When Americans think about empowering minorities at a local political level, many think about supporting minority candidates or voting for equity-based laws. In his book Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy, Dr. Domingo Morel champions pursuing political equity from another political angle: representation on local school boards. He explores how school board participation increases the political power of minority groups, and the impact that state takeovers— state governments seizing control of school systems from local communities— have on minorities’ political influence.

School boards are political springboards for minority groups.

Studies have shown that “Local school boards have… been the entry point for black and Latino political officeholders.” As more minority figures enter the public sphere, they push for the issues that their communities face. The increased awareness and political power enable minority groups to advocate for their students and secure additional funding. Representation also ensures that the community has control over the education of its future citizens.

Racial, economic, and political divides fuel state takeovers. 

Funding for urban school districts is sourced from tax revenue from surrounding wealthier neighborhoods. Citizens living in these districts, who are often white and economically conservative, become irritated at the increase in tax rates for programs that are not beneficial. The lack of immediate visible results compounds their frustration. 

Since the Industrial Revolution, America has become increasingly focused on accountability and achieving quantifiable results from set inputs. The input-output sentiment has been applied to the US education system by using metrics such as standardized test scores to measure the marginal benefit of each tax dollar. But education encompasses many intangibles, and it takes years to see the true impact a program has on student outcomes. The unapparent effects reinforce the perception that the current school operation system is inefficient.

The trend of urban localities and racial minorities aligning with the Democratic Party heightens the divide. The increasing power of minority groups in urban communities strengthens the Democratic Party in the state. With the support of its suburban constituents, Republican governors have the incentive to stifle the growing Democratic power via a state takeover of the local school system. 

State takeovers are laws that effectively shift the power to control a school district’s operations to the state government. These movements are established on the idea that the state government will avoid nepotism and hold the school to a higher level of accountability than local control. Policies usually include replacing the current power structure with appointed leaders who are eager to initiate reforms that improve metrics measured by the input-output system. By prioritizing test results over the less-tangible political empowerment, some appointed leaders end up better representing their political party than the local community. Eighty percent of the state takeovers have happened under a Republican state administration (80), and eighty percent occurred in cities with a black and Latinx majority (158). In cases such as Newark, New Jersey, the school board was transformed into a powerless advisory position, and school advocates were forced out. 

Takeovers have mixed effects on minority representation.

In school systems where racial minorities have substantial political power, state takeovers led to a significant loss of political influence. Direct results of the takeover include the “loss of local employment, the removal of the local elected school board, and the removal of local city officials and the community from school decision-making” (137). Newark was a black-dominated community boasting strong black school board representation and a cohesive state-local regime that steadily improved its students’ outcomes. The Republican takeover delivered a heavy blow to black political power in the city; over 239 black teachers and professional support staff were laid off. Their Superintendent Marion Bolden, a beloved Newark native that facilitated substantive cooperation between the state and the school (112-113), was pushed to resign.

To mitigate the “colonizer” image, state governments staff the new school boards in a way that represents the city’s demographics. This gesture is beneficial for minorities that were not previously well represented in school boards. An example of this is Central Falls, Rhode Island, which has a majority Latinx immigrant population. The city saw an increase in Latinx representation and participation after the takeover, as well as a surge in their ability to “leverage their population’s political participation to ensure that they have influence over local policies under the state-controlled regime” (100).

The overreliance on race leads citizens to overlook other core determinants of proper representation. One example of this is Newark’s mayor during the state takeover, Cory Booker. While Booker is black, he had a significantly wealthier upbringing than his constituents and was supported by the business community. These factors prevented Booker from genuinely relating to the average Newarker, and Morel credits Booker with the increased disjointedness between the school and the local government.

Broader Solutions

1. Evaluate the composition of your local school board to see whether it represents the profile and interests of the community. Racial representation is key to increasing equity, although we see with Cory Booker that just being of the same race doesn’t always equal accurate representation. Good indicators of whether a candidate will prioritize the district’s wellbeing are their previous dedication to the community and whether they have children currently in the school system. 
2. Encourage students’ parents to become more involved with the school board. Direct parent involvement engages them in their children’s education and helps the school board better represent student interests. A great way to inspire more participation is to integrate school board meetings into the community. Some ideas include advertising it as a social function or drawing parents in with student performances. If parents lack the time or motivation to actively participate, encourage them to listen in on the board meetings as a podcast or glimpse at the board’s meeting minutes.
3. Pay attention to whether state takeover bills are occurring in your area. Take note of the current state of the school system’s power structure and programs that are at risk of being taken over. If your research concludes that a takeover would not benefit the community, write letters to your representative urging them to vote against the bill. Since takeovers also stem from increases in state powers, voting for federal power expansions could decrease the number of takeovers.
4. If a takeover has already occurred or is inevitable, show your support for officials that are dedicated to creating cohesive state-local regimes. When states are looking for appointees, they are more likely to consider a candidate with a degree of public support. As seen through Superintendent Marion Bolden’s actions, it is possible to have aligned state-local goals that benefit students despite increased state involvement.