Finding the good eggs

School board elections matter. Local school board policies affect how our children learn to think critically and become responsible adults.

In the Ed100 blog
School Boards Demystified

School boards don’t run school systems, but they govern them. Public schools touch a lot of lives — they are one of the biggest services of government in every community. Local policies and decisions can relate to constitutional principles such as separation of church and state, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and equal protection under the law. In some places they are also a training ground for up-and-coming politicians.

Which candidates should you support? Ask these questions.

School board candidates want your vote. They are attending town halls and house parties, showing up at farmers’ markets, raising money, and knocking on doors. What should you ask them?

In this post you’ll find a dozen useful questions, with links to Ed100 lessons and blog posts to help you shine. Beneath each question you’ll find guidance to evaluate whether candidates answer with substance.

1 Why are you running for school board, and what prepares you for the job?

Ed100 Lesson 7.3
School Districts

A candidate's answer should reveal both why they care about public education and whether they have prepared themselves to govern a complex local institution. Follow-ups:

• What experience does the candidate have making policy, budget, personnel or organizational decisions?
• Has the candidate participated in school or district activities, attended board meetings, or otherwise learned how the district actually works?
• Does the candidate's experience extend beyond the concerns of their own child, school or neighborhood?
• What has the candidate learned from working with students, families, educators or community organizations?
• Is the candidate running mainly to address a single issue? Are they prepared to take responsibility for the full range of decisions they might have to face?
• What has the candidate done to learn deeply about this district before asking voters to put them in charge of it?

2 What are the top needs of your school district?

Ed100 Lesson 5.8
Principals, Superintendents, and the power of leadership

The answer to this question will tell you a lot about how prepared the candidate is to serve on the school board. A candidate’s answer should reflect that school board members set direction and make decisions together as a governing body; they do not individually run schools or supervise district employees. Follow-ups:

• How did the candidate determine these top needs? From your perspective, are these the most important needs?
• Is the answer tailored to the needs of your school district, or does it reflect a personal political philosophy?
• Does the candidate refer to school data and listen to other parents to understand their concerns?
• Does the candidate have any special experience or insight into these issues?

3 How are students in this district doing, and what needs improvement most?

Ed100 Lesson 1.5
Wishful thinking and grade inflation

A well-prepared candidate should know how students in the district are actually doing — and should be able to explain which problems deserve attention first. The system has a serious problem with wishful thinking, including massive grade inflation. Follow-ups:

• Does the candidate look beyond districtwide averages to see where outcomes differ among schools and groups of students? Achievement and opportunity gaps can disappear inside averages.
• Can the candidate identify things the district is doing well, too — or does the answer consist only of criticism?
• Chronic absenteeism remains a serious problem in California. How many students are chronically absent in this district, who are they, and what should the district do about it?
• What evidence does the candidate use to judge the district's performance? California's School Dashboard is an important resource, but it shows results with a long lag.
• How did the candidate decide which problems are most important: data, conversations with students and families, educators, personal experience, or something else?

4 What would you do to improve student learning, particularly in reading and math?

Ed100 Lesson 9.6
Big gaps in student achievement

Improving student learning is the central work of schools and teachers. Candidates should be able to explain how they would assess what works and what doesn’t, and how to support effective changes at the classroom and student levels to address gaps. Follow-ups:

• What should the district do differently to improve literacy and math? Does the candidate understand how students are performing now, including important differences among schools and groups of students?
• How should the district choose and implement curriculum and instructional materials? And how much discretion should teachers have in adapting them to students’ needs?
• What should happen when students fall significantly behind? Which interventions — such as tutoring, additional learning time, summer learning, or grade retention — does the candidate think are effective, and what evidence supports that view?
• How should schools meet the learning needs of students who are already working above grade level?

5 What are your budget priorities, and how should the district respond to declining enrollment or revenues?

In the Ed100 blog
The School Closure Checklist

In many districts, enrollment is declining and revenues are falling with it, while cost pressures continue to rise. This funding squeeze is forcing very difficult conversations, including about whether and how to close schools. Budgets turn priorities into choices, and governing gets difficult when maintaining one program means reducing or postponing another. School boards play a central role in closing a school. Follow-ups:

• What would the candidate protect first if the district faced a significant budget shortfall? What would they reduce, postpone or eliminate?
• Does the candidate understand the basics of California's Local Control Funding Formula, which directs funding toward districts with more high-need students? Does the candidate understand that while some school funds can be used flexibly, other funds are restricted?
• Does the candidate show knowledge of Prop. 98, the state's minimum funding guarantee, or Prop. 13, which limits property taxes?
• What is the candidate's position on measures on the 2026 ballot that affect school funding?
• Does the candidate mention local parcel taxes or other approaches to raise money?
• If enrollment is declining, how should the district adjust staffing, programs and facilities? When should it consider consolidating programs or closing a school?
• How should the district plan for important costs that can't simply be wished away, including special education, employee benefits and upkeep of school buildings?

6 How should the district respond to rapidly changing technology, including AI and smartphones?

School boards are quickly making consequential policy decisions about AI, phones, privacy and digital tools. State law already requires each district to have policies about smartphone access. Because technology and its uses are changing fast, the evidence is unclear about what works and what doesn’t. This is an area requiring judgment and leadership. Follow-ups:

• What should students learn about using AI well, and when should they be expected to work without it? How should schools distinguish productive use from cheating or overreliance?
• How should teachers use AI and other technology to improve instruction? Consider following EdSource for ongoing developments and Common Sense Media for advice about implementation. (Ed100 is wrestling to keep up with this topic in Lesson 6.6.)
• Before the district buys or adopts a new digital tool, what evidence should the board expect about its educational value, privacy, bias and effects on different groups of students?
• California schools must now limit student smartphone use during the school day. What should the district’s policy accomplish, and how should the board know whether it is working?

