Fun Fact: Before 1988, San Diego City Council Members were not elected from within their home districts! Instead, they were selected through city-wide elections, meaning that voters from outside of the community had even more of a say about a neighborhood’s representation than the people living in that neighborhood.
While voters approved the change to district-only elections 30 years ago, the San Diego School Board election process was left behind. Today, San Diego voters are still unable to directly vote for school board representatives that are from their district and represent their families and communities. What’s more, SDUSD board members do not have term limits, meaning members can serve decades-long terms with no motivation to innovate or enact real change in our schools.
The time for change is now.
As San Diego voters, we must change the current election process that favors candidates with deep pockets and strong party-backing, to sub-district elections that favor candidates who speak for the communities they serve. We must insist on term limits, so that school board members’ careers never come before the interests of our children and their families.
If local, state, and federal representatives can be termed out and represent our communities evenly, so should our school board members. In fact, a San Diego Grand Jury ruled in favor of these very changes to school board elections – but their decision was voted down by the San Diego City Council last year.
But the fight isn’t over yet. Together, parents and advocates are working together to put pressure on the City Council to enact these changes. Find out how you can get involved.