School Board Training: Mandatory vs. Voluntary

October 2003 • Volume 1 • Issue 3

Locally elected school boards have long played a vital role in America’s educational system. In fact, in a recent poll conducted by Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup, 61 percent of respondents said that decisions regarding what is taught in their schools should be made by their local school boards rather than by the state and federal governments (Rose and Gallup, p. 54).

Today’s school boards exist in a complex environment that makes this job more challenging than ever before. “School systems’ multi-million-dollar budgets and large-scale operations – from curriculum and instruction to food service, facilities, and transportation – represent a dizzying array of complex business units and a steep learning curve for new board members.

Staying focused on the core business of improving teaching and learning in an environment rampant with special-interest groups and political distraction can take Herculean willpower. Community and family pressures and the omnipresent media microscope…can drain even the most ardent advocates for children” (Carr).