Partisan school board elections raise questions

The writer, a member of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, is responding to a letter from former board member Chuck Hughes in Tuesday’s Post, “Nonpartisan races lead to winners without majority.”

1. How would partisan elections of school board members benefit Rowan’s 20,000 students? For me, I see no benefit for students. I can envision party ideology pre-empting proven educational practice to satisfy a political agenda instead of enhancing the educational needs of 20,000 students.

2. Why should the school board spend hours on debating politically driven issues instead of sound educational policy for 20,000 students?

3. Why have only 10 of 116 local school boards in North Carolina chosen partisan races?

4. Why should almost 30 percent of the registered voters, who are legitimately registered unaffiliated or other in Rowan, have additional constraints in running for the school board? The school board should not be party to the quasi-disenfranchisement, as candidates, of 30 percent of Rowan County’s registered voter population.

5. I am registered unaffiliated and have run and won two four-year terms on this board. I was in three candidate contests. I received over 50 percent of the vote each time. Thus, how often have recent school board races been settled by less than majority votes?

6. Who has determined that an unaffiliated registration makes less of a statement about one’s beliefs than Democrat or Republican registration? Is it not possible for someone to think and act independently without a political party label?

7. The Rowan-Salisbury School Board is making good progress for 20,000 students without being partisan. Why should it change?

8. My initial question again, “How would partisan elections benefit Rowan’s 20,000 students?”

— Dr. Richard Miller

Salisbury