In the 2024 election, it’s easy to focus on the big race at the top. However, the candidates and amendments that are further down your ballot might be much more impactful than you realize. A great example of this comes from Florida, where one ballot amendment could affect education in the state while shaping the political landscape in years to come.
The language in amendments when they appear on the ballot can often be intentionally designed to obfuscate their true effect. If you haven’t researched what will be on your ballot before you’re in the booth, it’s easy to end up guessing or leaving an empty bubble on an important issue. This year, Florida voters will be asked to vote on Amendment 1:
Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to require members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election rather than a nonpartisan election and to specify that the amendment only applies to elections held on or after the November 2026 general election. However, partisan primary elections may occur before the 2026 general election for purposes of nominating political party candidates to that office for placement on the 2026 general election ballot.
For many people, it might not even be clear what a partisan election is, or what the pros and cons of having all candidates affiliated with a political party could be. The NO on ONE campaign is working to make sure that people know what all of this really means. Working with other non-profits, the campaign is spearheaded by the Social Equity through Education Alliance (SEE) and they have reached huge numbers of voters. INTO spoke with Zander Moricz, the executive director of SEE, ahead of the election to talk about Amendment 1, the campaign, and what this sort of down ballot issue could mean for Florida and the rest of the United States.
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What is Amendment 1 on the ballot down in Florida?
Amendment One is the partisan school board amendment, and it seeks to make all school board elections in the state of Florida partisan, starting in 2026. This would change the constitution, which we amended 20 years ago to make our school board elections nonpartisan. Florida is one of 41 states that have nonpartisan school board elections, and this would make us one of ten that have partisan ones.
So, what’s the driving force behind Florida’s amendment 1? Why are people saying they’re in favor of partisan school board elections?
The argument for doing this is that it would increase transparency. But in actuality, that’s false. The only transparency it offers is the explicit statement of party affiliation on the ballot. Right now, party affiliation is public record, so anyone who wants to know the party affiliation of a school board member or wants to make their choices based off that party affiliation can.
That sounds restrictive without a lot of need. If amendment 1 went through, what would be the big impacts?
The real damage that happens with the amendment is twofold. One, all of Florida’s non-party affiliated voters are cut out from voting at the school board elections because we have closed primaries and because the vast majority of our districts are dominated by one party or the other. For so many families, if they do not affiliate with the dominant party, they’re going to be cut out entirely from having a say in their children’s education, and that’s one of the main reasons we’re really, really worried.
Another really crucial point is that when you have party affiliation be a gatekeeper for running for the school board. It basically means you need one of the party’s approvals to be able to run. And what we know is that the political parties, especially here in Florida, reward extremism. They reward people who are willing to go to the polar ends of their platform and are willing to promote the ideologies they want to see at a state and national level. And so instead of our choice making being done locally, being done in this really amazing way with communities of family members, you’re going to see political parties and their leaders inject agendas into our classrooms and basically decide what happens to our students beyond this.
I think it’s important to acknowledge that right now there is already so much politics in our schools, but over the last year, especially on August 20, in the primaries this year, we saw a rejection of that mentality. We saw so many districts that had previously elected extremist candidates, elect moderate candidates, elect candidates who shared values across the aisle over these far right extremist candidates, which signals to us that people are ready to turn the page on this era of fascism disguised as Republicanism, and this amendment would be a dangerous step backwards.
This election, all eyes are set on the presidency. What would you say to people who aren’t looking this far down the ballot and don’t see the fuss about school boards when it comes to voting?
School board elections are incredibly important for a variety of reasons. They directly impact the generation incoming. They impact our future and how we’re going to be able to develop as a society. One of the biggest indicators of economic performance, life, longevity and health in all modern countries is the quality of their education system. And so, if we allow our education system to not be about the quality of protection of our students, if we allow our education system not to be about academics and student success and instead about becoming a political playground, we’re playing with one of the biggest resources and tools we have as a country to ensure our success for years to come.
Another really important thing to consider with school boards is that just because they’re local doesn’t mean they’re a small deal. My school board, Sarasota County, has a budget of over $1 billion and if we have partisanship dictating how those resources are allocated to our students, what we see is that our most marginalized students, our lower income students, our black and brown students, are disenfranchised and discriminated against. And instead of being supported with the resources that our taxpayers provide, they go to these political culture wars that we already see far too much of.
