX was interpreted decades ago to mandate not just equal athletic opportunity but equal funding for female sports programs. All this must now yield, however, to the yet more transgressive phenomenon of sex identity politics. Girls uncomfortable with guys watching them undress? Parents angry? Biden says: Get over it! The Biden rule represents the administrative state run amok: Activist agencies get an inch, then take a mile to make novel policy.”

New Title IX rule will help trans students | The Editorial Board, Bay Area Reporter

“Key to the new rule is the Biden administration's view that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation. This, of course, is opposed by conservatives, many of whom have continued pushing to ban LGBTQ-themed books from schools and forcing students to use facilities based on their sex assigned at birth, rather than their current identity. Conservative school board members in many parts of the country, including California, have forged ahead with policies that compel school personnel to out trans students to their parents without their consent. It is in this context that the new final rule will help LGBTQ students. … Overall the new rule should be welcomed by students and educators alike.”

Share candidate endorsements with us! 

As part of our goal to solve the ballot information problem, Ballotpedia is gathering information about school board candidate endorsements. The ballot information gap widens the further down the ballot you go, and is worst for the more than 500,000 local offices nationwide, such as school boards or special districts. Endorsements can help voters know more about their candidates and what they stand for. 

Do you know of an individual or group that has endorsed a candidate in your district? 

Click here to respond!

School board update: filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications

In 2023, Ballotpedia covered elections for over 9,000 school board seats in more than 3,000 districts across 34 states. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on the more 13,000 districts with elected school boards. 

Election results from the past week

We covered school board elections in Maryland and Nebraska on May 14. 

We covered the following elections in Maryland:

• Anne Arundel County Public Schools (seven seats up for election)
• Cecil County Public Schools (two seats up for election)
• Howard County Public Schools (five seats up for election)
• Montgomery County Public Schools (three seats up for election)
• Prince George's County Public Schools (three seats up for election) 

We covered the following election in Nebraska:

• Omaha Public Schools (five seats up for election)
• Westside Community Schools (two seats up for election)

Primaries scheduled for May 14 in Elkhorn Public Schools, Millard Public Schools, Norris School District 160, Ralston Public Schools, and the Waverly School District 145 were cancelled and candidates automatically advanced to the Nov. 5 general elections. 

Upcoming elections

Here’s a look at the school board elections we’ll cover in the next few weeks. 

May 21

On May 21, Ballotpedia will cover 488 school board primary elections in Georgia, including in Gwinnett County Public Schools, the state’s largest district. Georgia’s statewide primary date is May 21. 

Ballotpedia is covering all school board elections in Georgia this year (as well as in Michigan and Wisconsin). 

June 4

Voters within the Temecula Valley Unified School District, in California, will decide whether to recall Trustee Area 4 representative Joseph Komrosky. This will be the sixth school board recall to go to a vote this year. 

Trustee Area 2 representative Danny Gonzalez and Trustee Area 3 representative Jennifer Wiersma were also named in the notices of intent to recall. Recall supporters failed to gather enough signatures to put them on the ballot. 

The recall effort started after the board voted 3-2 against a new social studies curriculum published by the Teachers Curriculum Institute (TCI) at a board meeting on May 16, 2023. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on July 13, 2023, that the state would provide the school district with social studies books to replace the ones that were canceled with the board's vote against the curriculum. The board reviewed the textbooks again on July 18, 2023, and again voted 3-2 to reject them. After the second vote, Newsom announced that the district would be fined $1.5 million and charged an additional $1.6 million to pay for the state to ship the district new textbooks.

On July 21, 2023, the board voted 4-0 to approve the new curriculum. The vote also postponed one lesson for fourth graders pending further review. Wiersma and Komrosky voted with the other members of the board to approve the curriculum. Gonzalez was absent.

From the ballot to the blackboard: Education-related ballot measure news

The ballot measure has shaped education policy since the 19th century. In this section, we’ll bring you monthly updates on upcoming statewide education-related measures and a look back at significant or interesting historical measures. Ballotpedia's Historic Ballot Measures project aims to document nearly 200 years of direct democracy in the United States. This ongoing research effort will provide an unparalleled resource for researchers, reporters, and the voting public on how ballot measures have evolved, the issues they've covered, and the role they have played in our civic life. Our list of historical education-related measures stretches back to 1862.

We last updated you on 2024 statewide ballot measures in April. Since that time, states have certified two additional education-related measures. 

