It is election season in NYC. Not for president, Congress, state or city office, but for NYC school boards, also known as Community and Citywide Education Councils (CECs).
How do I know it is election season? Because of the vicious smears and attacks being leveled throughout social media on a small group of parents who run for the uncompensated, time-consuming and largely thankless task of sitting on a CEC. If you spend too much time on social media you might think there are clear battle lines drawn based on competing ideology, but the truth is that most parents in the nation’s largest school system want the same thing: a great education in a safe school where their child is happy and learning. As education advocates, we want that for all children.
But CEC elections have turned mean and this year (voting runs from April 21 through May 9) is particularly bad. Ugly and often anonymous attacks on candidates have increased. First-time candidates are shocked and scared to see their names on “Do Not Vote” lists. Veteran advocates encounter insulting posters with their faces plastered outside their own children’s elementary schools. The DOE is fielding complaints daily about campaign guideline violations because parents are stalking their “political opponents,” waiting to pounce on them for liking the wrong social media post. Even more insidiously, candidates employ “surrogates” who are not running for council positions to do their dirty work for them, so as not to run afoul of those guidelines.
Why such vitriol? For the unfamiliar (including the 98% of eligible parents who did not vote in the last election), these councils were created as a bone thrown to parents when then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg took control of the public school system, as a way to abolish widespread corruption in the existing school boards. Until the last election cycle, only PTA officers could vote for councilmembers. In an effort to make the elections more democratic, the Legislature amended the law that governs CECs to allow all parents to vote.
CECs are like school boards, but, in reality, there are key differences: Only public school parents are eligible to serve on the majority of seats. CECs have no control over budgets. They cannot vote to hire or fire anyone. They do not set policy. In short, they are solely advisory, save for approving zone lines. Zoning is a not-unimportant “power.” Neither is advising. Council members have a voice and a foot in the door with actual policymakers greater than the average constituent. Perspective, however, is needed.
Most have no idea how limited the role of a CEC member is. Having served on one for 10 years, I do. Which is why the absolutely rabid public attacks on parent volunteers by other parents are so perplexing. The current political climate is so polarized it should not be a surprise that it has affected such hyper-local elections. I loathe politics but I love education advocacy. Is it naive to think the latter could exist without the former? At least, not the dirty kind?
Clearly I believe in the role and worth of education councils, or I would not have voluntarily served for so long. Parents are top stakeholders in the education system and deserve a meaningful seat at the decision-making table. In lieu of actual authority, influence can be useful advocacy. But lies and spin and character assassinations do not belong in education council elections where unpaid parents volunteer considerable time with very little return.
Of course it would be unrealistic to assume that parents would be in complete agreement on policies and/or solutions. However, as parents, is it unrealistic to expect fellow parents to behave in the way we’d guide our children — without personal attacks and name-calling? We should be acting in kind, and setting examples. Going high instead of low.
Student council elections have more respect for their candidates and the process than many have exhibited this year. Perhaps they should focus on their strengths instead of their opponents’ perceived weaknesses. The Department of Education perennially struggles to find candidates to run for Councils; some boards don’t have enough candidates to fill all the seats. With this behavior, is it any wonder?
I have three family rules that I’ve drilled into my kids since they could understand: 1. Tell the truth. 2. Be kind. 3. Take care of each other. Perhaps, instead of an endless slog of indecipherable and toothless campaign “guidelines,” the DOE should set these rules in stone. Because if you fail any one of them, you probably shouldn’t be an advocate for our children.
Alexander is a Queens public school parent, a 4-term CEC member, and current candidate for CEC 30.
