Why your local school board vote matters

From library books to student rights, school boards make decisions that matter. Here's what voters should know.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, and if you're like most voters, you'll spend your energy on the big races at the top of the ballot. Then you'll scroll down, see a list of local school board candidates that you may have never heard of, and either guess on or skip voting for them.

Here is the case for paying closer attention: the people you vote for will decide which books stay on library shelves, how your district handles questions about gender and sexuality, and how hundreds of millions of tax dollars are spent.

Book author Scott R. Levy, who was elected four times to serve on his local school board, calls these bodies the front lines of democracy because they meet in public, take public comment, and answer directly to neighbors. Yet turnout in these races is often low, which means that a few hundred votes can tip a board, making your vote even more impactful.

Why It Matters

School board members are the largest group of elected officials in the country, and they shape the education of more than 50 million students. Their job usually covers four big areas:

Curriculum and materials. In most states, boards set or carry out academic standards and pick textbooks and library materials.
Policy. Grading, discipline, staffing, and how schools handle hot-button issues all run through board votes.
Money. Boards approve district budgets. U.S. schools spent an average of about $15,000 per student in 2022.
Leadership. Boards hire and evaluate the superintendent.

Importantly, school boards also decide how Title IX, the 1972 federal law against sex discrimination in schools, works in your district.

This September, the U.S. Education Department formally brought back the 2020 version of rules implementing the law. Your local board turns those rules into everyday practice. It adopts the policy for handling sexual harassment complaints, decides how much training staff get, and sets the budget for girls' sports, health classes, and support for students who are pregnant or parenting.

Three Counties, Three Directions

Nothing shows the power of a school board like comparing districts that went different ways on the same questions.

Escambia County, Fla. (Restrictive Approach)
Escambia's board has used its power to take books off the shelves, working inside some of the strictest state education laws in the country.

Book Bans: Escambia County has become a national flashpoint for book removals and the litigation that follows. After the board removed or restricted hundreds of library titles, PEN America, Penguin Random House, authors and parents sued in 2023, arguing the board targeted ideas it disliked; supporters say it is protecting children from age-inappropriate content. By May 2025 the board had spent nearly $1 million on legal fees, yet it kept going: in June 2025 it voted to remove 18 more books without committee review, then more than 400 titles other Florida districts had already pulled. On Oct. 19, 2026, a federal appeals court ruled 2-1 that board members can be required to testify about their votes.
LGBTQ+ Issues: The board operates under Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which the State Board of Education extended through 12th grade in 2023, barring classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. The PEN America lawsuit argues the board’s book removals disproportionately targeted books by or about LGBTQ people and people of color. Board chair Kevin Adams, re-elected in August, supports Florida’s parental-rights education policies; his challenger, Erin Toler, who is transgender, ran on reversing the removals.
DEI: In Escambia, the big DEI decisions are made in Tallahassee more than at the local board table. Florida's 2022 Stop WOKE Act limits how concepts about race can be taught, and when the Trump administration told schools in 2025 to end race-based programs, the Florida Department of Education applauded the directive. In this year's board race, Adams listed critical race theory among areas of federal overreach. Critical race theory is an academic and legal framework that examines how racism is embedded in laws and institutions, according to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Montgomery County Public Schools, Md. (Inclusive Approach)
Montgomery County's board went the other way, adding diverse books and writing equity into district policy, until parents challenged its opt-out policy at the Supreme Court.

Book Bans: The board hasn't pursued library removals. Instead, in 2022 it added six LGBTQ+-inclusive storybooks to elementary English lessons. In late 2024, the district quietly stopped teaching two of them, Pride Puppy and My Rainbow, though both remain available in school libraries.
LGBTQ+ Issues: In 2023, the board ended parents' ability to opt their children out of lessons using the storybooks. Muslim, Jewish and Christian parents sued, and a federal appeals court sided with the district in 2024. In June 2025, the Supreme Court reversed that, ruling 6-3 in Mahmoud v. Taylor that the district must notify parents and allow religious opt-outs. Supporters of the books saw the ruling as a setback for inclusion; the parents saw it as a win for religious freedom. In the first month of the following school year, only 43 families requested opt-outs, out of a district of about 160,000 students.
DEI: The board's policy on nondiscrimination, equity and cultural proficiency remains in place. After a 2022 audit found racial inequities, MCPS adopted a three-year antiracist action plan in 2023 and is folding it into its 2026-2030 strategic plan. When the Trump administration’s Education Department demanded in April 2025 that schools certify they had dropped illegal DEI practices or risk federal money, Maryland's 24 superintendents signed a state letter affirming compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act instead. Montgomery County receives more than $45 million a year in federal Title I funds. A federal judge in Maryland blocked the certification requirement in August 2025.

Central Bucks School District, Pa. (The Changing District)
Central Bucks School District, in politically divided Bucks County, is an example of the impact of elections.

Book Bans: In 2022, a Republican-majority board passed Policy 109.2, which created a process for reviewing and removing library books with “sexualized content.” Critics called it vague and noted that most challenged books had LGBTQ+ or diversity-related themes. After the 2023 elections, the school board flipped from a 6-3 Republican majority to a 6-3 Democratic majority. The new board rescinded the policy in December 2023.
LGBTQ+ Issues: A 2022 ACLU complaint alleged teachers were told not to use students' chosen names and pronouns without parental permission, were ordered to remove Pride flags, and were punished for speaking out. The Education Department’s U.S. Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation. In January 2023, the Republican majority board passed Policy 321, which banned classroom “advocacy,” including Pride flags. After the 2023 board election, the new board rescinded Policy 321 and a transgender athlete policy. It also reinstated teacher Andrew Burgess, who had been suspended after helping a transgender student, and paid him $425,000 to settle.
DEI: DEI was less the battleground than LGBTQ+ policy. Under the new Democratic majority, all staff were required to take a course on culturally inclusive practices.

What We Are Watching

Of those three counties, only one is voting next week. Escambia County’s three board races were settled in the Aug. 18 primary, when all three incumbents kept their seats. Central Bucks holds its board elections in odd years, so its next vote is in 2027.

Here's where some of the action is for Nov. 3:

Montgomery County, Md. Four of eight seats are up. The races are officially nonpartisan, but outside groups have spent on ads, and the winners inherit a tight budget, declining enrollment, and possible school closures.
Chicago. For the first time, voters will elect the entire 21-member board, which oversees about 305,000 students in more than 600 schools. Forty-four candidates are running.
Houston suburbs. Conroe, Fort Bend, Klein and Tomball are among at least 13 area districts with board seats on the ballot.

Before You Vote

The lesson from Escambia, Montgomery, and Bucks counties is that school boards make real choices– many of which affect the rights of female and transgender students--and voters set the direction. Before you vote, look up your sample ballot and read where each candidate stands on curriculum, books, budgets, and student policies. Then you are ready to finish your whole ballot.