[ti:In America, Some School Boards Have Student Members]
[al:Education Report]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2022-11-23]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]School boards are usually made up of elected members who make policy decisions about local public school districts.
[00:09.01]In the United States, some school boards have representatives who are students.
[00:15.48]There are issues that have made some school board meetings places of disagreement.
[00:21.31]These issues include measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, how the issues of race and sexuality are taught, and the place of religion in the classroom.
[00:33.19]Until recently, most school boards were thought of as non-partisan. 
[00:39.63]But some school boards have been affected by political disagreements.
[00:43.96]Some candidates for local, state and national office in November's elections considered school policy an important campaign issue.
[00:53.91]Conservative groups like Moms For Liberty and The 1776 Project spent millions of dollars helping elect conservative school board members.
[01:05.87]Liberal organizations also support candidates and causes. 
[01:10.84]They include Stand for Children, the Campaign for Our Shared Action Fund, and Education Reform Now.
[01:19.82]Teachers' labor unions like the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, also spend money in support of political candidates and causes.
[01:32.74]Debates about school policy can involve local and state school officials, school board members and parents. 
[01:42.44]However, some districts permit student members on school boards. 
[01:47.79]They provide the board with a student opinion on the board's decision-making.
[01:53.70]The National School Boards Association found that in at least 31 states, local districts can choose to have student board representatives.
[02:04.84]But just 14 percent of the country's 495 largest districts have student members. 
[02:12.55]And just one state-Maryland-permits student representatives to have voting power like other school board members.
[02:21.89]Some student representatives are elected by students in their district.
[02:27.10]Others must apply for the position.
[02:29.97] Most are high school students and serve for one-year terms.
[02:34.91]VOA spoke with five student board members from Maryland, Wisconsin, and Virginia.
[02:44.71]Each said they felt it was very important for school boards to have a student voice.
[02:51.92]Zachary Nowacek is a student board member at the Wauwatosa School District outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
[03:04.41]He said school board members "don't always get to see the whole school experience from a student perspective.
[03:12.88]And because we are the ones receiving the education, it's important for us to be a part of the conversation as well."
[03:24.21]Janare Davis, who recently finished his term as student representative for Portsmouth city schools in Virginia, agrees.
[03:35.28]"That was my big thing [as a student representative]. Students having a voice."
[03:44.08]As a member, he visited each of the district's schools to hear students' concerns. 
[03:51.99]Even before he became a board member, he supported legislation that removed school uniforms for the only school in Portsmouth that required them.
[04:04.97]"In my opinion, an adult can't speak for a student. Students can speak for students," Davis said.
[04:15.14]Some of the student members say that they have witnessed some of the debates about school policy during their time on a board.
[04:28.28]Noa Blanken is the student representative in Harford County schools in northern Maryland. 
[04:36.44]The county favored Donald Trump over Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election by 55 percent to 43 percent.
[04:49.80]She described the county as the "perfect mix of every single demographic you can imagine."
[04:59.11]Blanken said that many adults from outside the district have come to speak to the board during meetings. 
[05:07.65]She said many have spoken out against critical race theory, an idea that makes race a central consideration. 
[05:19.14]During public comments in meetings "groups come and they get pretty loud and rowdy," she said.
[05:28.48]Blanken said some people who have spoken to the board support reducing funding for programs for poor students, like free school lunches.
[05:41.52]Blanken said she wanted to be a board member to support low-income students, who make up a large percentage of students in Harford County.
[05:53.84]"These people are coming in and they there are arguing that we need to focus all of our money on science and math and reading and history [to improve test scores] and take away all these other resources that these students so desperately need. And it's really upsetting to see."
[06:19.01]Nowacek said his district in Wauwatosa County recently passed a new teaching plan, which introduces students to sexual and gender ideas.
[06:32.32]On Nowacek's first day on the board, he said a man told the board to "'go home and look in the mirror and consider whether they believe themselves to be moral people.'"
[06:48.16]Blanken said another issue that came before the board this fall concerned the county's mixed-gender locker rooms. 
[06:56.75]A Maryland state senator wrote a letter to the school board opposing the policy.
[07:03.31]"I am appalled...that boys can be in girls bathrooms and locker rooms and vice versa," said a woman during the board's public comments section of a board meeting.
[07:15.95]However, each of the student members said the board members they serve with cooperate and work well together.
[07:25.24]"We have a lot of different people with different views and opinions, but every single person that sits on the board is there for the wellbeing of students," Blanken said.
[07:38.86]Zach McGrath said he believes student members have a "moderating effect on the discourse between the board members, because you don't want to get into a fit when it's in front of a student. You want to set a good example."
[07:55.74]McGrath sits on Anne Arundel County Maryland's school board. 
[08:00.56]He said he has not seen divisive debates play out during his time on the board.
[08:07.19]Each student representative also said other board members value their opinion and care about what they have to say.
[08:16.36]McGrath said that especially as a voting member in Maryland, "I am very much treated as if I was an adult in the boardroom.
[08:25.37]It just so happens to be that I'm representing students."
[08:29.79]Emmett Joselyn represents students in the Shorewood School District in Wisconsin.
[08:36.29]He said having student board members is good for both students and the school board.
[08:43.54]He said: "I feel like a lot of the time students-they're not aware of what's going on at the district level. 
[08:50.53]And I hope I can connect the students and the school board and sort of make both parties a little bit more familiar with each other."
[09:00.12]I'm Dan Novak.
[09:02.31]And I'm Faith Pirlo.