Legislators Discuss Moving School Elections

Legislators Discuss Moving School Elections

At last week’s Senate Education Committee, lawmakers discussed various proposals designed to increase voter turnout and decrease the costs of holding school elections. Among the possibilities: Move school elections to November, or combine school elections with other nonpartisan elections on a single date in May.

NJSBA believes these discussions will advance its position that proposed school budgets already under the state’s tax levy cap should not be required to go before voters. Legislators have noted that only nine other states have a public vote on school budgets—and many of those votes take place only when the school board proposes a budget that exceeds a predetermined cap.

Officials from the New Jersey Department of Education told senators at the March 6 meeting that, even if the elections for school board candidates were moved to November, an election for the school budget would still be needed in the spring in order to coincide with the school fiscal year.

Current Legislation A handful of proposals would change the date of the Annual School Election:

S-794, sponsored by Sen. Leonard Lance, would move the election of school board members to the November general election, but would not change the current law regarding the preparation and adoption of school budgets. The bill is similar to A-1226, sponsored by Assemblyman David W. Wolfe.
S-857, also sponsored by Sen. Lance, calls for the elections of school board members and school budget votes, as well as fire districts and nonpartisan municipal elections, to be combined on the date of the nonpartisan municipal elections, which are the second Tuesday in May.
S-488, sponsored by Sen. Shirley K. Turner, chair of the Senate Education Committee, would move school board member elections to the November general election. It would also eliminate the vote on school budgets, except for separate proposals to spend above cap, which would also occur at the general election.

NJSBA policy opposes moving school board elections to November, due to concerns about intermingling partisan politics with the administration of public schools. A New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission report found that school board candidates statewide received only 5 percent of their campaign contributions from political parties. By comparison, local municipal candidates received an average of 76 percent of their campaign contributions from political parties.