To the Editor:
School board members are the largest group of locally elected officials in the United States. In fact, more than 83,000 members serve on school boards in more than 13,000 public school districts. About 90% of these school boards—41 states—require nonpartisan elections. The four states that have partisan elections are Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. In conjunction, five other states allow both partisan and nonpartisan elections—Georgia, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Although all candidates commit to improving schools and contribute many volunteer hours, partisan-elected boards of education have become increasingly political. Take for example, Stamford, Connecticut’s Board of Education (BOE). Stamford is a suburban city located 34 miles outside of New York City—sixth-most populous in New England and second-most in Connecticut.
This New England 9-member board of education has allowed six majority party members to do whatever they want for seventeen years under the leadership of four school superintendents, five BOE presidents, and Robert’s Rules of Order. Using one-party rule and budget micromanagement, these officials have subversively removed the accountability factor and made politics more important than children.
Stamford Board of Education
Stamford BOE lost its north star compass years ago. The majority party has created an environment of top-down leadership. Their only employee, the Superintendent of Schools, should not be able to dictate initiatives without using convincing data and research. Now this board is left with a less than stellar curriculum & assessment system and continue to add high-paid administrators to handle unaudited systems (special education, multi-lingual, Multi-Tiered Support, and the budget itself). Stagnant achievement scores (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium/SBAC & Scholastic Aptitude Test/SAT) are also indicators of what happens when BOE members do not hold educational leaders accountable.
Healthy instructional leadership from the ground up should be the focus when accountability is in question. When this is not the case, a very disgruntled workforce and parent community—approximately 2,900 union members and 16,000 parents—speak out. These individuals have realized that despite meetings with central office leaders, community letters, Public-to-Be-Heard sessions at BOE meetings, Votes of No Confidence (2022, 2024) and newspaper & TV support, their desperate pleas are being addressed by only a few BOE members. This pattern seems to be happening way too often.
Not only are some of the BOE majority members city officers or district committee leaders in Stamford’s dominant political party, but they are also strongly connected to state legislators. Rather than listening to common sense parents throughout the state, one-party rule at this level has created ideological policies for 207 school districts. This year’s state leaders have even used questionable accounting to pay for an additional $40M of special education funds. Accountability has failed again for all Connecticut students when the state’s debt diet pays for expenses that could be managed smarter.
In addition, power and prestige seem to be a part of Stamford’s BOE. Although five of the nine members have careers in public, university or non-profit education, only one member has children currently enrolled in the district. Furthermore, knowing three members never attended a K-12 American school system (but two had children graduate from SPS); two other members’ children graduated at least 10 years ago from SPS; and another member used the private school route for family, accountability becomes even more elusive.
Stamford Public Schools
Seventy- to hundred-year-old schools, owned by the city and allowed to go into disrepair by the district, are being renovated or rebuilt. Curriculums, not revised for over a 10-year period, are being brought back to life over the next five years. Many tried-and-true veteran teachers—who helped Connecticut earn national acclaim in the early 2000s—are retiring or resigning, leaving many shortage-area positions open to new and inexperienced teachers. Central office leaders—several with little or no experience in classroom settings—but with doctorates, have helped create an instructional void when making major decisions. When accountability is weakened this deeply, teaching and learning suffer greatly.
Latest Issue
Since December 2024, an army of 10,000 parents, high school educators and secondary students have tried every which way to alert the district that changing the high school schedule for financial, not educational reasons—the third change in four years—is not a good idea. In fact, it is the second attempt by district leaders to try implementing a 4×4 semester schedule in its three high schools (2022 & 2025). This time around they contractually imposed this schedule upon Stamford Education Association (SEA). Then they used total force and no collaboration or cost transparency. Parents, teachers and students were furious.
As of May 2025 (6 months later), the three minority-party BOE members, who were always against this schedule, just learned three majority-party members joined their side. In a bi-partisan manner—which rarely happens, this team of six has a chance to finally stop this trainwreck. The good news is that when stakeholders, common sense and listening usurp party politics, students win. This is what matters, students not politics.
In conclusion, shouldn’t common sense, expertise and parent voice be the standards for board of education qualifications, rather than political identity? What is obvious in Stamford, Connecticut, is that when partisan elections and one-party decision-making impede democracy, accountability is eliminated and ultimately it hurts all our students.
Voters and legislators, please help remove BOE partisanship from all states. School districts need objective accountability, not political pandering, complacency or group think. Students, families and educators deserve our best attention, not anything less.
Dr. Rebecca Hamman currently serves as a member of the Stamford, CT, Board of Education. Her comments are her own, and do not represent the official views of the Board of Education or its committees.