North Carolina lawmakers push for more partisan school board elections; labels may limit unaffiliated candidates

Some North Carolina school board meetings have become shouting matches. In this one, an Alamance County board member stood to yell and make a point. (Still from video by Loumay Alesali, UNC Media Hub)

Bit by bit, "North Carolina lawmakers have nearly tripled the number of partisan school boards across the state over the last decade — often over the objections of school board members themselves," reports Kyle Ingram of the UNC Media Hub. “It’s a move some board members say is turning their school system from a hyperlocal, traditionally apolitical governing board into a contentious microcosm of national political debates." Republicans in several other states are arguing for partisan school-board elections. 

Ingram uses Craven County as an example where partisan labels were introduced in 2022. Commenting on board meetings since the partisan change, Carr Ipock, a registered Democrat who has served on the school board for over 30 years, told Ingram, "There was more focus on national agenda items than there was on ‘What can we do to make the school system better?'" Ingram adds, "Republican legislators argue that partisan elections help voters make more informed decisions by giving them an idea of a candidates’ philosophy via their party identification."

Craven County is on the southeast coast. (Graphic by Emily Pack) 

In North Carolina, "More than 1 in 3 school boards now elect their members in partisan elections — 10 years ago, it was 1 in 10.  . . . In the 2022 midterms, nearly 3 in 4 partisan school boards elected more Republicans than Democrats," Ingram reports. Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, told Ingram, “In the short run, it makes it more likely that conservative policies will carry the day in school boards . . . In the long run, it builds a farm team of Republicans who might one day want to run for higher office.”

Partisan boards make it harder for unaffiliated candidates to run and win, Ingram reports. Blair Craven, chair of the Henderson County Board of Education, has served as an unaffiliated member of the board since his first election in 2016. Craven told Ingram, "In my seven years of being on the school board, I’ve never made a decision that I believe is Republican in nature or Democratic in nature."

Ingram writes, "In February, the Republican-led Henderson County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution asking the legislature to make the school board partisan. Craven and the other members of the board said they were never contacted about it." Craven told Ingram, “I’m a huge fan of information for voters. But I believe if the only information you have on a school board election is whether someone has an 'R' or a 'D' or an 'I' by their name, then you’re not doing your homework.” Ingram notes, "If the bill passes, Craven’s reelection prospects become more difficult. Either he switches to an official party or gathers thousands of signatures to appear on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate.