FLOYD COUNTY, Ind. (WDRB) -- Some Indiana lawmakers want to see school board candidates have a political party listed next to their name come election time.
Indiana House Bill 1428 would establish a system allowing a decision by each of the state's school districts on whether to require candidates to declare a political party. Each district's decision would be made through either a voter referendum or school board vote.
It would then be up to those votes whether candidates would be required to win a party’s May primary in order to appear on the November general election ballot.
The bill is authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-District 33, and co-authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-District 58, Rep. Jim Lucas, R-District 69, and Rep. Alan Morrison, R-District 42.
The House elections committee voted 6-4 on Wednesday to advance the bill.
Parent Martina Webster said House Bill 1428 is exactly what many want. Her children attend New Albany Floyd County Schools.
"I feel like people focus a lot on who our president is every four years, and don't pay enough attention to school board races, and in my opinion, school board is the most important elected official in our local areas, they can often control the largest budgets, by far, large million dollar, multimillion-dollar budgets, and they control the future of our children," Webster said. "So they're very important to our day to day lives."
Webster feels some board members already show their political affiliation, and having this law would state the obvious.
"Why not at least have the transparency instead of letting people that are definitely partisan hide behind a nonpartisan label," Webster said. "The school board races are just going to continue to be partisan, regardless of whether this bill changes things or not."
Current NAFCS board member Lee Ann Wiseheart feels differently.
"There's no Democrat or Republican way to transport a kid, to feed a kid, to plan facility improvements, or set calendars, etcetera," Wiseheart said. "I don't believe that there needs to be politics involved in education at all."
Wiseheart said the district already saw politics enter its school board election last November, when a GOP-PAC backed two candidates, and sent people to campaign at polls.
"They were saying very, very destructive things, alleging things were going on in our schools that are not and I don't take it lightly when people say things about our teachers," Wiseheart said.
If this bill does pass, Wiseheart said the one upside is the option to let voters have the ultimate say.
"If they want to put that on the ballot for our voters to dictate whether or not school board candidates have an 'R' or 'D,' let the people choose," Wiseheart said.
Kentucky lawmakers have a similar bill up for consideration, however, it has a wider scope.
Kentucky's Senate Bill 50 proposes making elections like school board, city council, and mayoral races partisan.
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