A fake ballot asking how Madison should elect its school board.
This is no way to elect a school board.
Madison is the only place in the state that elects its public school board in this bizarre manner. Most districts elect their boards with at-large seats on a district-wide basis. The top vote-getters win the number of seats up for election. So, if three seats are up and there are seven candidates, the top three win. Simple.
Only in Madison do candidates have to run for a specific seat, but still also run districtwide. So this year there are three seats up, but only one is being contested. Incumbents Nichelle Nichols and Ali Muldrow are running unopposed. Bret Wagner and Martha Siravo are running for the seat being vacated by Laura Simkin. No doubt they both chose to run for that seat so as not to have to face an incumbent.
According to a Capital Times story from 2019, the change to this system was made back in 1984 and for reasons that seemed noble at the time. The idea was that specific seats would allow lesser known candidates to have a chance and it would focus attention on issues rather than on name recognition. The argument was that having all candidates run together for the open seats would favor those with better name recognition, but not necessarily better ideas.
But I don’t think it has worked out that way. In that 2019 story, former board member Nan Brien, while supporting this system, noted that its downside was that some people might not step up because they didn’t want the head-to-head contest with another candidate.
I think Brien was onto something. Despite dismal test scores, a high truancy rate, a yawning racial achievement gap, discipline and safety issues, and questionable financial management, in the last two elections, four incumbents have gone unchallenged. It’s possible that it would be easier for candidates to challenge the performance of the schools in a general sense than it would be to challenge an individual board member in a race that would feel more personal. Ironically, it could be this very seat-specific system that is making it more difficult to focus on issues and school performance.
It’s time to revisit this structure. It has to be done with a change in state law and the Republican Legislature does not bend over backwards to do anything Madison wants. But, on the other hand, this is pretty pedestrian. In fact, it would be asking that Madison lose its exceptional status (the statute allowing this seat-based system applies only to us) and to be more like the rest of the state.
The parameters allowed in current state law are to have five, seven or nine seats and to elect board members on a districtwide basis or by geographical district.
I would opt for the maximum nine seats (we currently have seven) and elect them by geographical district. I like this option because it makes it easier for anyone to run. Smaller districts make campaigns less expensive and more manageable. I’ve run citywide three times. It’s a massive undertaking that requires a lot of money. And if you don’t have those resources — and virtually no school board candidate ever does — voters learn little to nothing about you. The public does not benefit from low-information contests.
More importantly though, it gives us the best chance to have more diverse points of view on the board. For many years now we have not had a single board member whose priority is saving money for taxpayers or good order and safety in the schools or returning educational resource officers to the high schools or taking a whole new approach to the achievement gap given that an obsessive focus on it for more than a decade has gotten us nowhere.
For a long time now there has been a sameness to the board, which I would characterize as far-left and focussed on identity politics. Theirs is a legitimate point of view, but it’s not the only one in the city. As Walter Lippmann said, “when we all think alike, no one thinks very much.”
Look, I fully understand that my moderate — some might even say conservative by Madison standards — views are in the minority in our town. Based on the referendum votes from last November, my views might be shared by one-in-three Madisonians. We may not be in the majority, but our views should have a seat or two at the table.
Diversity of ideas is a good thing in any body. It always makes us stronger. Notions that go unchallenged grow weak from atrophy. The current system isn’t working to provide that diversity and it’s not even working to address the real and significant problems that this district faces. Let’s change it.
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. You can read more of his work at Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos.
