By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
Low voter turnout at April school elections had New Jersey Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) calling last week for legislation that would move the election of board members to coincide with November’s general election.
Mr. Roberts also called for most budget votes in New Jersey to be abolished, citing the increased accountability of school board members elected in a November election, coupled with state caps on budget increases and tax levies that the assemblyman believes have eliminated the need for the public to vote on public school budgets.
”If we want to make school board elections meaningful, they should be rescheduled for November, when voters are most engaged,” said Mr. Roberts, in a report supporting his position. “If you want to have real accountability, you have to start with real elections.”
Most education officials from Princeton-area districts and statewide education organizations said they remain against the change to November board elections, citing the potential for increased politicization of school board elections. Their remarks were made during interviews following poor voter turnout experienced last week.
Last Tuesday’s elections once again saw few of New Jersey’s eligible voters actually make it to the polls to vote on budgets that overall cause some of the highest property tax bills in the United States.
Only 14 percent of voters statewide voted, slightly below the 15 percent average of the past decade, according to state officials. Even the election that saw highest turnout in the past 25 years —1991 — only 18.6 percent of eligible voters actually came out to vote.
The president of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional Board of Education is among those aligned against moving the election to the November date, for exactly that reason — politicization — even in a district that saw its voter turnout decline for the fourth straight year, down to 9 percent.
”I would prefer them to be April because they would be out of the political arena,” said President Hemant Marathe. “It is best for everyone concerned to keep the school board elections out of politics and focused on education.”
Mr. Marathe said he did support the elimination of school budget votes.
”Honestly, I feel that the school board elections should get the same treatment as municipal budgets. If under a certain cap it should not be voted by the public,” said Mr. Marathe. “What logic do you use to vote on the school district budget?”
Princeton Regional Superintendent Judy Wilson voiced concerns about moving elections to November, also because of the probability of politicizing the election, and those elected to positions on the school board.
”Across the state, I would hate for school board elections to become more politicized,” said Ms. Wilson, whose district saw only 9 percent of registered voters show up at the polls, well below the state total of 14 percent.
Sam Stewart — Ms. Wilson’s counterpart in the Montgomery School District — was the only official who said the low turnout at school elections could warrant a discussion on a move to a November date, at the very least.
”I think he has a good point about the low turnout, so I would be open to more thinking about that,” said Mr. Stewart, of Mr. Roberts’ proposal.
Larger voter turnout correlates with greater support for the school district, according to Mr. Stewart, who said he recognized the April elections were designed to keep school district voting out of the partisan political arena.
Like both Mr. Marathe and Ms. Wilson, New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Baker cited the politicization of school board votes as a potential pitfall in moving the elections to November.
”We have always opposed and continue to oppose moving them to November. We don’t want to see them more politicized than they already are,” said Mr. Baker. “We don’t think that this is the direction of school board elections should be moving.”
The NJEA does support the elimination of school budget voting, but if voting on budget were not eliminated, the organization strongly opposes moving the vote to November, Mr. Baker said.
The process of creating the budget would be moved to a time period nearly a full year and more before being implemented, creating the potential for unforeseen budget needs and other problems resulting in inaccurate budgets, according to the NJEA.
”Moving that process back an additional six months is unwieldy and will not lead to the most efficient type of budgeting processes,” Mr. Baker said.
According to Mr. Roberts’ office, voter turnout over the last quarter-century has had an inverse relationship with the passage of school budgets.
Statistics made available by Mr. Roberts office indicate that in seven out of eight years where turnout was below 15 percent, 75 percent of budgets passed.
Only one year out of the 17 where turnout was above 15 percent did that percentage of school budgets pass.
