Who Do You Represent?

In the United States, it's pretty much universally accepted that elected representatives of the people are in their positions to represent the people that elected them.

Except if you are a school board member in New Jersey.

Most school administrators that I came in contact with during my fifteen-plus years as a school board member would tell you that a board member's constituents are the students of the district. The official position of the New Jersey School Boards Association (a group that SHOULD be advocating for school board members, but doesn't) is that board members are not representatives of the people in their communities, but rather are "agents of the state".

Did you really think that the State of New Jersey would invest any actual power in 5,000 normal citizens?

It seems that the school board elections are only to give the sad saps of New Jersey the ILLUSION that someone will be representing their interests. Try as they might, good school board members are prevented from doing this at every turn. From Curriculum to Covid, it's always the same - the state and the school administrators will push things along and school board members are only there for cover. And the NJSBA is there to keep the train rolling. No other reason.

I questioned this every year I was on the board. There are no rational answers. If school board members are not permitted to represent the public then why have elections at all? The county superintendents could certainly look at the resumes of candidates from each district and appoint whomever they wish. There is no answer to this.

Why are school board members constantly, CONSTANTLY, informed by the NJSBA that they have no individual power, but only as a group? Why do board members need to be told that? That situation is no different than any other elected body - from a township committee to the NJ Assembly to the US Congress - yet no other group needs to be reminded that their power is only as a group. There is no answer forthcoming.

This frustration is not at all limited to right-leaning board members. Believe me when I tell you that there is an equal number of newly-elected board members from the left side of the aisle who are just as frustrated.

In a future post, I will try to give some Hillsborough-specific examples.