10 things to know about upcoming school board elections
Introduction
According to our research, nearly half of the 80,000+ school board seats across the country are up for election over the next two cycles. These include seats representing many of the largest school districts in the country such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas and more.
From banning cellphones in school to managing up to 10 billion dollar education budgets, elected school boards play a pivotal role in the future of our schools and the well-being of our teachers and students.
And, despite the vast majority of school board races being classified as "nonpartisan", outside spending and political endorsements for these contests are on the rise as more partisan fights are taking place at the local election level.
Ahead of these contests, here are 10 facts about upcoming school board races that you probably didn't know.
Plus, stay tuned for a new election calendar dedicated solely to the schedule of open seats at the school board level which our research team is tracking.
1. There are over 18,000 school board seats on the ballot throughout the remainder of 2025 including in Denver, Seattle, Atlanta, and DC as well as partisan races throughout Pennyslvania.
2. There are over 25,000 school board seats on the ballot in 2026, including the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th largest schools districts in the country.
4. For the first time in 2026, Chicago, the third largest school district in the country, will have a fully elected school board.
Following landmark legislation signed by Governor Pritzker in 2022, all seats on the Chicago City School Board will be elected by voters next year. This follows 30 years of having a school board fully appointed by the Mayor and a nomination process decades before that.
The legislation also expands the school board from 7 to 21 members, 10 of whom were already elected in 2025.
Uniquely, Chicago's new elected school board will not only be responsible for managing Chicago Public schools, but also for representing parents of private school students, young professionals and retirees. This has led to some concerns about demographic representation among the new school board in a city that is one-third white but has a public school student body that is 90% students of color.
5. Only four states have partisan school board elections where candidate names appear with party labels, including many open seats in Pennsylvania this year.
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Louisiana and Alabama are the only states to host partisan school board elections, requiring candidates to display party names on the ballot and permitting them to work directly with political parties.
Four other states (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee) leave the issue of partisanship up to the districts themselves. In North Carolina, the number of school boards opting for partisan elections is increasing with 46% hosting partisan elections in 2024.
For the rest of the country, school board elections are explicitly nonpartisan. Voters can't rely on "D"s and "R"s on the ballot to make their choices, but instead need to be familiar with the candidates and the issues.
Despite the growing culture wars at the school board level, voters in Florida rejected an amendment last year to make school board elections partisan. In 2026, Florida will continue with nonpartisan school board elections to represent their 3 million K-12 students (third most of any state in the country)
5. Elected school boards manage nearly $800 billion in budget decisions—the largest of any special-purpose government.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, some school board members are responsible for overseeing billion-dollar budgets. For example, the largest school system in the U.S., New York City Public Schools, had a budget of $37.5 billion for the 2023–24 school year. The city recently released a comprehensive breakdown of where that money came from and how it was spent. This includes $2 billion on facilities, $1.9 billion on student transportation, $12 billion on student instruction, and $6 billion on employee pensions and benefits.
While New York spends the most—$26,000 per student—the school system still faces significant challenges, including an astonishing student–teacher ratio of 3,107:1 (compared to 13:1 across the state).
A federally funded study by the Brookings Institution of the budget process in 174 school districts nationwide found that many school board members are poorly equipped to make such financial decisions. In fact, 54% of the members studied didn’t participate in budget deliberations at all, and 90% of budget proposals were approved without any discussion of alternative options.
6. Only a small portion of public funding for education comes from the federal government
Despite the constant debate over education funding at the federal level each session, only a small portion of education budgets across the country is appropriated by Congress.
In fact, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, nearly 90% of education funding comes from state and city taxes. While significant disparities exist between states and school districts, the average amount spent on education per student in the U.S. was $15,633 in 2022.
Among all federal government expenditures, education accounts for only 5% (compared to 24% for healthcare, 21% for Social Security, and 13% for defense). Federal spending on education has actually declined over the past decade, largely offset by an increase in state spending.
7. Research suggests that candidates endorsed by teachers’ unions win at exceptionally high rates.
A 2023 study of school board elections in California and Florida—including 3,336 candidates across 468 school districts—found that endorsements by teachers’ unions can have a dramatic effect.
In California, about 90% of union-backed incumbents were reelected, and two-thirds of union-backed candidates running against incumbents won their races. Meanwhile, in Florida, about 80% of incumbents endorsed by teachers’ unions won reelection, and more than half of union-backed challengers also prevailed.
At BallotReady, we provide slate cards and research to national unions across the country to help them identify, track, and assess the outcomes of their endorsements. As outside spending and influence increase at the school board level, voters in these districts rely on locally sourced resources like these more than ever to make informed decisions—particularly in nonpartisan races.
8. Compensation rules and levels vary by state
According to a piece by EdWeek, a majority of states offer compensation to elected school board members, while 13 explicitly do not.
Pay for elected school board members can vary dramatically by state and district.
In Oklahoma, for example, the cap is $25 per board meeting—up to four meetings per month—and only for districts with an average daily attendance of at least 15,000.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, board of education members receive an annual salary of $125,000 if they do not have other employment, and $50,000 if they hold another job. While state governments often play a role, compensation is typically determined by the municipalities themselves.
9. 78% of elected school board members are white, and 68% don’t have children in school.
According the a survey from the National Association of School Boards, nearly 80% of elected school board members are white, and a majority do not have children currently enrolled in school. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of public school students across the country are students of color.
A 2021 study of school board elections in four states suggests the problem of representation may be even more pronounced. According to the study, most people who voted in these elections didn’t have children enrolled in local public schools. In at least two-thirds of school districts where the majority of students were racial or ethnic minorities, the majority of voters were white.
Research also shows that this lack of representation can impact student outcomes—particularly for minority students. A 2021 study in California found that after a racial or ethnic minority candidate was elected to a school board, test scores rose among students of similar backgrounds.
A 2023 study, also from California, indicates that a 20-percentage-point increase in Hispanic board representation raised per-student spending by $93 (an 81% increase) in schools with high Hispanic enrollment within the district.
Nonetheless, most researchers agree that more work is needed to better understand the impact of more demographically representative school boards, and to more clearly link academic outcomes for students to the decisions made by those boards.
10. Voter turnout in school board elections is higher in even years but typically remains around 5–10%. Sometimes, it’s even lower.
According the National School Boards Association, average voter turnout in local school board elections is just 5–10%, dramatically increasing the impact of each individual vote. Turnout is especially low during off-cycle, odd-year elections. In Newark, New Jersey, for example, only 3% to 4% of voters typically participate in odd-year school board races.
When school board elections coincide with even-year general elections, turnout often triples or quadruples. However, this isn’t a guaranteed fix— in 2024, for example, despite a population of 700,000 eligible voters in Oklahoma City, only a few hundred participated in an April school board election.
Voter turnout isn’t the only issue—candidate participation and uncontested races also present significant challenges. In fact, according to our research, most school board seats go uncontested, and many districts have no candidates running at all.
While these numbers are discouraging, they also present a tremendous opportunity. With just a few new candidates and a small increase in voter engagement, thousands of school boards across the country could be reshaped in a single election cycle.
While we try to keep these reports concise and high-level, our team is available to meet with fellow data leaders to address specific questions and provide customized research solutions that save your organization both time and money as you prepare for 2026.
Have questions about the upcoming midterm cycle? Let us know below and we will get back to you soon.
