Florida families cheer twin efforts to enact school board term limits

 

The times they are a-changin!

There are two efforts afoot right now to reform Florida's school boards, empowering parents above politicians, severing special interest relationships and opening parental access to the process. If either is successful, Floridians will be able to vote for 8-year term limits on their school board members in November 2018.

The first is emerging from Florida's Constitutional Revision Commission. The CRC is a 37-member body created to review the Florida state constitution and suggest amendments to be placed on the ballot for public approval. To make its way to the 2018 ballot, 22 of the 37 must vote approve the term limits amendment by May.

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Simultaneously, Florida State Sen. Gregg Steube of Sarasota is introducing a bill for the 2018 legislative session starting Jan. 9. The goal and language of the bill is nearly identical with that of the CRC proposal. If approved, it would allow voters to approve 8-year school board term limits on the November 2018 ballot.

"We have school board members all over the state who have been there well longer than two terms," Sen. Steube told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "I think we need some fresh blood."

On the CRC, the proposal comes from commission member Erika Donalds, a Collier County School Board member and past president of the Florida Coalition of School Board Members. Donalds has seen the need for term limits first-hand.


"Serving in office too long makes you more loyal to the institution as opposed to representing the people that put you there," she told the Naples News. She pointed out many board members have held their positions for decades.


And not all school board members are as public-spirited as Donalds.


One reason why some Florida school board members cling to their positions and oppose term limits is simply naked self-interest. Unlike states like Texas, Florida pays all of its school board members for what is essentially a part-time job. In Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange Counties, the salary is $44,443 annually. Compare this to school board members in New York, Houston and Chicago where school board members serve without pay. In fact most school board members nationwide do so as a public service, rather than a job, according to the National School Board Association.

Across the country, only 2% of school board members earn more than $15,000 a year. In Florida, they all do.

Keep in mind that school board members do not 'run' the school districts. That is the job of the school superintendent, generally an experienced professional who can be seen as the full-time CEO of the school district. Under the super you'll find numerous other levels of full-time professionals. This is the management team that 'runs' the district.

The school board's job is (in most districts) to hire and evaluate the superintendent, set priorities and approve the budget. But most of all, they -- as elected officials -- are there to represent parents, students and other citizens in an otherwise bureaucracy-driven process that is most attentive to the education industry and the state politicians who make the appropriations decisions.

Without term limits, mutually beneficial relationships form over time between the entrenched incumbents and these special interests. The school board members get paid handsomely and re-elected forever and the lobbyists, unions, politicians and bureaucrats are happy.


However, what about the children and their parents?  Where do they fit in?


The fact is, too often they don't.


We can change that next November, but first we have to get this idea on the ballot. We have two chances. Let's get to work.