Board of Education

A board of education is also known as a school committee or school board.  It describes the body of individuals or an organization that are either a school’s directors, senior district administrators or a school district.  Such a board is found in town’s, city’s and states, whose sole job is to establish the guidelines for policies on education as dictated to them by a more senior or federal educational board or department. 

Members are elected on to the board of education’s council.  They also enforce the teaching of the accepted school curriculum for junior/primary/elementary or high/junior/secondary schools within their district.

The board of education in the United States also uses state level boards, which oversee local school boards and districts.  However, all levels of boards have elected members from within their school district, as well as appointees that are put in position by city councils and majors.  Such boards include the Ohio Board of Education, the Board of Education of the District of Columbia and the Massachusetts Board of Education.  The Massachusetts one, for example, has 1 representative voted in by local students and the remaining 8 are appointees.  In fact, in some states, even people who do not live in one state, who own property in that state, can under some circumstances have the right to a vote in board of education elections.  In the case of state level boards, generally council members are mainly appointed solely by the governor of that state, but in a select few, local residents use the power of democracy to choose the governing members.

Board of education sizes and range of authority varies greatly.  Some district boards can create and impose taxes.  Others are only able to only make recommendations to higher authorities regarding taxes.  The majority of district level boards consist of 5-15 members.  Some can govern the hiring and firing of teachers, including procedures and policies, but leave the operational work to a superintendent, district director, CEO or senior educator.  In both suburban and rural areas councils can discuss the rights of observation, ability to make judgments on schools/classes, level of power of each council member and the ability of each member to do their job.   Most school boards have chosen to use democratic voting as a whole council during meetings versus individual rights of control.

Rural boards of education tend to have a higher percentage of workers from the areas they serve thus making the governing of the district more political than urban or suburban areas.  Salaries and wages for board members also vary greatly dependent on the area and district.  Some members are volunteers, where as others are either part-time or full-time employees.  Members at the state level can also be compensated for expenses incurred by travel and other business items, but this does not always apply to every state.

A board of education is a vital part of the running of district and state education.  The success or failure of a district greatly depends on council members’ judgments.