It’s Time for New Leaders in our Education System

Few people realize the amount of money that goes into public education- partially because the funding sources and calculations are confusing and differ so much by state. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, total per student spending reaches $12,643, or over $600 billion annually. That is a 46 percent increase from 1988–89 through 2008–09, “with interest on school debt increasing faster than current expenditures or capital outlay”. They also report that 81% of that goes to staff salaries and benefits- a 75% increase over 10 years. Clearly, the public education system has financial problems that need solutions.

Yet despite the arguments of many progressive leaders, our education system doesn’t live up to the standards you would expect based on the spending levels: the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment ranked the US 23^rd in science, and 31^st in math. (info graphic) Yet when education policy is discussed, often the default argument is “increase spending”. Instead of recycling a tired (and failed) solution, we think that it’s time to bring people with different perspectives and new ideas into the leadership of our education system.

There are over 13,000 school boards in the United States with an average 7 members that control millions or even billions of tax dollars. Since most education funding comes from local sources, board members often directly impact local tax rates. If there is any local government entity that needs new leadership and innovative ideas, it is our local school boards.

American Majority created the New Leaders Project to be a resource for local groups across the country who see the need for new leadership in their local governments. While many people want different choices when they go to the ballot box, they often don’t realize that they could be that other choice. With the New Leaders Project, we want to show local leaders that running a victorious local campaign is actually within their reach, and to encourage them to recruit others to run for office too.

One of the groups that joined the New Leaders Project is We Vote Burlington. The debate over collective bargaining reforms in Wisconsin played out not just on the streets of Madison, but also at school board meetings across the state. Many local conservative and Tea Party groups began focusing on what their school districts were doing with the tools the collective bargaining changes had given them. In the Burlington Area School District, citizens showed up in mass to oppose property tax hikes, and voted down a property tax increase. However, the school board ignored the wishes of the taxpayers and proceeded to raise taxes by 3.69%.

Activists in a local group led by Bonnie Ketterhagen attended an American Majority training and decided to bring some change to their own school board. They recruited two new candidates for the school board elections, trained them using American Majority’s campaign resources, and helped them to victory in the Spring of 2012.

The newly elected conservatives immediately started creating waves on the teacher-union dominated school board. One of those new members, Phil Ketterhagen, decided to investigate local testing methods that had indicated improved test results and discovered that in reality scores had been going down for the previous 6 years, according to the statewide testing standards. After bringing to light the inconsistency and stating his view that teacher raises should be left out of the next budget, the liberal controlled school board voted to censure him. Phil now proudly hangs the censure motion on his office wall as proof of him rocking the status quo.

We Vote Burlington plans to have other members run for school board in upcoming elections. American Majority recently held a candidate training in the community. One of the targeted incumbents has decided not to run for re-election.