“Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S. The Voting Rights Act has for decades given parents and others a pathway to change the institutions that have the most day-to-day control over American schools: their local school boards. But the Supreme Court’s April decision in Louisiana v. Callais , which has kicked off a rush of partisan redistricting that threatens Black representation in Congress , could make it harder to demand changes in how school boards are organized going forward. The impact of that law has been sweeping. More than 320 Voting Rights Act complaints between 1982 and 2024 dealt with school board elections, according to a database created by Chris Seaman, a law professor at Washington and Lee University. School boards accounted for more than a fifth of all Section 2 voting rights cases during that time period, Seaman found. Many of those challenged at-large elections — which allow everyone in a community to vote for every seat on a board. This setup can make it difficult for communities of color to elect their preferred candidates, especially in places where a white majority votes in a bloc. Some 3.6 million children currently attend school in a district shaped by one of those challenges, a Chalkbeat analysis found. But at-large elections remain the most common school board structure in the United States. Legal experts agree that it will be more difficult now to claim that a particular electoral system violates the rights of minority voters. In the aftermath of Callais, conservative legal groups are gearing up to challenge state voting rights laws that have provided additional tools to reshape school boards . Some even see an opening to challenge past settlements — especially in cases where school districts voluntarily made changes to improve racial representation. The Supreme Court’s weakening of the Voting Rights Act will likely lead to “a decrease in minority representation, and school boards will not be exempt,” Seaman said. Most public school students are children of color, while most school board members are white . While the Voting Rights Act does not guarantee the election of candidates of color, it has given minority communities the opportunity to elect candidates responsive to their concerns. Limited research has shown school board members of color make a difference in student discipline , superintendent hiring , and academic outcomes . But unfair student discipline or low test scores don’t create Voting Rights Act violations, said J. Christian Adams, a conservative election lawyer and former Justice Department official who served on President Donald Trump’s failed 2017 voter-fraud commission . There’s nothing fundamentally better or worse about single-member or at-large school board districts, said Adams, now president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. But under the Callais ruling, “if a school district says we’re going to single-member districts to elect minority representatives, that would violate the constitution. That’s over. That’s done.” Callais focused on partisan redistricting in legislative races. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority said party considerations — wanting Republicans or Democrats to win more seats — could justify drawing maps that dilute minority voters’ voice. That could mean the decision has less impact in nonpartisan school board races. It will take time and more lawsuits to fully understand the effects. “To the extent that the Voting Rights Act has any vitality left after Callais, I think it’s likely to be in these local races like school boards,” said Justin Levitt, an election law expert and professor at Loyola Marymount University. How racism fueled at-large school board elections At-large school board elections are a legacy of Progressive-era reforms that sought to reduce the power of machine politics and cronyism over education governance. In northern cities, these changes reduced the political power of immigrant enclaves. In the Jim Crow South, they prevented Black communities from electing their own school board representatives, when those residents could vote at all. As Memphis schools takeover looms, city faces further voting power struggle Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, first passed in 1965 and repeatedly amended, provided grounds to challenge at-large elections for local government offices that potentially dilute the votes of minority groups. A handful of attorneys in Texas and Alabama filed dozens of challenges to at-large school board elections in the 1980s and 1990s, accounting for the majority of cases. Often, school districts agreed to settle when faced with just the threat of a lawsuit. These challenges changed who decided to run for office, who won seats on school boards, and how resources were allocated in districts across the country. “There are really important decisions that impact students of color that benefit from the perspective of school board members of color,” said Carrie Sampson, an associate professor of educational leadership at Arizona State University who studies school boards . And these challenges continue in the modern era. Just last year, Wicomico County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore agreed to replace its hybrid system , which included at-large and single-member districts for both county council and school board, with seven single-member districts, two of which are majority Black. The changes occurred in response to a 2023 lawsuit by Black voters supported by the Maryland branches of the ACLU and the NAACP. The lawsuit described a long history of discrimination and racially polarized voting that blocked Black candidates from winning at-large seats. When the governor appointed members, the Wicomico school board often had two Black members. After switching to an elected board in 2016, the board has only had one Black member at a time — always elected in the single majority-Black district. “They kept claiming that we didn’t need to sue them, that they would have done it if we just asked nicely,” said Deborah Jeon, legal director of the Maryland ACLU. “But we had been asking nicely for two decades. It was only once we sued that they came to the table.” School boards might defend at-large seats creatively Whether school districts will continue to come to the table or instead fight to maintain at-large elections is an open question. Even in communities with hard-fought, racially polarized school board elections, those divisions may not fall neatly along party lines. That means advocates can still make arguments about vote dilution and other unfair practices. But Levitt, who advised the Biden administration on voting issues, said he expects more school districts to find other race-neutral justifications for their electoral systems, for example that at-large elections produce candidates who will look out for the interests of all students. “I think you’ll see a lot of creativity,” he said. Callais also requires “a strong inference that intentional discrimination occurred” in setting up a particular voting system, and not just a discriminatory effect or outcome. Colorado lawmakers reject attempt to move away from at-large school board elections Adams said school boards that might have settled in the past could now open themselves up to counterchallenges that they drew districts designed to advantage one racial group. He reads Callais as allowing such a remedy only when a court finds recent evidence of discrimination in voting. “A school district would be very foolish to think that a settlement will bring them peace, because the next people they’ll hear from will be suing over an illegal racial gerrymander,” he said. Even school districts that discuss racial balancing during regular redistricting processes , as Denver did in 2024, could open themselves to a lawsuit, he said. The meeting minutes would be “gold” in proving racial motives. Challenges to school board elections confront new standard Two decades ago, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, made national headlines for adopting sweeping anti-immigrant legislation as new arrivals transformed the demographics of the coal country city. Those laws were found to be unconstitutional , but Hispanic residents say they continue to face discrimination, including in school . In 2024, Aleida Aquino and Brendalis Lopez filed a lawsuit challenging the Hazleton Area School District’s at-large election system with support from the University of California Los Angeles Voting Project. Hispanic voters account for some 40% of registered voters in the district, according to the lawsuit. Two-thirds of students are Hispanic. At least six Hispanic candidates have run for school board since 2019, yet no Hispanic candidate has won a seat on the nine-member board. The Supreme Court’s voting rights decision could reshape local government across Texas Moving to single-member districts could allow the Hispanic community concentrated in the city of Hazleton to elect a representative who might be more responsive to their concerns about unfair discipline practices, limited translation services for parents, and other disparities, the lawsuit says. But unlike many school districts in this situation, Hazleton hasn’t settled and is fighting to maintain its at-large elections. Now the lawsuit will be heard under the higher standard created by Callais. Neither Superintendent Brian Uplinger nor the school board president responded to a request for comment from Chalkbeat. In a statement issued when the lawsuit was filed , Uplinger defended the district’s record of serving Latino students. Bernadette Reyes, senior counsel with the UCLA Voting Project, said Callais runs counter to the history of the Voting Rights Act and congressional action. The ruling has made the road ahead more difficult for lawsuits like the one in Hazleton. “But it’s important that these challenges continue,” Reyes said. “Those folks challenging it need to adapt to the higher standard.” Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org .
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