Our Charge
Public education in the United States is a bedrock of our democracy that relies on robust participation and engagement.
Yet education democracy faces critical challenges: low voter turnout in school board elections and student disenfranchisement, plurality victories allowing extreme viewpoints to dominate, dark money's influence, and the lack of legal rights to quality education.
These challenges lead to unrepresentative decision-making and threaten the democratic foundation of our education system. We must build a new cornerstone.
Our Mission
We are leading a national effort to redesign democracy in education focusing on two main areas: electoral redesign in Eduraces (school boards, state board races, etc.) and governance redesign. There is exciting momentum across the country to renovate our democracy and we intend to bridge this energy into education through change in electoral races and governance.
Our Vision
By 2030, the implementation of these reforms is expected to lead to a more representative, inclusive, and equitable education system, reinforcing democracy and rebuilding trust in public institutions. Local and state-level wins can also demonstrate the opportunity for democracy reform, advocating for wider adoption. By 2030, we aim for substantial wins and impacts across the U.S., including higher voter turnout, effective strategies against plurality winning, reduced dark money influence, and progress toward legal rights to quality education. The goal is a major shift in the education and democracy landscape, setting new standards in educational governance, policy, and participation.
How We Move Forward
The network will prioritize bridging, learning, and acting on electoral and governance redesign, offering a diverse menu of options in each area to cultivate a broad-based, dynamic network, fostering an evolving learning agenda and maintaining a strong bias towards actionable reforms. Community context will be the anchor to build solutions tailored for each state, each coalition, and each community.
Focus Area 1: Electoral Redesign
Ranked Choice Voting: Ensures broad-based support and positive, policy-centric campaigns, promoting diversity among candidates and winners.
Aligned and/Even Year Elections: Education races should take place during major elections when the major local races, Presidential, Governor, or other races are on the ballot. Eduraces during major elections increases voter turnout and informed participation.
Public Financing of Education Races: Levels the playing field and reduces outside spending influence. This includes Democracy Dollars and other public financing methods.
Expanded Voting: Lowering the voting age for eduraces and expanding voting to all parents in the system engages those directly affected by education policies.
Focus Area 2: Governance Redesign
High Quality Education as a Civil Right: Ensures equitable access and legal support for every learner in our democracy.
Add Students as Voting Members on School Boards and Other Governance Bodies: By adding students onto boards, student perspective informs policymaking.
Legal Remedies to Unequal Board Structures: Too many students live in school board governance structures that do not allow for all community voices to be heard. Remedies should include stronger democratic governance and consideration of new legal protections for students.
EduRaces: An Inclusive Frame & Consequential Inflection Point
"EduRaces" encompasses all educational elections, highlighting the importance of democratic participation in shaping education at various levels, from local school boards to state education boards and higher education trustees. Reshaping education democracy infrastructure in EduRaces could also build a bench of future political leaders ingrained with democratic integrity and responsiveness, fostering long-term positive change in political leadership quality and mindsets given how many political leaders began their journey in these races.
More about EduRaces:
82,000 School Board Members across the USA (+ Hundreds of Higher Education Races)
13,000 School Districts
Low turnout - between 5%-10% on average
78% identify as white
52% male
Well researched “demographic deficit”
Research suggests significant student learning impact from diverse board leadership