"Woah, woah, woah! That’s a pretty inflammatory title, Brian! You’re telling me that CHILDREN should vote on the budget that directly impacts them more than it impacts school board members?"
I sure am, dear viewer!
Those familiar with me and my work will know that I am obsessed with school boards. This obsession stems from being involved in local Montgomery County education politics since I was a sophomore in high school, as well as just seeing the benefits of good education policy upfront. Put simply, the better our school boards and the people who serve on them are, the better our schools can be. Not only should Maryland’s school boards have a diverse array of adults on them, but they should have fully voting students as well.
Maryland is already quite unique in the United States for how much influence we give to student leaders. As of the writing of this article, two counties (Montgomery and Anne Arundel) gave their student school board member (SMOB) full or near full voting rights, while five school systems give their student member more limited voting rights (Prince George’s, Howard, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, and Harford.) For reference, this constitutes around 78% percent of all public school students in Maryland.
Anne Arundel County has had their full voting SMOB for decades, dating back to the 1970’s and 80’s. This bold experiment in giving students a direct and meaningful voice, especially as Anne Arundel did not have an elected school board at the time, truly set the path forward for student representation in Maryland. It wouldn’t be until 2016 when Montgomery County joined Anne Arundel as a county with a fully voting and thus fully impactful SMOB.
MoCo’s battle for this change in state law took years. It was blocked by both Democrats such as current Attorney General Brian Frosh and Republicans like Senator Michael Hough and took a herculean effort (and a lucky break that Brian Frosh became Attorney General in 2014). It took an important but noteworthy exemption to reach the finish line: MoCo’s SMOB would not be able to vote on negative disciplinary matters before the Board, which remains the only exception to this day. This exemption is worth the benefit of having true representation for students on the school board of the largest system in Maryland.
My perspective comes mainly from being a student active in politics in MoCo, where I got to interact with the first few fully voting SMOBs and see the impact they could have firsthand. Seeing people my age having a substantial impact on my county really blew me away and continues to amaze me to this day. One key example I give of why students are necessary leaders on school boards is MoCo’s analysis of our school boundaries, which was an incredibly controversial piece of local politics in 2019 and 2020.
Due to a student members leadership on the school board and in the community, MoCo began to study school boundaries that had not been holistically examined since the 1980’s. This kicked off a nasty and controversial battle that I have described in previous postings, but it was necessary, and it would not have happened without a student examining the structural inequalities in her school system and making a push for change. The adult members probably didn’t even process that school assignment boundaries within our massive county had rarely been examined, let alone changed over a period of many decades. A student did, and we’re better off for knowing more about our county and for having difficult conversations about if our “progressive” school system truly is equitable for all students.
While each school system governs the selection of their SMOB differently, MoCo holds a very organized election with all students in grades 6-12 being eligible. As someone who was a co-chair of the elections committee in charge, I might be biased in saying that this process is AWESOME. In normal years, over 80,000 students end up voting between two candidates to serve on the school board. This process, while not universal and perfect, can provide a fantastic civic engagement opportunity for students. Literally having students engage in meaningful elections can gear them towards greater civic engagement immediately after they graduate high school. I know that I benefited from seeing (and running) a yearly election process! The students who end up representing their peers on school boards also gain a plethora of civic experience, both by being responsible for voting on various issues in front of the board and by serving in critical roles such as a board officer or the chairperson of committees.
This unique representation of student voices is granted through the Maryland General Assembly, which is responsible for organizing the various county-based school districts across the state. Thus, state laws must be passed to change the composition of school boards and create a SMOB position. The process usually includes a particular counties delegation to the MGA voting in favor of a “local bill” that only impacts the composition of their school board. Through a process called “local courtesy” (where members from other counties do not usually interfere with a “local bill”), these bills are usually limited to internal debate within a county. This is how MoCo was able to create a fully voting SMOB, with all of the aforementioned hiccups and compromises.
While the local courtesy for a county to request more extensive voting rights for their SMOBs is often respected, this is not always the case. There are two instances where the student voice comes under attack: from people inside the legislature itself and from members of the community hostile to the actions of a student representative.
The first is predictable. Of course some legislators may question why a student should get a full vote on their school board! It’s a unique concept that requires people to center the needs and views of students as opposed to parents, which goes against many people’s concept of schooling. Regardless, it’s still frustrating to see that the idea of giving a student a single vote on Maryland school boards is still controversial. This includes debates happening in 2021, with bills to both expand SMOB voting rights and to severely limit it.
The first bill is from my beloved home county of Charles, where the SMOB has no voting rights and is severely restricted in how they can interact with the school board. HB1060/SB749 are local cross-filed (filed in both chambers that are identical upon introduction) Charles County bills meant to reshape the entire school board and how they are elected, including by instituting a new system of district-based and at-large representation, making adult school board members be a minimum age of 21 to serve, and instituting a two-term limit on service. While mostly intended to reshape the local school boards adult composition, the bill also gives a vote to the SMOB for the first time. Though severely limited, it is still a major victory for a student to be able to vote on anything at the board table and to be treated as a true representative of the student voice.
While expected to successfully be signed into law due to it being a local bill and having passed the Senate and House, there was still notable opposition to this bill due to the inclusion of the student board member having voting rights. I thought it was worth pointing out that a floor debate took place on this issue, where neither the floor leader of the bill (Democratic Delegate C.T Wilson) nor the Republican opposition (including Delegates Mark Fisher and Matthew Morgan) knew the specific details of the student member provision. Morgan rose to decry the bill, comparing ethical conflicts with General Assembly members to a student voting on their schools budget.
Not only is it extremely awesome that some SMOBs in Maryland get to vote on their budgets, but he was just wrong! The bill literally does not allow the SMOB to vote on the budget, yet this Delegate failed to read the fine print and chose to attack the integrity of students instead. The bill passed third reading overwhelmingly, with only minor Republican opposition.
One bill opposed to student board members that failed due to overwhelming committee opposition and opposing student testimony was Delegate Reid Novotny’s bill to take away the vote of a SMOB in the event they cast a deciding vote. This stems from a Howard County controversy, where the SMOB was the deciding vote against an early reopening plan. Only three people, including Novotny, testified in favor of the bill, while fifteen others (including twelve students!) rose in sharp opposition. The bill was voted unfavorably by the committee by a party-line 14-7 vote.
This same local Howard County controversy triggered a lawsuit that was decided just prior to the writing of this article. In short: a parent tried to sue to invalidate the statute that allows for SMOBs in Maryland, including in Howard County. The parent lost, with the judge deciding in favor of the SMOB and acknowledging that the position is unique within the law and the General Assembly was constitutionally able to create them. Students have succeeded at gaining their voice, both through working with their state legislators and by defending lawsuits against them.
Students deserve a voice at the school board table. Maryland is unique for where we stand currently, but we need to continue to push to expand these voting rights and open up the opportunity for students to serve on school boards to all students. The civic engagement opportunities from hosting elections and having direct student input on important school issues are unparalleled, and Maryland should push the envelope for what is possible in education politics. I truly hope this overview taught you something both about the unique quirks of Maryland’s student school board members and about how amazing students can be.