7 How will you ensure that students with different needs and backgrounds have real opportunities to succeed?

Ed100 Lesson 2.9
Documentation, Attendance, and ICE

Schools are expected to serve the needs of each student, even with widely varying needs. Candidates should be able to explain how the district should address this challenge. For example, in some areas of the state, students fear that their family members could be harassed or detained if they come to the school. Follow-ups:

• How should the district identify and address achievement and opportunity gaps?
• How should the district ensure that students with disabilities receive the services, instruction and inclusion they need?
• How should schools help students become multilingual, learning English without being shut out of rigorous courses and academic opportunities?
• What responsibilities does the district have to students who are afraid at home or at school?
• What should schools do for students who need greater academic challenge, including gifted and advanced learners?

8 How should the district recruit, support and retain excellent teachers and staff?

Ed100 Lesson 3.1
Teachers in California schools

School board policies influence whether strong teachers and staff members want to join the district, improve their skills and stay. Follow-ups:

• Where does the district have the greatest staffing challenges, and what should it do about them? Ed100 explains teacher recruitment, including why shortages can vary greatly by subject, specialty and school.
• What makes teachers want to stay? How should the district balance compensation with working conditions, strong school leadership, professional growth and manageable workloads? Ed100 examines teacher retention here.
• How should the district support new and less-experienced teachers while ensuring that students — especially in high-need schools — have access to well-prepared, effective educators?
• How should the district help educators improve, address persistently weak performance, and avoid concentrating its least-prepared teachers in the schools with the greatest needs?

9 How should the board handle controversial issues — especially when politics, student rights and the law collide?

In the Ed100 blog
Vaccinations and Schools

School boards sometimes face intense disagreements, but they still have to follow the law, protect students, and make decisions that allow schools to function. Follow-ups:

• How should board members respond when parents, students, educators and community members strongly disagree? How do they listen without simply following the loudest voices?
• Can the candidate fairly describe the strongest argument on the other side of an issue they care about? Once the board makes a lawful decision, how should a member who opposed it respond?
• What should guide decisions about contentious issues such as curriculum, library materials, vaccination requirements, student expression, religion, gender, or sexuality?

10 How will you listen to students, families, educators and the broader community?

Ed100 Lesson 7.10
The LCAP: Your School District’s annual plan

It’s easy for board members to hear from organized interests in formal settings. Good governance requires actively seeking out perspectives from those less likely to show up at a meeting. Follow-ups:

• How will the candidate hear directly from students?
• How should the district involve parents and families whose voices may be limited by language, work schedules, disability, transportation or unfamiliarity with the school system?
• California’s LCAP process formally requires community engagement. How should the board make that process genuinely useful rather than merely procedural?
• How should the school district ensure that each School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) contains measurable metrics and reflects district priorities?

11 What should every graduate of this district know and be able to do?

Ed100 Lesson 6.13
Social-emotional learning in schools

A candidate’s answer should reveal what they believe public education is ultimately for. The follow-up question is what the board can do to influence specific actions. Follow-ups:

• Beyond reading, writing and math, what knowledge, skills and habits should every graduate possess? Ed100 explores the purpose of education.
• What priority should the board place on changes in career and technical education, civic learning, financial literacy and other areas? Does the candidate know that California voters have committed ongoing funding for arts education?
• Should every student leave high school prepared for both college and a career? How should the district judge whether students are actually ready for what comes next?
• How should schools prepare students for a future in which technology, work and civic life will keep changing — including social-emotional skills that may be difficult to measure on a test?

12 How will you know, four years from now, whether you were a successful board member?

Campaign promises are easy to make. A strong candidate should be able to describe what success would look like — and what evidence voters should use to judge it. Follow-ups:

• Which specific, measurable results will you be most focused on? There are plenty to choose from: attendance, graduation, college readiness, grades, test scores, school climate, opportunity gaps… or something else?
• How should the board use the California School Dashboard?
• If the evidence shows that an important strategy isn’t working, how quickly should the board change course?
• What evidence should voters value most when deciding whether an incumbent candidate deserves another term?

+& A final note

In the Ed100 blog
Fresh research about what works

School board members must make decisions in the context of an enormously complicated system. Fortunately, there is good, recent research to draw on. Getting Down to Facts III, a major 2026 review of California education, examined what is working, what isn't, and where the system needs attention. We are gradually incorporating the research into lessons and posts on Ed100.

In the past we have suggested that you ask candidates about their views on charter schools and private school vouchers. We dropped the questions from our “dozen questions” list this year. You can certainly ask them, but districts have limited influence in these areas. The answers might tell you more about the candidate’s politics than what they would actually do as a board member if elected.

Serving on a school board is hard. There’s a lot to know. As you ask these questions of candidates, looking for the good eggs, remember the lessons we learned in kindergarten: say “thank you,” treat people with respect, listen, don’t yell, apologize if you hurt someone’s feelings, and remember that everyone benefits from a nap.

This lesson was updated in September 2026.