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A very real scenario, If amendment 1 were to pass, would be political parties only agreeing to champion school board candidates that are willing to promote the most extreme part of their agendas. And so instead of focusing on, how do we make sure all of our kids are fed, how do we make sure all of our kids can read, we’re going to be focused on, how do we give teachers guns? How do we create the most dangerous and politically toxic environments possible? Because that’s what we’ve seen. It’s been articulated in political plans throughout the country that because school boards are such an emotional issue for families, they’re a place where you can actually activate voter bases around issues that you want them to care about all the way up the ballot. So they’re going to become a place to put political messaging to test political agendas, and our students and our families should not have to do with that.
What are some things that you’ve seen people in power in a school board do recently that would get worse if amendment 1 passed?
Well, I’ll almost give you an opposite example, and then I’ll answer that. Something here that happened in Sarasota County was Liz Barker, who did not run with a party because our school board elections are non-partisan, received 1000s of votes from both political parties, and this was only possible because she was able to champion herself as someone who cared about students, teachers, and parents, and not as someone who’s going to be loyal to one political party over the other. People respected that. People appreciated that. And that’s why she beat a candidate who boasted their political endorsements, their political platforming, and talked about political agendas. I think that’s really important to acknowledge, is that this type of jury, this type of middle ground support, this type of collaboration, isn’t going to be possible if we’re rewarding partisan politics. Of course partisan politics exists, and of course you must acknowledge it, but we should do everything we can to protect our students from it and to ensure that parties do not decide what happens to our children; parents, families, and our students themselves should decide what happens to them.
Down in Florida, how hotly contested are your school board elections? Is it something everyone’s coming out for? Or are there people running uncontested?
It depends on the district, and in most places, turnout is not what it should be. But we’ve seen over the last few years with organizations like Moms for Liberty that these school board elections have been turned into these massive political zones, and they have become these really hot button issues and races. But over the last year, over the last two years, actually, Moms for Liberty candidates and candidates that have taken this extremist approach have started to lose in the majority of their races, because families are starting to research beyond just what they hear from political supporters, and they’re starting to actually care about the issues and starting to care about how they can figure out the quality and qualifications of a certain candidate. And that’s what we want to reward, that’s what we want to promote, and that’s what we want to protect.
We want parents, families, and students to be able to make their choices based on who has educational experience, who has ideas and plans and policies that will actually benefit the students of the community. And that has to be done at a low level, which is another really important part of this is that amendment one would take choice making away from local communities and put it in the hands of leaders of political parties. And we don’t want that. We don’t want our school boards to be a step on a ladder for a political career. We want it to be for people who actually want to work for our students and families, and that’s also part of it.
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We also don’t want them to be big, shiny, nasty political fights. We don’t want them to be these traumatic races. We want them to be discussions and debates between qualified educational professionals that result in the best outcomes for our students. And that’s why 41 states in the country have non-partisan school board elections. That’s why we changed our constitution 20 years ago, to make our elections non-partisan, because we recognized then, as we recognize now, that when politics is placed in our school board rooms, when people’s careers are decided by politicians, in so many cases, politics comes before students, and we want students to come before politics.
This bill came from the Florida Legislature, this wasn’t proposed by citizens?
Correct. It isn’t something anyone is asking for. No one is asking for more politics in our schools. It wasn’t proposed by students, parents, teachers, or families. It was proposed by a government that seeks to insert power through these races.
Do we know where the bill came from within the legislature or on the other side of the legislature? And is this something that we might see trying to move to a more federal level and affect those other 40 states?
We could see this move to a more federal level. Part of it is that we don’t want it to benefit one party over the other. We don’t stand against it because of one party over the other. We don’t want it to be about party politics at all.
So what can people do to make sure that Florida’s amendment 1, and other bills like it, don’t pass.
Just that. People need to vote tomorrow, Tuesday, November 5. They need to research the amendments. The amendments are an incredible opportunity to hold power on the ballot. You do not have to wait for a politician to take action. You do not have to trust them. You get to make a decision right then, right there that has an impact. Bigger isn’t always better. We have more power in our local communities, and we’ll be able to have tremendous impacts when we vote locally. So do your research. Head to www.no-on-one.com to learn more about NO on ONE and show out, show up, vote, participate in our democracy. And let’s, let’s do what’s best for ourselves and our families.♦
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