school boards

School board campaigns officially are non-partisan races, but this year – more than ever – politics is front and center. What’s at stake for parents, teachers, students and voters when state politics comes to public school boards?

School board members in Florida are likely to keep their salaries, for now. The Florida Senate has dropped a plan that would have replaced salaries with stipends, and is now focused on the term limit issue. The proposal also includes language around how schools select classroom and library materials while giving parents more power to get rid of books they don’t like.

The decisions by the boards in Alachua, Miami-Dade and Broward counties mean that all eight school districts that faced state financial penalties because of mask mandates have reversed course.

Broward is the latest of the South Florida school districts to loosen their mask requirements just days after a judge on Friday ruled that Florida’s order banning mask mandates was permissible.

Several organizations are offering toolkits, legal advice and other resources for parents with a range of grievances against their local elected school boards.

President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday warned top Florida education officials to “reconsider your threatened actions” after the state said it would try to thwart attempts to use federal money to cover salaries of county school-board members who approved student mask requirements.

A plea for help by the National School Boards Association is having a ripple effect in politics—riling local school board members, already-angry parents, and causing the Florida Association of School Boards to distance itself from its national arm. In Leon County, angry parents blasted their local school board after the national association likened certain threats to domestic terrorism.

The federal government recently announced it would investigate threats against local school board members. The announcement comes amid growing acrimony between parental groups and public school leaders over issues like face masks and critical race theory. Yet, where some see a threat—others see an exercise of free speech.

School board meetings, usually one of the most mundane examples of local democracy in action, have exploded with vitriol across the country in recent months, and many school leaders are scared.

The Republican-controlled House Secondary Education & Career Development Subcommittee, in an 11-6 party-line vote, approved a measure (HJR 1461) that would place a proposed constitutional amendment on next year’s ballot about whether to continue paying school board members.

The job of School Board member has now become less lucrative in some South Florida counties.Broward School Board members will have their salaries reduced…

The League of Women Voters of Florida is hoping to persuade a Leon County Circuit judge today to strip a constitutional amendment proposal off the...