Buffalo, NY (WBEN) As school board elections focused on book bans and LGBTQ+ issues, there are some who feel the politics of school boards are becoming more toxic. One former school board member who spoke with WBEN fears it may get even worse.
Former Buffalo School Board member Larry Quinn says the school board meeting has become the last form of town halls in America. "I think that it's probably one of the last vestiges of true democracy. A lot of board elections, not all, but a lot are unaffiliated. There's no political parties involved," says Quinn.
He says that can lead to topics not affiliated with education getting into the mix at school board meetings. "Unfortunately, a lot of the true education issues which require quite a bit of experience are being handled and discussed by people that don't have much knowledge," notes Quinn.
It also leads to toxicity in school board meetings, Quinn tells us. "The state came out with this edict that everybody had to change the way they teach reading. Although I think some of their thoughts are good, problems that children face and reading are varied," explains Quinn. He says not everybody has the problem the state wants to address. "So local school boards have to have a very good handle on all of the issues surrounding something like that basic reading. And because they don't, and they're fighting about LGBTQ rights and issues that are there should belong in a different venue. They don't address those issues." Quinn says school boards ultimately defer to state education instead of establishing their own policy.
Quinn predicts the problem with toxic school boards will only get worse. "I think that in all aspects of society, we're seeing a reflection of the loss of civility that we're seeing all over the country. In presidential elections, on television, in written media, social media, it's tearing apart the fabric of our society, and people have lost the ability or at least the motivation to act civilly with each other. have real discussion. And that's very troublesome," says Quinn.
Michael Cornell of the Erie Niagara School Superintendents Association says he's heard school boards be described as toxic, but he says he's focused on the scope of work in front of him every single day that continues to expand on behalf of children. "We have the obligation to ensure that our young people have programs that prepare them for whatever path they want to follow after high school. In order to do that, we have to make sure that our young people are mentally and emotionally healthy and available for for learning, we need to make sure they learn how to learn," explains Cornell.
He believes conversations that spring up during school board meetings don't take away from the focus of educating kids. "Sometimes they're things that people might talk about. But again members of boards and superintendents are really locked in on the work," says Cornell. When it comes to controversial issues, he says board members "understand and appreciate that there's different perspectives that get brought to school board meetings. That becomes a part of the marketplace of ideas that ultimately helps us be better as a society."
Suburban school districts held school board and budget votes Tuesday.