So far this year, eight education-related ballot measures are on the ballot in California, Utah, Florida, Arkansas, New Mexico, Nevada, Nebraska, and Kentucky. Additionally, we are watching 19 statewide measures that could appear on the ballot this year. 

California Require Personal Finance Course for High School Graduation Initiative qualifies for the ballot

California voters will decide on an initiative in November requiring students to complete a one-semester personal finance course. If approved, the measure would first apply to those graduating during the 2029-2030 academic year. The measure would also require a personal finance course to be offered by the 2026-2027 academic year.

Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia are the only other states that currently require a personal finance course to graduate from public high school. However, 16 states are set to require financial literacy courses over the next four years. 

The initiative's endorsers include U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D), Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond (D), State Treasurer Fiona Ma (D), and State Controller Malia Cohen (D).

Signatures for school choice initiative in Colorado due by July 25

Signatures are expected to be submitted for an initiative in Colorado to create a constitutional right to school choice. The initiative would add language to the state constitution saying that "Each K-12 child has the right to school choice," and provides for schooling options including neighborhood, charter, private, and home schools.

Michael Fields, president of the Advance Colorado Institute, filed the initiative. The Advance Colorado Institute says it was founded because “for too long, leaders have stood by while liberal special interest groups and politicians have turned Colorado into a testing ground for some of the most liberal policies and plans in the nation.”

Colorado does not allow individuals to use taxpayer funding for private educational expenses. This year, Alabama, Georgia, and Wyoming have adopted new education savings account (ESA) programs. ESA programs have been the most widely adopted school choice policies since the pandemic. 

On May 8, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed legislation expanding the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program. Private individuals and organizations fund the scholarships and receive tax credits from the state. The new law expands the maximum amount of tax credits from $50 million to $75 million and raises the income threshold for families to qualify. The law also raises the minimum starting salary for teachers and amends the state’s attendance-based funding formula to account for enrollment.

We caught you up on this year’s school choice news in the May 1 edition of this newsletter. 

From 2000 to 2023, including both odd and even-numbered years, an average of eight ballot measures related to education appeared on the ballot nationwide.

Click here to learn more about education-related ballot measures. 

Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

• ‘The backlash was the story’; an insider looks back at school culture wars coverage | The Grade
• Debate and argument can strengthen science learning | K-12 Dive
• What Would It Take to Attract Gen Z to Teaching? | EdSurge
• The Long, Steep Fall of an Online Education Giant | The Wall Street Journal
• In reversal, Virginia school board votes to restore Confederate names to 2 schools | Associated Press
• How the ‘Southlake Playbook’ brought partisan battles to America’s school boards | Chalkbeat
• Strict school zones are reinforcing inequality, new study finds | Axios
• Teachers can challenge Tennessee law limiting instruction on race, gender, and bias, judge rules | Tennessee Lookout
• Katy ISD ‘anti-transgender’ policy under federal investigation | Click 2 Houston
• Schools are More Segregated than 30 Years Ago. But How Much? | The 74

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

Today, we’re looking at survey responses from Danielle Huggins and Towanna Murphy, two of five candidates running in the Aug. 1 general election for Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 7, in Tennessee. 

Incumbent Frank Johnson, Chavez Donelson, and Jason Sharif are also running in the election but have not yet completed the survey. 

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is the largest district in Tennessee, with an estimated enrollment of around 113,000 students. 

Here’s how Huggins answered the question, “What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?”

• “World Class Education- Every child deserves the opportunity to receive a quality education that equips them with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to thrive in an ever-changing world.
• Empower our educators-Providing resources and support educators need to excel. We can foster an environment where curiosity is nurtured, diversity is celebrated, and excellence is the standard.
• Power of Community- By working collaboratively with parents, teachers, administrators, and community members, we can address the challenges facing our education system and create positive change for the benefit of all students.”

Click here to read the rest of Huggins’ responses.

Here’s how Murphy answered the question, “What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?”

• Mental Health focusing on the emotional needs of our children.
• Education Providing the proper learning materials for each children to learn and grow successfully. Implementing after schools tutoring classes to get our children back on track with reading and writing.
• School Safety A child can't learn in a hostile environment. I want our children to be safe. Having Safety in our schools will provide a Great learning experience.

Click here to read the rest of Murphy’s responses.

If you're a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey. If you're not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!

In the 2022 election cycle, 6,087 candidates completed the survey. 
The survey contains more than 30 questions, and you can choose the ones you feel will best represent your views to voters. If you complete the survey, a box with your answers will display on your Ballotpedia profile. Your responses will also appear in our sample ballot.