Let’s Decode Local Government: Elected Positions You Just Don’t Know Enough About

By Jo-Ann Johnston

If you recall — during the most recent election or during any other voting cycle— feeling puzzled about the qualifications and beliefs of new candidates on the ballot for a local position, or mystified as to why some local jobs are elected positions in the first place, you are not alone.

Sometimes, the most basic workings of our grassroots democracy confuse or elude us, and then we are stumped when it is time to vote in local elections or suggest new candidates for office

Part of the reason this happens  traces back to our multiple levels of government - federal, state, county, and municipal. As Americans, we like decentralization of power and many favor locally grown systems of management when possible.

That doesn’t mean, though, that we as voters always remember our local government offices, understand our own systems, or are prepared to suggest changes when new conditions warrant.

Having access to the “whos, whats, wheres whys and hows” of important local functions should help us be better-informed participants in our local and state governments. 

What follows, then, is a series of short overviews of some of the most common local elected offices in America, their functions, and variations.

Public school districts - Solving multi-step equations

Most everybody says they want good local public schools in their communities and in their states. That typically translates into schools where students and staff are not just safe from violence, but where the mood is friendly, where everyone learns to be polite and respectful, where students make friends who help one another grow. 

And, of course, parents and employers want students to learn their academic subjects well so that the students can function in higher levels of schooling and jobs. Parents often also want to see their children stretch as individuals through sports, clubs, and activities. Civil rights of all students, whether described by federal or state law (because both levels can be at play), must be honored. That goes for regulations (safety, teaching qualifications) too.

Welcome to the expectations of school board members, the single largest group of elected officials in America, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP). There are boards for 13,000 public school districts in the United States.

Lately, school boards are not only the bodies that oversee the more routine, though pressing, matters of school management. They hear from the many sides in America’s culture wars, too.  School boards, though not exclusively, can be among the leaders who hear challenges about the suitability of classroom materials and school library books. Book bans or calls for religious imagery and texts in classrooms can come from all directions, including parents, students, and other school board members and prove emotionally taxing for all involved.

District boards also face questions about whether they should allow specialized charter schools with their own distinct missions, to operate inside their district with some public funding. 

Speaking of funding, local public district expenses must be covered primarily through local property taxes – at a rate the local residents can afford and are willing to pay.

Local education doesn’t sound so easy to supervise when all the responsibilities are lined up like this. Yet, the job must be done, so the questions about how and with whom are asked nearly everywhere.

Boards and top managers of districts

Most communities manage their schools through the combined efforts of a school board made up of locally elected representatives and a district superintendent, who functions like a CEO. Voters may choose to evaluate school board members on whether they are able to recruit, hire and retain superintendents who are seen as good executives. (Note: In a limited number of counties, many of which are in Florida, voters elect their own superintendent as well as the individual school board members).

But the school board members have to get elected to serve in the first place. And it’s often hard to tell what will most impress or best inform the voters about a candidate’s qualifications for such a wide-ranging job.

There are some places where school board candidates run along party lines, but in many communities the races are nonpartisan. In those cases, candidates might distinguish themselves by emphasizing that their main priority is something like keeping school taxes down, or attracting and keeping more teachers with better pay.

But even brief candidate statements won’t fit well on election postcards or in social-media advertisements. Some candidates just avoid lengthy specifics and project the message that they are responsible people who are believers in education.

And really, why go to the effort and expense — unless there is scrutiny from voters, good-government groups or media — to say much more? Typically, school-board seat elections are uncontested, according to the CAP. And especially in smaller districts, board members are unpaid. Terms tend to be four to six years. 

So, how often do voters look at the educational challenges in their local districts, with whatever local-candidate information they can find? Not so often.

Needed: more candidates and higher voter participation

Turnouts for school board member voting is as low as 5 percent to 10 percent, CAP says. That matters, according to the center, because districts with higher levels of voter turnout tend to show higher academic performance among students than districts with lower turnout. CAP makes specific policy recommendations, in fact, on policy and operations to improve the situation.

There is some other help on the way, too. The news site Ballotpedia says it has been expanding its coverage of school-board seats and continues to do so. In 2025, it is providing coverage of all school board races in 25 states, according to the site. Ballotpedia noted that there are more than 80,000 school board seats nationally.

You may also be wondering what role the states play in this. States do set regulations for education and policy and coordinate with the federal government. (The current dismantling of the federal Education Department presents new challenges and less money and protections for students, according to many educators.)

The top state officer is generally called the education commissioner, who, depending on the state, may be appointed by a state board, appointed by the governor, or be directly elected. State commissioners may also have responsibilities beyond the state’s K-12 system. Depending on the state, there may also be responsibilities involving higher education and professional licenses for occupations.

Editor’s note: To read our Interview with Ethan J. Lang, 21, a new school board member in his Michigan hometown, follow this link. Lang said major functions of the board include setting academic policy and behavior codes; approving a contract with district teachers; and hiring and/or firing the superintendent.

To read another detailed resource: See the report titled “Who’s on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict” by researchers David M. Houston and Michael T. Hartney. Published in October 2025 by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 45 pages, funded and made available for download by The Wallace Foundation.