This post is a continuation of my series on getting involved.

The last post was about getting involved with your city council (click here if you missed it). This post is about your local school board of education.

Who? What?

Depending on where you live, you may never hear much about your school board of education. Sometimes those in power, those currently holding a seat on the board, like it that way. In getting more involved let’s make sure that those who sit on the board don’t get too comfortable. This can be true for all elected positions.

Boards of education have an incredible amount of power and typically have a lot of money. They can decide how children learn and what they learn from (eg: type of textbooks). They decide how all of the school district budget money is spent.

I remember when I was just starting to pay attention to local politics and learned that the entire school board where I lived consisted of people who thought very differently about the world than I did. I made sure I voted in the next election.

What can you do? As always, vote. Vote in every election. Keep an eye out for those running for school board as these races rarely get that much attention and are typically at the bottom of the ballot. Try to find out about who is on your board and when a major issue comes up attend the board meeting where it is being discussed or email those on the board with any thoughts and concerns.

All of the posts in this series are going to bring up items that mean taking some of your time. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, just paying attention to what is going and voting can make a big difference. These local elected bodies can be tougher to follow as most of the news we see refers state or national electeds. At the same time these local bodies are making decisions that are important to you and your community.

Thank you for reading!