The taxpayers of the Central Bucks School District are placing the governance of our most important and expensive public enterprise in the hands of people who get elected with just a couple thousand votes. This needs to change.
Currently, the school district is carved up into nine voting regions, from which one board member is elected every four years. In 2021, there were five seats on the board up for election, and the winners were elected with as few as 2,108 votes. This allows for the fairly easy manipulation of school board elections, in which a relatively small amount of “dark money” can shift the balance of power.
Based on the 2020 Census, the current school board has proposed a new map, shifting the nine regions to make them somewhat (though not entirely) more equal in population. But the board’s proposal disenfranchises voters in New Britain and Doylestown Township, who were scheduled to vote for a school representative this year. Instead they would be moved to a new region that does not vote until 2025.
A nonpartisan citizens’ group has proposed an alternative voting map for the Central Bucks School District, which was formally endorsed by thousands of voters who signed a petition in favor of the proposal. In addition to not disenfranchising any voters, the proposal broadens voter representation by merging the current nine voting regions into three larger regions, from which three school members would be elected — two board members in one election year and one board member in the alternative election year — preserving the current staggered four-year terms.
The citizens’ proposal would give every Central Bucks School District voter the opportunity to vote for a school board member in every election — not every four years, as with the current system — and to have a voice in the selection of three board members — not just one.
More importantly, the citizens’ proposal would ensure that it takes more than a couple thousand votes to get a seat on the governing body of our most important and expensive public enterprise — our school district.
The two school district voting region proposals will be considered by a judge on April 14. The judge needs to reject the problematic map proposed by the current school board, and adopt the citizens’ proposal that ensures far broader voter representation in our school board elections.
Edward Richardson lives in Doylestown Township.
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