Category: Governance

Local educational agency trustees have always had to navigate conflicting opinions over school budgets, curriculum and more, but as clashes over pandemic-related school closures; masking and vaccine policies; programs supporting diversity, equity and inclusion and other topic went viral online, school board meetings throughout the country became more contentious, sometimes to the detriment of trustees’ well-being.

A new report published on June 5 by the Brookings Institution, Local control, national conflict: School boards in the COVID 19 and cultural war era, analyzes what happened during the turbulent first half of this decade.

California School Boards: Navigating Democracy in Divided Times provides a glimpse at how trustees see their role, how they are handling recent and ongoing periods of contention as well as what is needed to “ensure the promise of robust, locally governed public education systems.”