Commentary
This fall, five Canadian provinces (plus the city of Yellowknife) will hold municipal elections. In three of those provinces—B.C., Manitoba, and Ontario—school board elections will coincide with elections for mayors and councillors.
Typically, municipal election turnout is lower than for either provincial or federal elections. School board elections net even lower turnouts—sometimes as low as a meagre 1 percent to 2 percent of eligible voters—despite the fact that trustees play a significant role in our public education system.
School board trustees are not simply token representatives of the public; they exercise real authority within our education systems. Aside from the provincial ministers of education, trustees are the only democratically accountable representatives with a say in how well our children are educated. They set school polices, establish school district budgets and manage public funding in the hundreds of millions of dollars, hire superintendents, and hold schools accountable for their performance….